THE DUNEDIN PROTEST
The question of the increasing number of Sunday funerals was discussed in the Dunedin Presbytery last week. Mr. H. Islip, session clerk of Knox Church, said he had been instructed to bring, the matter up with the object, if possible, of the Presbytery taking such action as it deemed necessary to cause the discontinuance of the practice. He suggested that probably if a communication were sent to the various undertakers requesting their co-operation, this might have the desired effect. The session felt that Sunday funerals were in the main unnecessary, and were a great tax on the ministers' time, which was.required; especially on Sundays, for meditation and preparation.
The Rev. Tulloch Yuille said that the matter had been before the Presbytery previously, but nothing resulted. They should try as far as possible to make an end to this unnecessary practice. It was not opposed on Sabbatarian views, but on practical grounds. The trouble was that the majority of people who wanted Sunday funerals were not church people. Those people generally wanted a Sunday funeral so as to have a big attendance and to save a half-day's work. If the matter was taken up they would find that '.the undertakers and gravediggers were sympathetic. It was very seldom that it was absolutely necessary for funerals to be held, on Sunday. In Melbourne the'practice was stopped because the ministers had stood together and tho Undertakers and cemetery • authorities had raised or doubled their charges. H« understood that the matter was shelved before because the undertakers were not unanimous, but he was sure they would be now. Another thing he was against was the number of funerals conducted' in the forenoon. The forenoon, he said, should be for the ministers' own use and study. In Melbourne all the' funerals were held in the afternoon, and surely a small town like Dunedin oould follow a big city like Melbourne. /
A committee was appointed to go into the matter.
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Bibliographic details
Evening Post, Volume CIV, Issue 84, 6 October 1922, Page 7
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327THE DUNEDIN PROTEST Evening Post, Volume CIV, Issue 84, 6 October 1922, Page 7
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