CLERGYMAN ABUSED

Evening Star, Issue 19795, 20 February 1928, Page 1

CLERGYMAN ABUSED

AH ANONYMOUS LETTER A vigorous public protest concerning an anonymous letter was made in London recently by the Bev. C. E. Morton, Rural Dean ol Leamington, in a sermon at Holy Trinity Church, Leamington. “In Leamington, ns in no oilier place in the diocese of Coventry, there has been an epidemic of scurrilous anonymous letters to fhc clergy,” Mr Morton said. “The height of the campaign was reached when 6 letter was sent to Canon Feist, the vicar ol Leamington, on the day his 21-year-okl son was buried.

“ The writer, referring to the service, at which all the clergy of the deanery were present, and at which the coffin was placed between lighted candles, said; ' What a spectacle of illegal ritualism, flow dishonoring and offensive to Almighty God Lot the dead bury their dead. Would not one clergyman have been sufficient for this, and could not the others have, been better engaged?’ The writer of the letter went on to repeat what he or she had heard in regard to the funeral, such as ‘ a circus,’ ‘ topping show.’ ” Mr .Morton said; “The receipt of such a letter by the vicar and at such a time of bereavement was responsible for my indignation. 1 attended this funeral as rural dean, and there was nothing illegal or unusual in the service. A large number of scurrilous pamphlets is also being circulated. One such pamphlet describes the Archbishop of Canterbury as ‘ the silly archbishop.’ Will yon please make it clear that T mentioned the anonymous letter to the vicar as a local illustration of what I believe is a general campaign of scurrilitv.”