THE PASSING OF THE CURATE.

Evening Star, Issue 11893, 22 May 1903, Page 1

THE PASSING OF THE CURATE.

In the discussion which has been raised in various quarters as to why men are avoiding S?S *£?" has been laid (writes the dC£»i "P°n the value of personal house-to-house visiting by the clergy. But.little notice has been taken of the VS change in the attitude of society generally towards the ministers of the church and that of themselves towards their flocks. One Teed A%? 6>ages of Charlotte Bronte Tor Anthony Trollope to see that socially the curate was a person of more consideration than he is to-day. As a fixed " type" he is still associated in the average mind with woolwork slippers, tea and muffins, and a bevy of feminine admirers. But in his present reahty, he leads,a distinctly monastic kind ol lite in a 'clergy house," he would discourage any offerings that would ill accompany his austere garb, and he concerns himself especially with children's guilds, boys' brigades, and men's debating clubs, when he is not conducting services. Except to solicit subscriptions-and help, he troubles himself very little about the prosperous and the well-to-do, who, in their turn, as many things are now showing, are more and more ignoring the old observances. Parochial organisation is favored nowadays rather than human symand an earnestness which expresses itselt in meetings and " socials " and temperance excursions.

As far as women are concerned, the curate is eclipsed. Girls enjoy far wider opportunities of meeting potential admirers than they did when an occasional croquet party was their chief gaiety, and the vicar may make half a dozen changes among his curates without breaking a single devoted heart. Moreover, the girls themselves have changed as well! and while those of a generation ago would proudly and gladly have pricked their fingers ' lu r m makin g endless holly festoons for the Christmas decorations, their daughters prefer to be playing golf or hockey. A life of conducting mothers' meetings, girls' clubs, and Sunday school teaching either does not appeal to them or else it does so in an unusual degree, in which case they join one or other of the sisterhoods, when they will fulfil tho duties formerly undertaken by the rector's or the curate's wife. And perhaps this tendency to make the workers of the church a class separate and apart from the community is not less marked with regard to women than men. The deaconess,.the mission woman, the sister is professionally employed, and ladies who would give time or money or other help in a, poor parish feel that their "untrained service" of mere gentleness and kindness is looked upon somewhat askance beside the method and routine of the parish staff. The average woman may not be less religious than of yore, but in outward manifestation it takes different forms, and certainly the curate is no longer the hero that he nscd to be. An interesting demonstration of this comes from St. Paul's Cathedral at the present time, where a series of Lenten addresses is being given each Thursday evening" to business and City women, in deference to a widely-signed request for some such services. In this it was pointed out that many had never enjoyed any opportunity of understanding the teachings 6f the Church, and that they would gladly attend any course that might help them to do so. The change with regard to the curates' position is quite as marked in the country as in London or the great towns. It must be conceded that the present-day curate has often bat little sympathy with or knowledge orural pursuits, and in a village he finds scanty scope for all those energies and efforts which his theological college has always taught him to consider as supremely important.. He regards the farmers and laborers as pagans if they will not after their week's toil come to an early service, and as he displays no interest in their crops or their work, they show none in his endeavors. It is this aloofness from the real and every-day life around that is one of the causes of the present situation.