MORE CHEERY CHURCH.

Waikato Times, Volume 103, Issue 17366, 30 March 1928, Page 9

MORE CHEERY CHURCH.

,mt PICTURES, LIGHTS, ORNAMENTS. GENERAL AND YOUTH'S DEMANDS. There were some exciting moments in the Prayer Book debate at the House of Laity at Westminster (says a London paper). The revised book, which was approved by the National Assembly, was submitted for detailed discussion, and .Mr A. Mitchell, of London, at once moved that the new Communion Service in the alternative book, which contains the. rubric allowing Reservation, be omitted.

There was an emotional passage in Lord Phillimore's speech. "Why be so cruel and tyrannical," he asked, "as to require the priests reserving the Elements to decide whether or not they should break the rule of fasting or let someone go without Commuiuon? Why go out of your way to inflict cruelly on those priests?" Lord Phillimore halted for a moment and almost, burst into tears as he said: "I speak not only as a layman, but as a father and grandfather of clergy in the Church of England." Lord \\'o. ,ier, who was subjected to much excited interruption, said: "We voted for Ihe deposited book last July, knowing il contained perpetual Reservation. (Loud cires of "No!" from the Evangelicals.) That was an essential part of the settlement proposed by the bishops. What are you going to do with the Anglo-Catholics? Are you going to drive them out of the Church? Demand of Youth. "Young people to-day want warmth and colour in their churches," said Brigadier-General A. J. Kelly (Newton Abbot), holding that the Reserved Sacrament was the right of the layman. "I was bred in Lancashire, among the lowest of the low Churches," he said, "and I liavo now become a converted Anglo-Catholic because I see the call of to-day demands it. The old-fashioned way in the plain church with the unadorned altar does not appeal to Ihe present generation. "The modern generation wants a more cheery church, with pictures on the wall, colour to the ceiling, and altar lights and ornaments. As a Devonshire labourer would say, the modern generation wants 'a place thai looks as if it's lived in.' " • Prolonged cheering broke out at the end of Brigadier-General Kelly's speech ami on a complaint being made by a member of the Assembly, the chairman threatened if there was any further applause by the public he would have the gallery cleared. Mr P. N. Sutherland-Graeme (St. Albans), appealing for an all-embracing Church, said that the great "Toe II." movement had become a religion among the younger men.

On a division, motions for the consideration of the two rubrics in the alternative Communion Service were carried, the voting being: For Ihe first rubric, 202; against, 51. For the second, or Reservation, rubric, .102; against, 108.