CORRECT DESIGN FOR CHURCHES

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 40, 3 March 1937, Page 5

CORRECT DESIGN FOR CHURCHES

—Press Assoeiation.;

Dunedin Presbyterians Argue Matter PULPIT IN CENTRE?

(By Telegraph-

DUNEDIN", This Day. Disagr«ement as to the correct design for Presbjrterian churches was evident at the Presbytery yesterday when considering tb© plans for a new chux*ch at Opoho. A proposai that the pulpit be placed in. the centre of the church was lost, while another point debated was whether rests be provided for kneeling. Th© Rev. R. G. McDowell considered that Presbyterian churches were largely like halls, the' first thing seen on entry being the organ and pipes. Another reform long overdue was the provision of kneeling stools. It was disheartening for a minister to see his congregation lounging during prayer. The Rev. H. J. Ryburn, in support, stated that the promjnent things jn an Anglican church were the altar and the cross, but in a5 Presbjrterian church it was gilded organ pipes and sometimes choir-girls' hats. To this the Rev. T. Miller replied: "There j© a movement in the Presbyterian Church to follow the Anglican, and it is not a movement upwards. We find that where there is most of the visible cross there is least of the invisible cross." He moved a recommendation that the pulpit should be jn the middle of the church, whereupon the Rev. J. D. Smith said that Mr Miller's previous arguments had reacted against himself. He had a£gued~ that giving prominence tq the cross was exaltation of th© maberial, but & was the same thing if the pulpit was given prominence, exalting th© preacher at the expense of Christ. The recommendation was • lost, together with that for the provision of kneeling rests. f