REFUSAL OF RITES TO NON-CHURCHGOERS

Rotorua Morning Post, Issue 5290, 31 December 1946, Page 5

REFUSAL OF RITES TO NON-CHURCHGOERS

No Marriage or'Baptisms - For Lax Members - " BRiSBANE, Dec. 29. The rites of marriage and burial should be refused to Anglicans who «t> not worship regularly, it is rccoramended by a group of Anglican^clergymen. It is proposed that baptiiii;.^ should be similarly restrjcted. \ The Archhishop of Brisbane,' Dr. Jialse, said th-e suggestions. in the xorm of a reportYjjy a sub-committee iccently appointedi to consider the nuestion of church diseipline, were part of a general ' attempt to overcome laxity among members. The sub-committee of six clergymen was uppointed at the last Archbishop's conference of clergy drawn from the Erisbane-Ipswich area. The matter will be considered further at the next Archbishop's conference, probably in Eebruary. After recommending that baptism of a child. should he refused where r.either parent attends worship, that church marriage should be refused where neither party is fulfilling the duty of worship, and that is "a farce and not charity to read the burial service over one who has persistently separated himself from the fellowship of the church, and to refer to him as our dear.brother here departed," the report suggests that communion three tirnes a year, including Easter, should be adopted as the minimum tesfc of the duty of a church member.