WAIKATO DIOCESE

Hokitika Guardian, 2 October 1929, Page 5

WAIKATO DIOCESE

BISHOP REFUSES SANCTION TO ADDRESS. h r, /

AUCKLAND, September 30. The suggestion contained in a pub- 1 lished report that further friction has - arisen between Bishop' Cherrington. and Dean G. R. Barnett, in consequence of - the Bishop’s refusal to permit Mr Ed- • ward Branscombe, of the Westminster Glee Singers, to give a lecture in St. ;/ Peter’s Cathedral,- Hamilton, on Sun-, day, night, on “Music and Religion,” was referred to the three parties concerned this morning. Questioned on the subject, Mr Branscombe expressed surprise that the mat- ; ter should have been . given any publicity. Simply the facts were that he was invited by Dean Barnett to de- ; liver the lecture, which lie recently gave at King’s College, Auckland, in St. Peter’s Cathedral. “ Possibly owing to some ecclesiastical law or custom or to' the if act that I am not licensed to preach in an-Anglican church, the Bishop apparently intimated to the dean that he preferred the lecture should, not bo given at the cathedral,” said Mr Branscombe.

Bishop Cherrington explained that nobody could lecture or preach in any church in a diocese without the sanctioil of the bishop of the diocese. “I was not consulted in the matter of Mr Branscombe’s proposed lecture in the cathedral,” - said his Lordship. “In the first place, Mr Branscombe is not a licensed preacher in the Church of England, and even if. he-were he must obtain the permission of the bishop to speak in any of the churches under tnat bishop’s jurisdiction. The dean knows this.' As a' matter of fact, the knowledge • that the dean had. invited Mr Branscombe to lecture in St-Peter’s came, to me* quite casually. '' I thereupon communicated with the dean through the diocesan secretary, Mr A.

B. - Whyte. I intimated my willingness to-see the dean on the matter, 5 but he refused.” ; • r' ,

“It must be quite obvious,” added 1 his Lordship, “ that it would not do to allow anyone who came along and desired to do 1 so to occupy the pulpit in the cathedral Vr 1 any other church in the diocese ' without proper authority. Any man , without ' credentials and incorrectly representing himself • might find Kis way into the pulpit otherwise. Unless .this stricti rule, which is general throughout the Church of England, were closely observed," there is no telling where it might lead. No visiting clergyman or layman or lay reader even can speak for more than one Sunday in : any church;without the bishop’s permission.” 'His Lordship added that there was nothing unusual in his refusal, to grant the request. Dean Barnett, -when interviewed, said that.he.had “nothing whatever” to say on the subject. ‘