HIGH MASS OPPOSED

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26348, 31 December 1946, Page 5

HIGH MASS OPPOSED

BISHOP SHOUTED DOWN WARDENS SUMMON POLICE LONDON. Dec. 29. Fifty members of the National Union of Protestants shouted down Dr Martin, Bishop of Liverpool, at West Derby Church, Liverpool. The bishop waited half an hour in the pulpit and then returned to the choir stalls and advised the vicar, the Rev. Frank Sanson, to end the service. The demonstrators remained seated during the opening hymns and prayers, but when the bishop was about to announce his text shouted: "We reprove you for allowing High Mass. We protest against this illegal practice.” The bishop replied: “This sort of behaviour will do your cause no good, my friend.” The demonstrators chanted: “We won’t have the Mass,” and the bishop’s voice was lost in the uproar. The organist played to drown the chanting, but the demonstrators showered the congregation and stood and sang the National Anthem. The demonstrators after the service showered with leaflets the clergy and choir moving in procession to the vestry. Two of the demonstrators and one member of the congregation scuffled. Many women in the congregation wept. 1 The wardens summoned the police, who took the names of a number of demonstrators. Mr M. A. Perkins, secretary of the union, whose . headquarters are in London, said: “This .is the beginning of an intensive campaign we have planned for the Merseyside. This church is the most extreme Anglo-Catholic in the city. We intend to follow the bisnop around in future whenever the illegal full Roman Catholic Mass is celebrated.”