CHURCH DESIGN.

Auckland Star, Volume LVXIII, Issue 53, 4 March 1937, Page 27

CHURCH DESIGN.

PRESBYTERIANS DIFFER.

KNEELING STOOLS SUGGESTED

(By Telegraph.—Press Association.)

DUNEDIX, Wednesday.

Disagreement as to the correct design tor Presbyterian churches was evident when the Presbytery was considering plans for. rf new church at Opoho vesterdav. l

A proposal that the pulpit be placed in the centre of the church was lost, "ill ■ another point debated wa* whether rests should be provided for kneeling.

The Kev. R. G. McDowell considered that Presbyterian churches were largely like halls, the first thing seen on entrV being an organ and pipes. Another reform long overdue was the provision of kneeling stools. It was disheartening for a minister to see his congregation lounging during prayer.

The Rev. H. J. Ryburn stated that prominent things in the Anglican Church were the altar and cross, but in the Presbyterian Church there were gilded organ pipes and sometimes the choir girls' hats.

To this the Rev. T. Miller replied: "There is a movement in the Presbyterian Church to follow the Anglican and it is not a movement upwards. We find that where there ie most of the visible cross there is least of the invisible cross." He moved a recommendation that the puipit should be in the middle of the church.

The Rev. J. D. Smith said that Mr. Miller's previous arguments reacted against himself. He had argued that giving prominence to the cross was exaltation of the material, but it was the same thing if the pulpit was given prominence, exalting the preacher at the expense of Christ.

The recommendation was lost, together with one for the provision of kneeling rests.