BATTLE THANKSGIVING.

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2848, 12 August 1916, Page 13

BATTLE THANKSGIVING.

"TE DEUM" AT ST. PAUL'S. There was a great congregation at St. Paul's Cathedral on AVhit Sunday afternoon. At the conclusion of the ordinary servico a solemn "To Deum" was sung in thanksgiving for the Baval victory, and before dispersing the vast congregation joined in singing a verse of tho National Anthem. It was not a special servico of thanksgiving. ,0n AVhit Sunday the Church's first concern is with one of the fundamental elements of belief, and the hymns, the anthem, and the subject of the sermon which supplemented the usual evensong service were chosen in significance of the great festival. But the announcement of the inclusion of the "Te Deum" brought troops of people of all classes from near and far, and by the time the clergy and choir had walked in procession to their places every seat in the nave, the transepts, and the aisles was occupied.

Many moil and very many women in deep black came to find in thank-fulness for victory assuagement of their grief. There were many, officers and men in khaki, and many nurses, and some men in naval uniform. But there was no bringing together of tho great personages prominent in various departments of the life of the nation. The mass of tho congregation was made up of the plain, ordinary citizens who form the mass of London's population, and •the quiet, decorous manner and restraint of emotion ■with which they joined in the service made the tethering more representative than any list' of selected names.

At the end ol; his AVliitsun sermon Canon Alexander made a brief 1 reference to the significance of the ; 'Te Deum." It was not the way of tho men of tho British Navy, he said, to utter premature boastings of their deeds, but the moro we saw and learned of tho sea battle and its results tho more clearly we recognised how splendidly they had borne out their heroic traditions and how great was the victory they had won.

The great congregation stood silent during the singing by the choir of the "To Doum," but their deep feelings found expression when the organ sounded tho opening chords of the National Anthem, and in mighty, fullthroated unison the people set tlio dim grey spaces of the church vibrating with tho groat meaning which the simple phrases convey. THE GREAT NAVAL BATTLE. . HEAVY DEATH-ROLL OF CHAP, LAINS. , It is officially announced that tho following eight chaplains were lost in the great naval battle off the Jutland eoast:— The Rev. G. A. Browning, Chaplain and Naval Instructor of H.M.S. Indefatigable ; third son of tho late Captain G. A. Browning, R.N. Educated at Duhvich College, and St. John's Collego, Cambridge, of which lie was a scholar. Took his degree in 1900, and was ordained that year to the curacy of Dawlisih Entered the Royal Navy in 1903, w'Tien ho was appointed Chaplain and Naval Instructor to H.M.S. Exmouth. Ho was appointed to H.M.S. Indefatigable in April, 1915. Ho was a man of fine intellectual capabilities, and his sterling qualities were recognised on board tlio various ships on which ho served.

Tho Rev. H. D. Dixon-Wright, M.V.0., Chaplain of tho Royal .Navy Collego at Dartmouth. He was educated at Corpus Christ! College, Cambridge, and was in the .Third Class of tho Classical Tripos in 1892. He was ordained at Rochester in 1893, and alter serving in some curacies became a naval chaplain in 1899. Died of wounds.

\ Tho Rev. G. S. Kownoy, chaplain and. naval instructor on H.M.S. Quecu Mary; ho was a graduate of Pcm-

broke College, Cambridge, and was ordained in 1898., Entered tho Royal Navy in 1900, and has served on several ships. The Rov. W. H. Le Patourel, chaplain of H.M.S. Defence. Educated at Balliol College, and was ordained in 1891. Since 1907 he had been Vicar of St. Duristan's, East Acton, AV.

The Rev. C. AV. Lydall, chaplain of. H.M.S. Lion, son of tlio late Mr. AVykeham Hawthorn Lydall, •of Capo Town, and a nephew of Lord French. He was a graduate of Worcester College, Oxford, and - war, ordained, in 1905, and became a naval chaplain in 1900.

The Rev. G. AV. F. Morgan, chaplain on H.M.S. Invincible. Educated at Pembroke Cbllege, Cambridge, and AVells Theological College, and was ordained in 1904, becoming a naval chaplain two years later. \ The Rev. C. A. AValton, eldest son of the late Rev. T. I. AValton. Educated at Keblo College, Oxford,.and at Cuddesdon, and was ordained in 1900 to the curacy of St. Jude's, Peckham. He was curate of Clapham from 1905 till the outbreak of war, when he be-' came , a naval chaplain. The Rev. ; AV. F, AA r ebber, chaplain of H.M.S. Black Prince. Educated at Jesus College, Oxford, where he was Squire Scholar, and was ordained in 1910, serving as curate of Christ Church, East Greenwich. Ho was appointed chaplain to H.M.S. Africa in 1914. REVIVAL OF FAMILY PRAYERS. VIEAVS OF LORD FRENCH. Tho Archbishop of Canterbury presided over & meeting at Queen's Hall in connection with the movement for the national revival of family prayers. lii a letter, the Archbishop of York said: "I' am in most hearty sympathy with the object of the meeting, and trust one of tho ways in which tho nation at this time can rise to a more worthy life will bo the revival of this old and beautiful custom." A T iscount French wrote: ''My experience in this war assures mo that the teaching of religious leaders in this country has already borne good fruit; It is clearly manifested in the devoted spirit of self-sacrifice which our soldiers havo displayed in the field. A marked characteristic of the armies which aro now fighting in Franco and elsewhere is tho prevalence of high ideals and noblo aspirations. Tho inculcation of those principles has been fostered and kept alive by tho visits to the front of prominent religious teachers of all denominations, whoso presence among the troops has had tho very best effect. Any action which is taken to extend and jierpetuate such spiritual influences must appeal strongs ly to all who have the.interests of tho Empire at hesrt." Tile Archbishop of Canterbury said that from what- he had learned and heard on the battlo fronts of Franco and Flanders, ho had the impression that in a quite novel degree men felt tho things that mattered, and that both tho privileges and undoubtedly tho problems and mysteries of prayers were presenting themselves for thought and discussion in quarters where a little while ago that would havo been quito improbable.