TOO MANY CHURCHES

Dominion, Volume 27, Issue 37, 7 November 1933, Page 9

TOO MANY CHURCHES

City of London’s Empty Pews VICAR’S PLAN DROPPED Ixmdon, November 5. Although there are forty-seven churches inside the boundaries of the City of London, Rs week-end population Is so small that most of the churches are superfluous, and a movement is afoot to close the majority of city churches .on Sunday to allow the clergy to assist in the busier centres. As a last effort to attract a congregation the Rev. Martyn Sanders, vicar of All Hallows-in-the-Wall, announced that he would invite questions and answer them from the pulpit to-day. The congregation consisted of four adults, eleven Girl Guides, and three small children instead of the customary organist, choristers, and woman caretaker. The latter has held her job for thirty-five years, and scarcely remembers when a christening, marriage, or burial ceremony was held at All Hallows. , , The vicar cast one glance at to-day s congregation, and immediately dropped the plan. He said afterward : . “The truth is that we are not needed in the City.” Nevertheless Church law insists that services must be held irrespective of attendance.