CHURCH SQUABBLES IN NAPIER.

Globe, Volume VIII, Issue 956, 18 July 1877, Page 3

CHURCH SQUABBLES IN NAPIER.

[From the “Wellington Post.”] From the account given by our Napier correspondent of the ecclesiastical war which for many months past has been raging there among the members of the Church of England, church affairs do not appear to be in the most desirable condition at Napier. Ihe clergy seemed inclined to take high ground with reference to certain church troubles which occurred at St. John’s a short time ago, arising from the appointment of a Mr Robinson as curate. While this gentleman “drew immensely, and filled the church, his doctrinal beliefs, coupled with certain facts tending to his discredit, which from time to time cropped up, mightily offended the clergy, and such terms of brotherly love as “ liar,” “Socinian,” “apostate,” and the like were freely applied to him. Wlien Mr Robinson ultimately turned out to bo a wolf in sheep’s clothing (for inquiries made at the alleged scenes of his former apostolic efforts proved that either his memory was very treacherous or his imagination very

powerful, leading him to believe himself an ordained priest, when in point of fact he was only a deacon), the clergy were high and mighty in their attitude, and, to use the expression of one of them, expected the parishioners to show due signs of “ humility.” The St. John’s parishioners had, however, no particular liking for humble pie, and so left the church almost en masse, swelling the congregations of the dissenters. A week or so ago matters culminated by the Vicar, the Rev. J. Townsend, leaving Napier, ostensibly for a change for twelve months or so, but those behind the scenes knew that Mr Townsend has taken himself off for good, and merely chose this method of departure to prevent what might have been to him an unpleasant demonstration of joy on the part of his beloved parishioners. But those devout churchmen who still attend St. John’s found the old adage of “ out of the frying-pan into the lire,” an “ower true tale.” The vestry unanimously invited the Rev. Mr Johnson, a resident of the town, to assume the pastorate pro tern., but the Primate, as bishops sometimes will, quietly ignored this plainly-expressed wishjof the congregation, and, while refusing to license Mr Johnson on technical grounds, appointed the Rev. D’Arcy Irvine, the head master of the Grammar School, in his stead. The parishioners do not appear to be violently in love with their new spiritual overseer, if we may judge from numerous letters in the “Daily Telegraph.” The last of these is from Mr Spencer, one of the churchwardens, who quietly and officially states that he and his colleague have written to the Primate “ urging the necessity, for the peace of the parish and the good of the Church, of making Mr Irvine’s tenure of St. John’s pulpit as brief as possible.” Altogether, the parish is in such a state of glorious unanimity—everyone agreeing to quarrel —that one is forcibly reminded of that parody of Dr Watts in Charles Reade’s “ Hard Cash:”— “ Let sects delight to bark and bite, For ’tis their nature to; Let gown and surplice growl and fight, For Satan makes them so.”