CHURCH OF NEW IDEAL.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 13394, 30 May 1914, Page 10

CHURCH OF NEW IDEAL.

ADI TO DO AWAY WlTtt THE MALE * BIAS. ' . LONDON, April 18. The Church of the New Ideal, which admits no males to membership, has held its first services. The church is located at Wallasey, the newly-constituted boroUgh on the Cheshire side of the Mersey. Some 200 women assembled for ttta inaugural sermon, delivered by the Rev. ffajbty Baker, of Plymouth. Men were rigorously excluded. A preliminary declaration of reason* for the. formation of . the church sets forth, "the epoch-making advance in the self-consciousness of- women as a^sex/' and women's^realisation of equality with man in religious: as well as other spheres of life. Their exclusion hitherto from any share in conducting tehurch services ia referred to as an •&£-" elusion by which the general progress of humanity has been delayed. • The Rev. Hatty Baker, who wore v^hat is described as a "white choker" and a. black gown of conventional clerical typo, took as her subject "God's- Glorious Ideal." She . declared that churches as founded and conducted by men obscured this ideal, and the present effort was to create a church of, the future which would be along the lines of the ideal. Abraham, she said, as long as he acted on his own initiative, made many mistakes, and twice had to be told by God to take the advice of his -wife, and the greatest tragedy the world hoe ever wit-. Tiessed would .never have taken place if Pilate had listened to his wife. The male bias had -obscured the message of Clitist in . the past, and the present church would. do away with such bias.. Tho> preac'her^wamfid.her adherents that they must' expect persecution and ridicule. ' ■_: