CHURCH SERVICES.

Auckland Star, Volume XL, Issue 43, 19 February 1909, Page 5

CHURCH SERVICES.

important | recommend a- ';■ | '■ :'; ■, tions. ;;§ % ';'-' -"'[ | a hew burial service. February 18. The Canterbury Convocation Committee, which-has been sitting for two years, recommend a revised lectionary (optional) and Eucharist vestment (optional). It is also recommended that the use of the Athanasian creed be optional. Where there are many communicants, the omission of the words, "in remembrance," used in administering bread and wine, is recommended; and also optional immersion in baptism, and a new alternative burial service of great beauty and simplicity. The above recommendations are the first fruit of the report of the Ritual Commission, subsequent to which Letters of Business were issued to Convocation by the King. No doubt they have been accelerated by the discussions which took place at the Pan-Anglican Congress last year. The recommendation that the recital of the Quicunque Vult be made optional will cause general satisfaction in colonial dioceses, where the compulsory recital of the Athanasian Creed ha 3 long been objected to. The present rubric provides that it shall be wing or said on all the principal Church fwtivals. The Athanasian Creed, ihe exact historical origin of which is doubtful, though it is attributed to St. Athanasius incorrectly, has long been a bone of contention in the Church. It is the most rigid of the three Catholic symbols, and its very rigour and uncompromising severity in the minatory or damnatory clauses has brought it into disfavour, the majority of Churchmen.being unwilling to follow the logical conclusions to which it leads. It is omitted from the Prayer Book of the Protestant Episcopal Church of America, and the Protestant Church of Ireland has ceased to recite it. Recently the Anglican Synod of New South Wales carried a motion requesting the next General Synod to take action for the removal, so far as the Australian Churoh is concerned, of the obligation for tho liturgical use of the Athanasian Creed. jln a day when latitudinarianism and the Arminian and other heresies were looked upon with horror and aversion, the | Athanasian Creed had many protagon ists; to-day they are few and far between. It may be noticed that the translation of the Creed in the Prayer Book is very inaccurate in places. Thus "Quicunque vult salvus esse" does not mean ["Whosoever will be saved," which, in Latin, would be rendered "Quicunque vult salvari," but "Whosoever wishes to ibe in a state of safety," which is by no means the same thing. The recommendations of the committee will, of course, have to be approved by Convocation and sanctioned by the King before they acquire the force of canon law. VOLUNTART OFFERINGS. EIGHT MILLIONS CONTRIBUTED (Received 8.30 a.m.) LONDON, February 18. The voluntary offerings to the Church of England for central and diocesan societies and parochial purposes for the year ending last Easter, totallea £7,876,746.