PRAYER BOOK REVISION

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 15 December 1927, Page 9

PRAYER BOOK REVISION

HOUSE OF LORDS DEBATE.

SCRAMBLE FOR GALLERY SEATS. MEASURE CARRIED OX DIVISION. BY CABLE —PRESS ASSOCIATION—COPYRIGHT Received 2 p.m. to-day. LONDON, Dec. 14. The House of Lords assented to the Prayer Book measure by 242 rotes to 88. ' , . The Chamber was crowded m anticipation of the Prayer Book division. There was almost a scramble for places in the galleries, while there was a long queue of those unable to gain admittance. The Bishop of Durham said that it was ridiculously factional to- suggest that the bishops were guilty of unwarranted interference with the- revision, which was solely undertaken because the situation in the country had become intolerable. The Bishops of Norwich and Birmingham, protagonists against revision, had parochial^experience. Pastoral experience was imperative for sound judgment on the subject of tire new book. “Modernised in the best sense” expressed what- was genuinely describable as scientific thought, hut which excluded airy theories merely describable “as- the view of the hour.” It represented the desires of the majority of 3,500,000 church folk who were represented by the Church Assembly. He believed that the new hook would lay; the. foundations of restoration of discipline. The revision consisted mainly of legalising existing procedure. He said: “Here is the instrument which the church declares indispensable. Can the House justify refusal?”

Lord Cnshenden, opposing, said that he thought the proposals more farreaching than over were present in the minds of the electors of the Church Assembly. "While the numbers of laity who voted at diocesan conferences were negligible, nlterantive services would lead to hitter strife in every parish, especially when a new incumbent- was being appointed.— A.P.A. and “Sun.”