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ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE
ST. LAWRENCE CHURCH.
To the Editor of the Australian.
SIR,— I am sure that you, in common with every
right-minded member of the Church of England,
must feel pained at the recent newspaper dis-
cussion, on the subject of certain matters
ritual, architectural, and historical," connected
with the above place of public worship. The
cause of such discussion is, I think, to be de-
plored ; while the tone of some portion of the
correspondence is highly reprehensible. These
considerations, together with the unsatisfactory
explanations given by those from whom they are
required, induce me to renew a subject, which
deeply concerns every individual in communion
with the Protestant Reformed Church.
The case stands thus: certain Laymen in the
parish of St. Lawrence having observed, with
regret, that changes had been made in a part of
tho celebration of Divine service in the before
mentioned Church, put, through the public Press,
the following questions, with the view to obtain
adequate explanation thereon.
"Upon the Church of St. Lawrence,* now in
the course of erection, are placed two crosses:
and, in the performance of that part of the
service, the sermon is preached by the Minister,
in a surplice, and not in his gown."
"Are the crosses and surplice used under
proper authority?"
"Are they not indications of Puseyism?"
"Who was St. Lawrence?"'
''The omission of singing after the Communion
service is felt to be a great deprivation."
Now, these, were proper inquiries to make,
and, if any competent person vouchsafed an
answer, it should have been ample and
courteous— becoming Christian men, A Con-
servative Layman, however, puts himself forward
as the respondent, and, with amazing pertness,
"talks an infinite deal of nothing!" His
flippancy about the "grilling" of St. Lawrence
is heartless vulgarity. The Parish Minister
next appears — certainly in a more temperate,
more gentlemanly style than the Conservative
Layman — but altogether shirking the question :
and, while I acknowledge his Reverence's
epistolary -superiority to his incompetent apolo-
gist, I cannot altogether acquit him' of arrogance,
e.g., "if the person really wants information
upon these subjects, on which he is evidently at
present most unaccountably ignorant, &c. ;
and "I am surprised to find there should be one
individual so void both of good feeling, and good
sense, as to make anonymous inquiries through a
newspaper."
Sir, the press seems to me to be the proper
mode of instituting inquiries on so important a
topic, although I cannot but lament that the
late unhappy schisms in the Church, at home,
should, in the smallest degree, be transplanted
into this Colony. But that absorbing topic was
discussed, and satisfactorily settled, mainly, if
not entirely, through the instrumentality, of the
Newspaper Press ; and I cannot, perhaps, better
illustrate my own views in this matter, than by
quoting a resolution adopted at Exeter by nearly
2,000 Churchmen, at a public meeting in the
Guildhall, the mayor presiding.
That this meeting regards with deep regret,
and painful apprehension, the attempted revival,
by some of the clergy, of obsolete ritual observ-
ances and usages, unsuited to the present time,
in nowise essential to vital religion, repugnant
to the deeply rooted protestant feelings and
principles of the laity, and, therefore, endanger
ing our Church, as by law established ; and this
meeting, considering that the evils and dissensions
prevailing, and increasing in our Church, are
mainly attributable to such attempted revivals of
obsolete rubrics and conflicting laws, resolves to
seek, by every constitutional means, the redress
of the grievances and evils before referred to."
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