COURTING IN CHURCH.

Evening Post, Volume LXVII, Issue 150, 25 June 1904, Page 13

COURTING IN CHURCH.

Onght youths aud maidens to bo allowed to court in church? This question, raised by the Rev. W. Armitage, vicar of St. Paul's, Scotforth, Lancaster, ■vvho complains that courting has been going on in his church, has produced an interesting controversy. "Marriages are made in heaven, wo are told," observed a North London vicar to a London Daily Express representative. "Why, therefore, should not courting bo done in church? Courting is tho gate to nuirriage, even as church is tho gate to heaven." The Incorporated Free and Open Church Association, from tho frankness and breadth of its title, might veil bo supposed to havo views on tlio subject. "Do not lot us try lo stop courting in church," observed ono of tho officers. "Lot us rather try to put Christianity into the congregation, and then the courting will all be done on right lines. I notice that the Rev. A. B. Bui torworth states that, in Homo churches the courting difficulty is overcome by the separation of thu sexes. Now, I know that at a church at Kaling, and at several other churches, the mon sit on one side and tho women on the other,but this is not done to slop the courting. It seems lo be a peculiar principle of tho very High Church tb separate Hie sexes. Our association advocates "more freedom of sitting in chineh — not _lcfs."