SMOKING IN CHURCH

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 239, 3 July 1919, Page 5

SMOKING IN CHURCH

STARTLING IDEAS FOR MORE POPULAR SERVICES. Worshippers at St. James's Church, Bermondsey, were appealed to recently for frank suggestions as to ways in which tho Sunday evening service could bo mado more helpful and popular. Some interesting replies wcro received. Eleven correspondents advocated that part of the church, either a gallery or tho back pews, should bo reserved for smokers. Tt i 6 suggested that where the pipe cannot be admitted the male will not go. Another member is anxious to know why a Lesson should always be read out of the C!d Testament. It could be more profita'cly chosen, ho thinks, from Carlyie. or Raskin. When it coiues lo the sermon the vicar and his curate aie in something of a duandary, so mried aro tho suggestions. Seme want topical subjects, while others jsk for a studious course of instruction In tho problems of economies, ethics, or philosophy. There is one suggestion which stands in a (.ilegory by itself, and that is the advice lo turn tho church in in a kinemn. "A hearty laugh at Charlie Cbaplin does more good that aviy pie-jaw," says tho writer.