DISCIPLINED

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 285, 27 July 1932, Page 6

DISCIPLINED

HOLY COMMUNION REFUSED TO WINNER OF IRISH SWEEPSTAKE NATIONAL DETERIORATION. A bombshell was recently dropped in Welsh Nonconformist circles by the disciplinary action adopted by the Tabernacle Welsh Calvinistic M-etho-dist Chapel, at Blaenau Festiniog, toward a lifelong memher who won a prize in the Irish Sweepstake on the Grand National:. The victim is a quarryman, who has a wfire and children. He held a ticket which drew Richmond II. The penalty inrposed hy his chapel is that he shall not receive Holy Communion for six months. Richmond II was scratched and as the victim had previously sold half the ticket, he received only £363. "I consider it is tantamount to excommunication," he said in an interview. "I have been a lifelong member of the chapel, where my father was a deacon and my wife's brother is a deacon at present. I don't bet or gamble, but joined the sweepstake chiefly for fun." On receiving the unexpected news that he had drawn a horse which became the talk of the town, and anticipating trouble, he went to the pastor of the chapel and informed him of his luck. He was told his case was to be considered by the deacons. "A hook given me on hetting and gambling left me 'unconvinced that I had committed any great crime, and when interviewed by the pastor I emphatically refused to give an undertaking not to buy any more tickets." "First Offender." The pastor, when interviewed, denied that the decision of the Church amounted to excommunication. The decision was to he regarded as a disdisciplinary act in view of the fact that the Church definitely opposed sweepstakes and gambling. There were only two dissentients from the decision. "This man has been dealt with as a first offender," he said. "I have acted on the principle that it is clear proof of a nation's deterioration when it resorts to the sensation of gambling to uphold its institutions. I am of opinion that nothing will stem the tide of gambling but the fostering of a healthy public opinion."