RITUALISM IS LONDON.

Thames Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2833, 14 March 1878, Page 2

RITUALISM IS LONDON.

A correspondent of the Fill Mall Gazette asks whether the Bishop of Loo* don is awtre of the extraordinary .tod unwarrantable services which wen held in some of the ehurchei of the metropolis on All Souls' Day. In several instances, as at St. Mary -the Virgin V Prianbse Hill, the, function formed a strange mix* ture of Popery and Paganism, the reading out of a long list of the departed, for the peace of whose souls rctereessidn '"• was requested, being performed in a chancel denuded of its ornaments and draped in black. At; the ehnroh in question, this strange ceremony followed immediately upon the evening service of All Saints' Day, and caused not a little as* toniahment to the uninitiated members of the congregation. The Bishop has, wo understand, already been in communica* tion with Mr. Fmler, the clergymrn "serving in this church, in reference to the extraordinary ritual adopted within' itl walls, and as the.congregation are said to support their, priest in his disinclination to give way, there is every profcaluMHjthat the Bishop will be eompefflm^tt'take the extreme step of withdrawing the license, of the curate in charge. We hope, thii matter will open the eyes of memljrs of the Church of 'Eiig. lond in South Australia who have hitherto been willing id follow on An the quiet tenor of their way, without one word against the rise and progress of Bitualism in this the Knd we live in. And again :— Can the Bishop of London be aware that in many of the churches of his diocese, All Souls' Day is a recognised holy day of the Church of England P At a Westend, church lately, the clergyman .read a list of names of deceased persons for the tepose ef whose soulb the prayers of the congregation were invited; and this church has not the reputation of being ultra-ritaalist. Should certain clergymen revive a day deliberately expunged from. the Calendar at the Reformation P It has not the sanction of ■' primitive usage," or " Catholic consent," having been instituted as Jate'as the close of the tenth century, and originated in some alleged visions of a monk ( ,in,Sicily, and other superstitious legeuds^Protestaut Advo» cate: ' "