IRREGULAR CLERICAL MINISTRA

Grey River Argus, Volume XII, Issue 1073, 5 January 1872, Page 2

IRREGULAR CLERICAL MINISTRA-

' ; ■ [daily; news.] -',\t .',',,, A great stir has been made, throughout the Qhurph of England because two. of ita chief pastors, , finding themselves : beyond its jurisdiction, have preached and prayed to their fellow Christians in the manner toy which the latter were : accustomed. Without a highly ' artificial' training-i t would be difficult to sympathise wither even understand, the trouble which 4he ministrations, of the Bishop of Winchester and the Archbishop of Yorkj k in the phurch of Glengarry, haye causad to many good churchmen. That the pulping pf every church should be guarded against unauthorised intruders we ail e^pept, and, until now, it has generally been when they have appeared' to be usurped thai;, any outcry has been made. .A. few years ago Bishop Colenso was annbunced 'to preach one Sunday afternoon in a parish church in Leicestershire, but an inhibition having been served upon him in the course of the morning service, he preached on the village green. • A year ago a wellknown Nonconformist minister preached in a .ohurch in the diocese of Ripon,|by invitation, of the incumbent, .and ithe latterwas afterwards: duly .admonished-- by his diogesan, The: nearest approach' to", a union of episcopal and non^episcftpal mjtijstrations was. mgde • during : t|e/.Rey. Thomas Bin'ney's visit tp Australia, abo^fc, ten years agpj when the Right Rev. Dr Parryj Bishpp of Melbourne, concluded the worship, and Mr Binney preached the sermon j but that was on board a- ship, Of those who have been guilty of irregularly preaching in a Church of England pulpit since the passing of the Act 'of .Uniformity, perhaps the most eminent amongst Nonconformists is Andrew Puller. In the year 1796, a Mr Broughton^pf Braybrooke Lodge, Northamptonshire, had ; a son, and on his deathbed requested that Fuller might preach his funeral sermon, rAs it was known that in such an event ?a" crowd much larger than any of the', chapels could- accommodate would press to theservice, Fuller casually- remarked that •Be ,did not- know what was to be done, unless the clergyman would lend them the parish church, not for a moment imagining that the remark " would Have serious conse-. quences. The' ; young man's father went straight to the "clergyman, a pleasant, neighborly man, with no very- definite Church views, who said he Had no objel>tion if the thing could be dpne;with safety, which he doubted. The next day, this obliging old gentleman, to satisfy himself; rode over to Market JJafcborpfygii to consult an attorney on the subjectj aucl received from him the unsound advice that no ill consequences to him 1 would follow Fuller's' preaching in the Braybrooke Church ; and that if any one was troubled on that account^ it' would be; the preacher. On the appointed day the clergyman performed the funeral service, and then .Fuller went up to him in the church-yard and told him that he accepted, his offer. About" si? hundred' peljson.s. were in the churoh, arid at the end pf the sermon -the minister, shook, hands! -with Fuller, and thanked him before, all the people for his pathetic discourse, "I like charity," said he ; " Christians should be charitable to; one another." The Bishop sent for the old gentleman, asked him a great" many questions^ amongst; others, whether Fuller : hid prayed'f or the Kingf-and therf dismissed him with the admOpitibh not to • repeat theoffence. - ' : ;"if a Far more;darhig was the assumption of quasi-clerical duties by another eminent teacher of mankind — by Voltaire. ; This was in the year 1788, when the authbrsbf . the ."Philosophical Dictionary thought fit to make his " Easter CommunionsGrimm, who has preserved an account : of the affair in his i ." Correspondence," says, " He communicated on Easter Sundaywith all the zeal of a neophjte; and 1 all the pomp of the squire of the parish. He procured six large wax candles from Lyons, and Had them, carried before him with a missal, being himself escorted to the church at Ferney: by two gitfdjs chasse, carrying -muskets with •' fixeii bayonets. He received the communion at the hands of the cure, and then, to, the astonishment ; and dismay of the poor priest, turned round to the persons present and delivered; an edifying and -not) unchristian .discourse. This/.extraqrdjnary proceeding gaye rise to a cprre,spQnt dence -with the" Bishop of who declared that the covwnuniQn dfi pqlitiqm was enough to. sQftndalise ; even t\\i : |»rq-. testantg. .. .;;.].■-