SUNDAY IN LONDON CHURCHES.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIII, Issue 313, 1 December 1933, Page 2

SUNDAY IN LONDON CHURCHES.

The editor of the St. Paul’s Review, which is the official quarterly publication of the London diocese, has recently been appointed to the City living of All Hallows-on-the-Wall. In the current number of his Review he discusses a problem with which this well-deserved preferment has confronted him. He finds that in his church on Sundays “for many years there has been but one service at 11 a.m., which has no congregation save the choir of sixteen boys, the organist, and the (female) caretaker.” In fact, all the nineteen people within the building are paid to be present. As the prospect of preaching each Sunday morning to the caretaker, who is the sole occupant of the pews, does not allure the new incumbent, the character of the Sunday morning service is to be changed. An unpaid choir, described, a little oddly, as “of not more than twelve (communicant) voices,” is to replace the paid boys. For Matins “a simple act of worship, eucharistic for choice,” is to be substituted. This is to be followed by an “instruction” on religious and intellectual difficulties, after which questions and discussion will be encouraged. By such means, it is hoped, seekers after knowledge will be attracted to this City church on Sunday mornings from distant places.