CORRESPONDENCE.

Nelson Evening Mail, 29 October 1880, Page 2

CORRESPONDENCE.

To the Editor of tub. "Evening Mail." Sir— Last Sunday the Incumbent of Christ Church promised that he would on next Sunday fix a day for the congregation to meet him to discuss the subject of the introduction of the new Hymnal. In Nelson, as in most towns of New Zealand, the members of the Church of England are numerous, and I sincerely trust that on the day to be fixed we shall have a goodly muster, not only on account of the importance of the matter, but to prevent the possibility of a Hymnal being introduced which may be repugnant to the feelings of a number of regular attendants at Christ Church. I feel certain that should a book of the character the Incumbent proposes be adopted, after the expense and delay of obtaining it had been incurred, the congregation, as a whole, would be thoroughly dissatisfied with it. After a hard fight, Hymns Ancient and Modern were adopted as the Hymnal of All Saints in this city, and althougli the Bishop upon undertaking the duties refused to use tbe book while* he should be acting Incumbent, it is still tbe Hymnal of the church, as it is of a very large number of churches in New Zealand. We are informed in the Incumbent's letter that 1500 parishes in England use the Hymnal he wishes to introduce. I think I am not far out in saying that fifteen thousand parishes in England use Hymns Ancient and Modern. No book of hymns is so popular. We never hear of a church that has once used the book desiring to change it, and why then should we not have it as a hymnal as we have it already as a tune book, almost all the most beautiful hymn tunes that we hear in Christ Church being taken from it. We must remember that "let" Beats do not mean a full church; and our services, aa a rule, are thinly attended enough. Let the bymnal proposed be introduced, and I-pre-dict there will be still more vacant seats ; long sermona and the Hymnal Companion will cause the churchwardens, vestrymen and Incumbent to look blankly at each other on quarter days. I trust that the meeting is not to be expected to endorse everything that the Incumbent may wish in this matter, but will state pretty clearly what hymnal it thinks beet for the services of the Church, and that the members of the congregation will use their earnest endeavors to cause that hymnal to be chosen. I am, &c, Churchman.