House of Commons Fixes Easier Date

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 382, 16 June 1928, Page 9

House of Commons Fixes Easier Date

BILL READ THIRD TIME CHURCHES WILL BE HEEDED British Official Wireless Reed, noon. RUGBY, Friday. The House of Commons to-day passed without a division the third reading of a Bill fixing the date of Easter. This date will be the Sunday following the second Saturday in April. The Bill was promoted by Captain R. C. Bourne, Conservative member for Oxford.

Lord Hugh Cecil, Conservative, moved an amendment providing that before the Order-in-Council was made under the Bill, a Secretary of State should certify to the King that he had ascertained that the proposed appointment of a fixed date at Easter would be generally acceptable throughout Christendom, and was approved by the convocations of Canterbury and of York, and the national Assembly of the Church of England.

Sir Vivian Henderson, Under-Secre-tary of the Home Office, objected to this amendment on the ground that it would give power of veto to the bodies with whom the Secretary of State would have to negotiate. Another member, Major J. D. Birchall, opposed the amendment, for the reason that it would he beyond the power even of the versatile Home Secretary to ascertain which would be acceptable to the Christian people throughout Christendom. The amendment was withdrawn, and another more practical amendment was submitted by Sir Henry Slesser, K.C., a Labourite, that before making the order fixing Easter, regard should be had for any opinion “officially expressed” by the Church of England, the Roman Catholic Church, and other Christian bodies. This amendment was adopted.