GREAT PROCESSION.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1144, 3 June 1911, Page 11

GREAT PROCESSION.

. MARCH TO ST. PAUL'S. . REMARKABLE SCENE IN LONDON. Good Friday was marked in London by one of the most remarkable religious demonstrations within memory (says the "Daily News"). More than 3500 clergy and laymen of (he Church of England, accompanied by the Bishop of London, Dr. Wilmington Ingram, marched in procession from Trafalgar Square to St. Paul's Cathedral, while hymns were sung, and afterwards joined in a service of solemn supplication for the nation in this year of tho King's Coronation. Immense crowds watched in reverent silence the procession through the streets. Trafalgar Square began to fill soon after half-past three, and by four o'clock there must have been ten thousand people in the immediate neighbourhood of Charing Cross. Presently, winding through the Square from the church gates, came while-robed ranks of singing m-en, followed by detachments of processionists in everyday attire—men in silk hats and men in caps, frcck-coated men, and men wearing Norfolk tweeds., all sorts and conditions of men that are to bo seen in church. Shepherded by marshals, distinguishable by their purple sashes and ■white signalling flags, the ranks were drawn up in orderly formation, till at a quarter-past four the procession stretched in a vast sweep around the Square, white surplices massed between black coats, and processional crosses gleaming in the sunshine. In all there were some 2500 unrobed laymen, 750 choirmen, and 300 clergy, drawn principally from the diocese of London, but representing also many provincial centres. The Bishop of London, A hush fell upon the assembly as the Bishop of London issued from the church, passed below the crowded steps, and then on into the centre'of the Square. A crozier borne before him signified his episcopal office, but' apart from this he walked without any attempt at. pomp or state. In place of the gorgeous convocation robes, which were expected, Dr. Ingram ivas seen to be wearing his lawn surplice over a purplo cassock, together with the usual broad black stolo and bishop's cross and scarlet D.D. hood. • In advance walked the Bishop of Kensington, Dr. Eidgcway, and three chaplains completed the episcopal group. Three trumpet blasts at half-past four bespoke silence. Then the bishop, standing in the Square, offered up a simple prayer. "Bless us," he prayed, "as we go forth to bear our witness in this great city to the love' which has redeemed us, and grant us such humility and reverence that Thy Blessed Son may bo known to -be walking in the midst of us, and that multitudes may bo drawn- to confess Him as their Saviour." Through Duncannon Street the procession moved at a slow pace into the Strand, led by a.choir singing the hymn "Glory be to Jesus." From choir to choir'down the line the. words were taken up till the battalions in the Square were singing too —timorously at first, but soon with a fine sonority. . From Charing Cross to St. Paul's the people stood in one unbroken line on both sides of the way, often three or four deep. All'eastward traffic had been diverted, and tho. westward traffic on a Good Friday is negligible. It was a singularly quiet crowd; and no throng of such proportions has for many years past' been controlled with such perfect case by' a mere handful of police. Tho Bishop of London was, of course, ■the chief centre of interest, and many bared their-.head's as he went by. Dr. Ingram, oh his part, walked with that 'dignified yet kindly air—the air of' a' true father in God—which has done so much to endear him to the hearts of thousands whom he can never meet individually. His ascetic face was often lit up with a kind of joy, as he watched the people. Twenty minutes was occupied by the procession in passing, and as the head entered St. Paul's Churchyard the end was in tho neighbourhood of the Law Courts. The effect of the hymn singing was strikingly solemn, particularly so in the case of a metrical litany, though "Jesu, Lover of my soul," was probably felt by the throng to be moro moving, with its familiar words and\ plaintive tune. At the Cathedral. As tho first of tho massed choirs ascended the steps of the cathedral, it turned and stood, a broad bank of snowy white, to lead the singing of the "Hymn for Londou," with its refrain: Lord, for London hear cur pleading, Holy, Glorious, God of Love. Between the choirs, when the procession had vanished in the gloom of the Cathedral, the Bishop took his stand, and turned towards the people. AH the space below the steps was filled by a mighty concourse that stretched away down Ludgato Hill beyond range of vision, and all were looking"' upward, waiting. Then tho Bishop took his crozier in his hand and blessed the people. The scene had a fine simplicity that was wonderfully moving. . At the doors of the Cathedral the aged Dean had received the procession, and now moved w;ith Bishop Ingram through the nave—filled almost to the doors—into the wide space beneath the dome, while the congregation sang in echoing unison, led by instrumentalists, "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross." The Bishop's address from the pulpit was very brief, and more of a friendly talk than an oration. His central thought was that they had borne witness before London, and before tho Empire, to their faith in'the Crucified. Afterwards tho men knelt to join in a Litany. ' , "That it may please Thee," ran one of the petitions for King George, "to make all tho subjects of his Empire to be mindful in Whose Name he, our Sovereign, is to be crowned, that they may faithfully serve, honour, and humbly obey him in Thee and for Thee." Again: "That it may please Thee to give to all his subjects who are not of the Christian faith a spirit of loyalty and honourable devotion." And "That it may please T'heo to bless abundantly tho effort that is being made to help the men of our land to rise to tho appeal of tho Coronation." Still kneeling, the congregation sang, with a magnificent effect of manly voices pealing through the vast spaces of the dome, the hymn "Rock of Ages"; then silently and slowly passed'out again into the world of London.