REFORMING THE PRAYER BOOK.

Shannon News, 21 September 1923, Page 4

REFORMING THE PRAYER BOOK.

PROPOSED CHANGE REJECTED. -Proposals to delete the word "obey" from the bride V vow in the marriage service; iWere in the House of Laity of the Church National Assembly at Westminster; recently.

These proposals were contained in a series of amendments moved by Miss Maude Royden and seconded by Mrs. Creighton with.''the object of bringing the vows exchanged in; the marriage service • into better harmony with the position of women to-day." It was proposed to substitute the words, "Wilt thou love him and comfort him?" for the tvords, "Wilt thou obey him and serve him?" to omit the giving of the woman to be married to the man, and to omit the words " With all my:wordly goods I thee endow."

further proposal was to alter the promise to "obey " to a promise to "cherish" and to insert a rubic providing that woman should give a ring to the man.

"A large body, of public opinion is now ready for this change, which is not merely the desire of a few extreme feminists," declared Miss Royden. ‘ ‘ The vow to obey is of an extraordinarily obselete character, and specially inappropriate to the relations of the sexes.

"It is only in the marriage service that so unlimited and absolute a vow is demanded. Man and wife should be placed on terms -of equality. The Church should have taught, that selfcontrol is necessary in marriage, and that the wife's feelings consulted and her will accepted at least as often as the husband's. ‘<l am horrified at the incredible levity with which some people to-day enter into marriage.''

Lord Hugh Cecil said that the service expressed the teaching of St. Paul regarding the family. "He taught the subordination of the wife to. the husband,"- added Lord Hugh Cecil, "but subordination docs not imply any degree of inferiority. A qualified obedience is implied." 1 Mr. Athelstan Riley protested against attempts to make the Bible conform to the modern world instead of the modern world to the Bible. "The Roman and Greek Churches," observed Lord Selborne, "do not insist on obedience. The word "obey" was put into our service at the Reformation. It is out of place in the twentieth century. It cannot be taken in a qualified sense." Two of the amendments were withdrawn, and the others were lost. An attempt by Mr. Mitchell to tamper with the Ten Commandments in the Catechism also failed. He proposed to substitute for the shortened Catechism version of the Commandments the version in the sth chapter of Deutronomy. Miss Maude Royden took exception to the inclusion of "wife" in the Tenth Commandment: — "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife, nor his servant, nor his maid, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is his." "It.is offensive to women that the wife is classed in the same category as a man's ox or his ass," declared Miss Royden. , The motion to omit the shortened version was agreed tq, but the proposed substitution of the version in Deutronomy was defeated. The existing version, therefore, will not be affected.