BARRED FROM PULPIT

Dominion, Volume 23, Issue 5, 1 October 1929, Page 10

BARRED FROM PULPIT

BISHOP CHERRINGTON’S VETO

“NOTHING UNUSUAL”

Dominion Special Service. .

Auckland, September 30.

It was announced on Saturday that Mr. Edward Branscombe, of the Westminster Glee Singers, would preach In St. Peter’s Cathedral, Hamilton, last evening, on “Music and Religion.” Bishop Cherrlngton, however, exercised his episcopal veto and forbade Mr. Branscombe the use of the cathedral pulpit. Dean Barnett stated on Saturday that he had received word from the diocesan secretary (Mr. A. B. Whyte) that the Bishop would not permit Mr. Branscombe to use the pulpit for Sunday evening and that if the Dean wanted to know the reason he could go up and see the Bishop. The Dean announced to a packed congregation in the Cathedral last evening that he was very sorry that Mr. Branscombe could not speak to them from the pulpit. “It is no fault of mine,” he added. The Dean said he could not ask all present to go to the Parish Hall, for they would be very uncomfortable, but he would like those who were interested to attend. The service was closed without a sermon and a fair number adjourned to the Parish Hall nearby and listened to Mr. Branscombe’s address on “Music and Religion." Mr. Branscombe said the facts were that he was invited by Dean Barnett to deliver a lecture which he recently gave at King’s College, Auckland, In St Peter’s Cathedral. “Possibly owing to some ecclesiastical law or custom or to the fact that I am not licensed to preach in an Anglican Church the Bishop apparently intimated to the Dean that he preferred the lecture should not be given at the Cathedral.” The Bishop Explains.

Bishop Cherrlngton explained to-day that nobody could lecture or preach in any church in the diocese without the sanction of the bishop of the. diocese. “I was not consulted in the matter of Mr. Branscombe’s proposed lecture in the Oathedral,” said the Bishop. “In •the first place Mr. Branscombe is not a licensed preacher In the Church of England, and even If he were he must obtain the permission of the bishop to speak in any of the churches under his jurisdiction. The Dean knows this. As a matter of fact the knowledge that the Dean had Invited Mr. Branscombe to lecture In St. Peter’s came to me quite casually. I thereupon communicated with the Dean through the diocesan secretary. I Intimated my desire to see the Dean on the matter, but he refused to see me.

“It must be quite obvious,” added the Bishop, “that It would not do to allow anyone who came along and desired to do so to occupy the pulpit In the Cathedral, or any other church in the diocese,. without proper authority. Any man without credentials and incorrectly representing himself might find his way into the pulpit otherwise. Unless this strict rule, which is general throughout the Church of England, were closely observed, there is no telling to what It might lead. No visiting clergyman or lay render even can speak for more than one Sunday In any church without the bishop’s permission.’’

The Bishop said there was nothin?; unusual in his refusal to grant permission.