Excommunicating a Church Member

Feilding Star, Volume VII, Issue 46, 26 September 1885, Page 3

Excommunicating a Church Member

The action of the Rev Coker Adams, rector of Saham Tony, in excommunicating Payne, a farmer, . eighty-two years of age, has created a sensation in Norfolk. Mr Payne does not attend Church, and, it is said, has refused the clergyman admission to his house. A letter was written threatening to excommunicate him, but Mr Payne not understanding the process, wrote to enquire whether any part of the last half-year's tithe had accidently remained unpaid. He received the following reply :— Sir,— My letter of last Sunday was. not written in consequence of any personal matter. You have, as you truly say, always paid me my xluea. I wrote to remind you that you had persistently neglected to attend the Church's services, and refused to receive her ministers, and that I should therefore fell it my painful duty to pronounce you cut off from the Church's communion and membership. The wish I express at the end of my letter was quite sencere, and remains unaltered still. — Yours faithfully,- <Roker Adams. The wish referred to in lie first letter, was that the rector prayed to God to change Payne's heart and save his soul. When the sentence was passed, the whole congregation was taken by suprise. Just before the sermon, the rev. gentleman said, " In the name of God," See., making use of the entire form of excommunication, which is generally beKeved to be obsolete. Mr Payne seemed unmoved by the proceedings. -'