St Andrews Church Newspapers 1941

Churches - Bevendean History Project

Newspaper Articles for St Andrews Church 1941

MOULSECOMBE GIRL GUIDES FIRST YEAR

“You are a remarkably well-developed child for one year,” said Mrs G. K. A. Bell (wife of the Bishop of Chichester, Dr. G. K. A. Bell) to members of the Moulsecombe District Girl Guide’s Association, which on Wednesday held its first annual meeting in St Francis Hall, Moulsecombe Way.
“Whether a girl makes a good Guide or not,” she said, “often depends on the attitude adopted by the parents. They could make or mar the girl’s interest.”
Mrs Bell concluded her address by describing the Girl Guides as a movement “which moulds body, mind, and spirit. It is a united contribution which Guiders and Guides alike are making to the building up of the country.”
She was thanked by the Vicar of Moulsecombe (the Rev. Bransby A. H. Jones).
The treasurer’s report the treasurer’s report, presented by Miss Grove, the District Commissioner, showed a very satisfactory state of affairs.
Mrs E. Campbell (president), who was in the chair, was again elected to that office. She mentioned that Mrs St. John Manser (Brighton Divisional Commissioner) was unable to be present owing to illness. She was represented by Miss Langton (assistant Divisional Commissioner).
Miss Goldthorp was elected honorary secretary and Mr F. Avery honorary treasurer for the ensuing year.
Brighton & Hove Herald – 25January 1941

GERMAN PASTOR AS MOULSECOMBE CURATE
Victims of Nazi Persecution

Pastor W. Oelsner, licentiate in theology of the University of Berlin and a victim of Nazi persecution, who for some months last year was assistant to the Vicar of Preston, was on the Sunday evening welcomed by members of the congregation of St. Andrews, Moulsecombe, as their new curates.
Pastor Oelsner, who has recently been released from an internment camp, said at a reception given him (at which the vicar of Moulsecombe, the Rev. Bransby A. H. Jones, presided) that after all his experiences he felt he would be called to deliver a profound message. He will preach a series of sermons during the next few weeks.
Mr Jones told Herald reporter that he had had an interesting chat with Pastor Oelsner. Before that hardly known each other they discovered that in the last war – at the blowing up of Hill 60 on April 17, 1915 – they must have faced each other across No Man’s Land. Mr Jones said that he had a juice of this in a sermon to show that Christianity is greater than any one nation.
Brighton & Hove Herald – 1 March 1941

A PASTOR FROM BERLIN
Mr Oelsner to Preach at Holy Trinity

There can be few clergyman of the Church of England who have so much experience of what Nazism means in practice (writes a church correspondent) as the Rev. W. Oelsner, who will be preaching at the morning service tomorrow (Sunday) at Holy Trinity Church, Ship Street.
Mr Oelsner, who is a licentiate in theology of the University of Berlin, was formally pastor of a Lutheran Church in Berlin, but was obliged to leave Germany owing to the fact that he was a “non-Aryan” (his father being a Jew although his mother was a German).
He was ordained a deacon in the Church of England in December, 1939, by the Bishop of Chichester (Dr. G. K. A. Bell) and acted as curate to the Vicar of Preston (the Rev. H. F. Tompkinson) until the following Whitsun tide, when, like many other refugees from Nazi tyranny, he was interned as a result of the policy then favoured by the government.
Since his release Mr Oelsner has being doing useful work as curate to the Rev. Bransby A. H. Jones, Vicar of Moulsecombe.
Brighton & Hove Herald – 26 April 1941