NARROW-MINDED CLERICS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8861, 22 October 1907, Page 4

NARROW-MINDED CLERICS.

Clergymen of various denominations often express astonishment and regret at the falling-off of their congregations, and attribute the decline to a variety of causes entirely foreign to the facts. Half a hundred reasons might legitimately be given why the Churches lose hold of the people, prominent amongst which are the fads of the pastors, and the frequent rigid adherence to exploded f alacies. Here is an example. The Vicar of Shaldon, according to a late English exchange, has thought it necessary to call attention, through the columns of his parish magazine, to the "painful duty" imposed upon him at a recent wedding, when he had to request several ladies, who had entered with uncovered heads to leave his church. This ''calling attention" merely emphasises the folly of his act in expelling from his church ladies who were guilty only of overlooking the conditions of the church rubric, which, as likely as not they were unacquainted with. This instance of narrow-mindedness is almost on a par with that of a Church of England clergyman who, a few years ago, in the town of Nathalia, Victoria, denounced the women of his congregation, and all other women, who went to dances as "wantons," and described the ball-room as a "dancing den, where those who attended brushed shoulders with wantons and harlots." When clergymen adopt such a tone, it is not to be wondered at that their congregations fall off.