ALLEGED HERETIC

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 18955, 4 March 1936, Page 14

ALLEGED HERETIC

REMOVED FROM PARISH "FALSE DOCTRINE" COURT'S SENTENCE MELBOURNE, Feb. 14. Before the Ecclesiastical Court today, the Rev. H. E. E. Hayes was sentenced by Archbishop Head to be removed from his parish at Mernda for "false doctrine" ami "disgraceful conduct."

The sentence, which was the severest the court could impose, was pronounced by the archbishop after Mr. Hayes had delivered an address which occupied nearly three hours. In future, Mr. Hayes* will be ft priest without a cure. The church has not power to expel him, although he will never be appointed to a parish. In his statement, Mr. Hayes pleaded that ilic should not be cast out of the church, since no other means of livelihood was offering at his time of life. The case, which was founded on articles published in the Labour Call in December, 1934, in which Mr. Hayes questioned the virgin birth of Christ, has lasted for more than 12 months.

Archbishop Head, dressed in episcopal scarlet, purple, and black, presided alone over the proceedings today. Seated on a >high dais, with the silver erozier beside him, he announced that Mr. Hayes had refused to resign from the Mernda parish, as recommended by the Ecclesiastical Commission, which had found him unanimously guilty of the charges. He then invited Mr. Hayes to submit any "observations in arrest of judgment, or in mitigation of sentence or punishment" before he passed sentence.

.MR. HAYES' STATEMENT

In a statement that took several hours to read, Mr. Hayes said that the legalism of the last year, with its grim misunderstandings of his motives, and "painful sickness," had shown the Church of England to be nonprogressive in that apprehension of the spiritual needs of those it was supposed to serve. "It has indicated 'that our personal relationships to the Lord are overshadowed by worldly legalities," hesaid. "The decision of the commission against mo is an indication of short-sightedness and misunderstanding, which is not far removed from bigotry. It savours of harshness in its recommendations, with a regrettable lack of sympathy and Christian love. lam not as guilty as the commission 'hah found, and have a clear conscience before God as far as my motives are concerned." ARCHBISHOP >8 JUDGMENT

Speaking, almost . iwuulibly, and with considerable emotion, in delivering the judgment of the court, the archbishop said: "My business is a very difficult one, and one from which I would naturally shrink—the condemning of one of my clergymen. On the other hand, I am simply an official in this act of pronouncing a sentence which has been the result of a careful investigation by an independent commission. I have listened to the argument that Mr. Hayes has put before us very carefully. It is now my duty to pronounce sentence, and to make certain observations of my own. Having regard to the special circumstances of your case, I am taking on myself the. responsibility .of giving you tihe assurance that the registrar will be instructed to make you an allowance of £3 a week for 13 weeks from tooay, provided that you do nothing in the meantime to bring discredit on the church." .

When ho 'had passed the sentence, the archbishop pronounced the Blessing, during which, Mrs. Hayes, who was seated, in the court, did not stand. Mr. Hayes, standing up, said that he wished to lodge an appeal against the decision. "In the event of there being no possibility of the appeal/' he said, "I have been advised that it would be in the interests of the church to petition His Majesty the King to bring it before the Privy Council to prove whether I am guilty of heresy or not."

The archbishop informed him that he had no objection to Mr. Hayes adopting any course that he thought fit. Before the archbishop retired to consider the sentence, Mr. Hayes paid a moving tribute to the kindly way he had treated him throughout the case.