CHURCH AND STAGE.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 895, 15 August 1910, Page 4

CHURCH AND STAGE.

The Actors' Church Union has no* completed the. iirst decade, of,its exist-■' euce, and a number'of well-known clergy and members of the theatrical profession met at the annual conference recently in' the Queen's Theatre, London. The Angli-' can Bishop of Southwark presided. In the report tor 1909-10 the secretary (the i.Kev. Donald Hole) was able-to announce that the membership of the union continued to increase in a most satisfactorymanner. Members had grown from 430 -. to 578, associates from 293 to 452, and chaplains from 230 to 2GO. The sustained - increase in- professional : members. was . particularly encouraging, and the figures tended to prove that the work was commending itself profession which, the union sought to serve. " •■ • The' Bishop of Southwark said that the. two great professions had now got to knoweach other better than they did at the' starting of the union. He trusted and believed, that they now had more conn-; deuce in one another. The dramatic profession had, he hoped, discovered that clerics were not. all of that type, of the/ simple young riian with an eyeglass and a lisp, or that other young : man who figured so largely on the posters, and who - seemed to be always ready with his fists,' or to be surmised' in.'strange, aud.molo-:; dramatic situations. The clergy, in turn, realised that tho theatrical profession;' were not all black sheep. As for tho" work of the union, he could confidently say that > went forward quite fast enough for them to bo suro that its pro- ■ gress was solid. In a humorous little speech, Mr.'Ed- . ward Coninton moved the adoption of the . report, which he described as' "lioses, roses all the way." The union,'he said, was a real ono between • Church and stage. The Bishop of Glasgow seconded tho motion, which was carrie;l. Mr. Cyril Maude proposed the reelection of, the: Bishop of Southwark, as . president, doing so, he said, with peculiar pleasure, for they. were both -Old Carthusians. The rapnrochement between Church and Stage was increasing. "But," he said, turning to the Bishop of Southwark, "for many centuries our*6wn Church did not treat us fairly, did it?" and the' bishop concurred. There was now, continued Mr. Maude, a cordial feeling of gratitude and thankfulness tpwards the bishop and the union on the part of the Stage. '-■ ■ :