THE CHURCH

Patea Mail, Volume XI, Issue 132, 24 February 1886, Page 2

THE CHURCH

At the silting of the Anglican Synod at Auckland on the 2nd, Archdeacon Harper moved—“ That this Synod respectfully requests the Eight Reverend the Bench of Bishops to prepare a service for use in cases of Durial, in which the notice at the commencement of the order for the burial of the dead forbids the use of that office ; such service to be taken from the Book of Common Prayer and portions of Holy Scripture not being part of the order for the burial of the dead nor of the order for the administration of the Holy Communion.” He said that this amendment was required in order to remove a difficulty which the parochial clergy were at present obliged frequently to encounter. The Rubric forbade the use of the service for the unbaptised, and for those who had laid violent hands upon themselves. Frequent cases of hardship occurred in consequence. The clergyman was often compelled to refuse the rites of the Church in tho cases of children of tender years who had been left unbaptised, perhaps through no fault of the parents, while there were cases in which suicides came within the range of tho service, and yet the clergman could hardly read portions of it without doing violence to his feelings. There were many serious dilemmas of this kind in which through strict conformity with the Rubric the parochial clergy were placed, and those of his own aichdeaconry had requested him to bring the matter forward. The Church had a strong hold upon the people through the burial service, and in order to preserve it her discipline should not be relaxed. In this matter ho had been to a large extent a law unto himself, While unwilling to read the beautiful office for the dead upon those who had been estranged from the Church or failed to conform with her discipiline, still his principles would not allow him to permit any to be buried like a dog. He hud, however, made a distinct and conspicious difference between the form of service be used in the latter case. A long discussion followed, at the conclusion of which the motion was lost on the voices.