WRITS AGAINST VICAR.

Wairarapa Daily Times, 20 October 1930, Page 5

WRITS AGAINST VICAR.

- ♦ ' FOR ALLEGED SLANDER. EXCOMMUNICATION CASE. LONDON, Saturday. The three excommunicated parishioners have issued writs against the Rev. E. A. Merryweather for slander. (A cablegram last week stated: There has been an extraordinary sequel to an award of the Consistory Court at Durham early in October, ordering the removal of certain articles from a church in which six hundred parishioners complained on the ground that they were Romanist. The Rev. E. A. 'Merryweather, from the pulpit of Pelton Church, Chesterlee Street, on Sunday, announced the excommunication of two men and one woman who gave evidence at the Consistory Court. Mr Merryweather said: “We cannot go on being disturbed by these Godless people. I shall expel them from the congregation for three years, and ask all Christian people to treat them as heathens and publicans. They are denied all rights and privileges of the sacraments of the Church.” A later cable-stated: The Bishop of Durham has written to the vicar of Pelton, near Chester-le-,Street, enjoining him to give public notice next Sunday that the sentence of excommunication on three parishioners is wholly null and void, and forbidding any attempt to exclude the parishioners from worship at his church. The Bishop added: “Your action is entirely unauthorised and contrary to ecclesiastical law.”)