Last Trustees
The days of the Methodist Church trustees were ending - days stretching way back in responsibilities mainly concerned with upkeep of the local church fabric - the official end on April 16, 1977, when trusteeships were superseded by church councils. So that, if only for the record, the last roll of the Craster trustees bears repeating. Trustees William Sidney Seager, James Renton Smailes, Richard Dawson, Edward Archbold Grey, George Scott, Kenneth Robson, John William Gregory, George Scott Grey, Robert Longstaff, William Stephenson Lumsden, Gordon Archbold, Hugh Robert Archbold, William Robert .- Stephenson Archbold, Frank Whitelock Etchell, Isaac Fulton, Thomas Gregory, Scott Grey, George Oswald Hall, Alan Norris, Herbet Pallas Rogerson, James Shaw, Robert Straughan Young. Seven of these appointments were to fill vacancies left by the deaths of trustees Robert Alexander Smailes, Matthew Stephenson, George Joseph McLaren, Richard Thomas Young, Norman Archbold, William Owen Vincent Morris', and George Smith Richardson.
A triple blow struck at the beginning of 1979 was the loss within a few weeks of one another of three much cherished members -'Bill' Seager (88), Mrs. Annie Grey (91), and Mrs. Florence Davidson. Found among former. organist Mrs. Grey's papers were these lines which, unknown to her family, she copied out not long before her death.
`I expect to pass through this world but once. Any good therefore that I can do, or any kindness that I can show to any fellow creature, let me do it now. Let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again'.
Guide lines, familiar lines attributed to, among others, John Wesley. Lines personally to ponder in this or any other age. The philosophy of Annie Grey, who passed on full of years, at peace and much loved.
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