THE CHURCHES OF LONDON.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume XIII, Issue 1016, 20 April 1869, Page 2

THE CHURCHES OF LONDON.

A letter appeared in the London Times respecting the state of attendance at the City churches. Every visitor to London must have been struck, as he stands on one of the bridges, with the noble cluster of steeples and towers that shoot up from the mass of buildings eastward of St Paul’s, but he would be more surprised still to find that the churches to which these noble spires belong were all of them empty—as useless for all the practical purposes of religion as a ship from which the tide has ebbed, and left her stranded high and dry on the sands. The correspondent of the Times has been making the tour of these churches, and out of 35 of them he found only one that had a congregation of .TOO. There were ten in which he found from twenty to thirty ; in three the attendance was under ten ; and in one he found himself the only worshipper, when lie beat a hasty retreat, as he could. not stand a whole sermon all to himself. Be very pertinently asks whether these churches, which all support a well paid clergyman, clerk, organist, &c.. could not be taken down, their sites sold, and the proceeds applied to the Bishop of Loudon’s fund for churches in other parts of London. The emptiness of the churches does not arise from any unwillingness of the people to attend them. There are no people. The churches might as well be erected in the Arabian Desert; for the City is becoming every year a mere place of business. The merchants, and those dependent on them, throng the thoroughfares on week days, but in the evening and on Sundays they are at their homes miles away. Here is a clear case made out for disestablishment and disendow meat.