UNKNOWN

Colonist, Volume LI, Issue 12520, 23 April 1909, Page 1

UNKNOWN

SOLEMN CEREMONY IN WELLS .a CATHEDRAL. ' . ilJ " uo

John Hugh Smyth Pigott, the head S,* h «. A eapeinone or Abode" of Love, Spaxton, near Bndgwater, has been solemnly unfrocked %r deposed fS SShffis: the Church ' ia weiis

fW S ! is f l equel t0 the . Gdnsig&y Court last January, which s in Connection mth the birth of -two-ofedrai m the Ag aE emone, fpuad-hiib guilty of uncleanness and .«'.iok e an ess g of SL.» Neither ha nor-atiy'bf his followers

i™£'<th**^ reading the sentence bXpt^d? * handed Mm the •brwSS''* 8 the case of on e who has shaST ' a / many pe °P le think > great n™?' J i. all £-£ orrow U P° U n «t onb' the "■"ole Christian community. In our i P .ocedure all that the ecclesiastical iaw allows of has been carried through with scrupulous carew To some it may appear a strange fact that no charge has been brought against the defen3M >h ,- F 6 olasphemous utterances witli .which he is credited. Upon this I V U l d o] ? sexve that, there is grave doubt whether under the Clergy Discipline Act a prosecution for blasphemy could be included." The lengthy sentence, which declared that Tigott had made no confession or acknowledgment, concluded • Iherefore we, George Wyndliam, by divine permission Lord Bishop of Bat hand Wells, .first calling on the Mo ft High God of Heaven and earth, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost and. setting Him alone before "bur eyes, do . remove, .depose and degrade the said Rev. John Hugh Pigott, or John; Hugh Smyth Pigott, from all clerical offices and orders of priest and deacdn respectively, by this bur definite sentence and final decree, "which we give and promnlge by these presents. . Among the prayers which followed was one "to grant to our erring brother true repentance.?-' The prelate, with his right hand raised and the left holding his crosier, blessed the kneeling worshippers, the organ raised a melancholy wail, and the lustoric ceremouy was over. Mxs Charles Stokes Read, wife of the secretary to Mr Smyth Pigott, has died from Bright' s disease after a short illness at the Agapemoue, Spaxton, Somerset