UNPOPULAR CLERGYMAN

Shannon News, 31 July 1928, Page 1

UNPOPULAR CLERGYMAN

‘ ‘RITUALISTIC PRACTICES 0 NOT ENOUGH VISITING. The Rev. Harold Lawson, rector ef Abbots Morton, a deliglitful village resting in picturesque country b'etwccii Worcester and Evesham, gained some notoriety last year for “excommunicating” certain lady members of his choir and the organ blower. He is in hot water again. • There are many allegations against Lviv. Lawson. They are (1) that the Abbots Morion day school is being closed ‘ ‘ because of the rector’s neglect ’ (2) that the rector is “receiving Protest ant pay for doing Roman Catholic work”; (3) that he is at loggerheads with the villagers, because of his ritualistic practices; (-1) that he never visits his parishioners; (5) .that the church attendance is becoming so small as to be negligible. It is asserted further “that a rector cannot cook his own meals, clean his own house, feed his own hens, share in the responsibility of keeping a pig—no matter how small—road detective stories by the score, make his own bed and efficiently attend to the spiritual needs of his. parish. ” A Remarkable Career. While no formal charges have been made against the rector, those, a newspaper- correspondent stated, were the gist of the. complaints against him in the village. :• Few there were who v kad nice things to say of his church services but many spoke highly of him as a man. And rightly, too. For the Rev. Harold Lawson has lived in the backwqods of Canada and knows what roughing it means. Mr. Lawson’s is a remarkable career. He has been a missioner in Borneo, has written plays and poetry —one of the plays having been produced —he was at the university at the same time as the Earl of Birkenhead, 0. B. Fry, “Ranji” and many other famous members of the Oxford Union. He is, indeed,'a man of many parts. He can cook a meal with the. next best mar, darn socks, wash dishes, repair his clothes, make almost anything with a Meccano set, and work the most, difficult ehessr-problems. ~ Tho correspondent says-:—“ When 1 called tho other-day, at his tiny black and white cottage, I found Him enjoying life to the full. He had just finished making his dinner —cold mutton, boiled potatoes, greens, olives and ihubarb tart—and nothing would content him but that I should share his meal. Over the cold mutton we discussed the affairs of the village. He knew all the allegations better than l—and laughed at them. “Naturally, t-ho- visiting suffers,” said Mr. Lawson. ‘ How could it be otherwise. I never was much of s visitor, anyway, and I don’t really believe in it, so no . great harm is done there.” Then he gave a resume of a day in the life of the rector of Abbots Morton. Puddings and Sormons. If the day be a third Sunday in the month or a week day with an early Mass, Mr. Lawson is out of bed by 6.3 C a.m., and will have had a hasty tidy up downstairs, have raked out and sifted cinders, laid the fire, broken coal drawn water from the well, washed up the dirty pans and pots, brushed boot;and bathed, shaved and said his morn ing prayers before saying Mass. If the day is a Sunday, then at ll a.m. he is back in church, after he hat given breakfast to the server. Ho the. gets ready for Matins, Litany and thSung Mass at 10.30 a.m. After the 1 o’clock Mass he has his own breakfas ;it which usually he is joined by one >r more of the congregation. Then ht has a half-hour’s smoke and chat When his visitors have departed there is washing-up to be done, more watei to be drawn, lamps to be filled, bed to make, potatoes to be peeled. The rector says Evensong with some infirm parishioners. On his return there is a hasty meal to prepare, during the cooking of which the finishing.touches are put to the evening sermon. Some times the rice pudding suffers from over-cooking. “In the opinion of the congregation it is the sermon which becomes overdone,” said the rector. “In consequence, none but myself ap preciutes it. Idiotic as it may sound, I thoroughly enjoy my sermons. “After Evensong there is a supper tq get ready and eat, then a pipe and either a book on mediaeval history or a Roman Catholic service from the British Broadeasting Company. True, the church attendance is still small.” ' Fanciful Picture of the Future.

Mr. tawson went on to draw a fanciful picture. "A man comes to Abbot r s Morton in the year 2000 and finds it in ruins. The place is nothing but a mud-hole. There are three inhabitants left, and the day is Good Friday. These are putting up flags and bunting in the village hut for a whist drive that is to bo held in aid of funds to starve out the parson. He has been dead 50 years.

" When the visitor talks to the villagers about the church, they - gape ■wide-mouthed at him. When he points to the Church tower, which is still of it',as ‘the chimbley' and one remembers hearing some "strange noises coming from the churchyard * like a. thousand . devils roaring

with laughter in between groans, which-, come from the graves. ’ ‘‘ In my magazine this- month I answer their accusations about drawing protest pay for Roman Catholic work. £ tell them that there was a rector hero in 1288, and that is 300 years before Protestantism was heard of. The lands therefore, from which I am drawing some, pay are Roman Catholic still. Closing of the SchooL “On the closing of the school the last word has not yet been said. I think that it is a shame that it has been closed. But of tho m&iltigera I was the only one who held out for it to be kept open. We had about 20 scholars. I think that we are overeducating children to-day. When they leave school to-day, what have they learned! Practically nothing. Listen to the speech of the first of them that calls here. It’s a wicked waste of money. It is quite true we do not get large congregations. That is what I am trying to get in the little stoty J have just given you. ” Some few hours before the writer ealled, Mr Lawson had another visiter. “He was a monk,” said the reetbr. “We had a talk, and he didn’t admire my retreat! He called it The Hermitage. He went after he had said Elis confession.