The Sun.
London, England, 1850-12-31 00:00:00

THE RECTOR OF MORPETH AlaD
HIS CHURCHWARDENS.
A somewhat acrimonious correspondence has
recently taken place between the Hon. and Rev.
Francis Richard Grey, the rector of Morpeth, and
the churchwardens of St. Mary, in that parish, rela-
tive to a request made by them to him to discontinue
the practice of chanting the psalms and intoning the
litany and other prayers during the services of the
church.
Mr. Grey, the rector of Morpeth, we may premise,
is a younger brother of Earl Grey, and a brother-
in-law of the Earl of Carlisle, by his marriage with
Lady Elizabeth Howard. On the death of the Rev,
Frederick Ekins, the former rector, in 1842, Mr.
Grey, who was educated at Oxford, was appointed to
the living, of which the patron is the Earl of Carlisle,
and went to reside at the rectory- house there in De-
cember of that year. The great bulk of the
Reverend Gentleman's parishioners reside in the town
of Morpeth, which contains a population of between
icpnt
oouaarrsrmviasnettheisl
4,000 and .5,000, and there are several outlying
oelosf
osfvheaicseh:
i'mtgeae ltsti awodomndehdai
setaihnuion:nit
dhltaeoCi 'f3je kP
ae
ryi,sl'a'reinchtawp.
Sundays. St.
ch
teso
rt
.romurraaorin;
spo,af
trhtheiospf
three
the
onpaffiaes trc
s
church, a fine ancient structure, is situated about a
mile from the town, and thither from time imme-
morial the inhabitants, save such as were Dissenters,
have been wont to repair for divine worship on
Sundays. For the convenience of the parishioners,
however, in inclement weather, there has for a long
time been a chapel of ease situate in the town itself.
On going to reside in the parish, Mr. Grey, it is
but justice to say, entered upon the discharge of his
functions with a laudable degree of zeal:and spirit,
which he has never for a moment relaxed, though it
may not always have been characterized by the
severest prudence,and though he has been:occasionally.
thwarted by some of the parishioners. At his sugges-
tion and partly at his expense the parish church,
which, during the incumbency of his predecessor had
fallen into partial dilapidation, whilst the interior bad
been manifestly disfigured by it perverted taste, under-
went essential repair and a process of decoration, in-
cluding the elevation of the chancel roof, a question-
able improvement by the way. He showed, too, his
regard for the poor by reviving the offertory service
and collection, and by causing a great number of free
sittings to be appropriated to their use within the
church ; and he eventually removed the doors from
the remaining pews so as to do away with the idea
of anything like property in them, and to place the
whole of the parishioners on a level in this respect.
At the same time, he began gradually to introduce a
series of changes into the mode of conducting divine
worship, which at first gave rise to much dissatisfac-
tion among some of the congregation, which has
never been wholly allayed, though the parishioners
generally have ceased to complain, and may be pre-
sumed now to acquiesce in them. The psalms were
chanted, and complicated anthems sung, by a native
choir trained for that purpose; the litany and some
of the prayers were " intoned" by the officiating cler-
gymen; turning to the east during the recital of the
creeds was introduced ; in a word, the service was
conducted much after the manner observed in the ca-
thedrals. To the aged and unlettered Portion of the con-
gregation, especially, these changes in the service oc-
casioned much perplexity and discontent ; fur, as
might have been expected, many of them were wholly
unable to join in the chants, simple though they
mostly were. The result was, that some, though only
a few, left the church altogether, whilst a few others
attended the churches in the adjacent parishes, where
the service was more in accordance with their taste;
but the great body of the parishoners continued to
attend the ministrations of their rector. Those
changes took them the more by surprise, inasmuch,
as during the incumbency of Mr. Grey's predecessor,
extending through a long series of years, the service was
conducted with primitive simplicity. An appeal was
made to the Bishop of Durham, within whose diocese
Morpeth is situate, by a few of the parishoners to
forbid the chanting ; but that appeal was unsuccessful,
and the objectionable practices were continued with
little, if any, mitigation.
The rector found the chapel of ease in the town
a somewhat dilapidated and unpretending building,
and he conceived the idea of supplanting it by the
erection of a magnificent structure in another part of
the town. This he achieved partly by his own libe-
rality, and much more by the amazing amount of zeal
he evinced in procuring contributions from others.
The foundation stone of that church, called St.
James's, was laid by the Earl of Carlisle, and for
sometime past divine service has been performed daily
within its walls. Whilst this church was in the course
of erection the rector bad recourse to the extraordi-
nary step of holding the Sunday evening service in
the County Courthouse in the town, which presented
a singular spectacle on those occasions, the jury-box,
the bench, the counsel's seats, the dock, and the gal-
leries, being indiscriminately occupied by the congre•
gation.
Towards the Dissenters in the town, who are in
the aggregate a numerous body, consisting principally
of Presbyterians, Indeper.dents, and Wesleyans, the
rector and some of his curates have always deported
themselves in a way greatly to offend their feelings—
treating them as schismatics, without the slightest
chance of salvation, and regarding the baptism of
their children by Dissenting ministers as absolutely
invalid and inefficacious.
With the view of accommodating those of his
parishioners who disapproved of the choral service,
some time ago the rector caused the service on Sun-
day mornings, the first Sunday in every month ex-
cepted, to be held simultaneously at the parish church
and at St. James's, at the former of which the chant-
ing the psalms and the prayers was discontinued.
The choral, service, however, was retained at St.
James's, and thither by far the greater number, per-
haps, of the parishioners go on Sunday mornings when
they have to choose between that and the " plain ser-
vice" at the parish church.
To return to the published correspondence between
the rector and the churchwardens of St. Mary, it
appears that on the 9th inst. the latter made a per-
sonal application to him to discontinue the chanting
the creed and the psalms in the parish church on the
first Sunday in the month and in St. James's Church
every Sunday ; and they bad been emboldened to
make this request after the perusal of certain
"suggestions" to laymen for putting down Roman-
izing practices in churches, which had been forwarded
to them in their official capacity by the Duke of
Manchester, as chairman of the National Club, and
which " suggestiona" they were ingenuous enough to
show to the rector. The, day following this interview
the Reverend Gentleman wrote a letter (subsequently
published by him) to Mr. James Hudson, the senior
churchwarden, in which he refused to discontinue the
choral service at St. James's Church. But he states,
at the same time, that " the service on the first Sun-
day in the month, except upon great festivals of the
Church, will be a plain service," in order to meet the
wishes of " a few among the communicants." He
further states that "Mr. Churchwarden King," at the
interview referred to, admitted that the churchwar-
dens would not have made the request they had done
to him but for Lord John Russell's letter to the
Bishop of Durham, from which he infers that
the request had not its origin in " a pa-
rochial movement," though it might become
one. The rector then proceeds—" I do not see what
right foreign extra-parochial agitators, however high
in office or in rank they may be, have to interfere in
n plain words,
my parish. Ido not see why we should give their
suggestions a moment's consideration. I
I do not recognise Lord Jobn Russell, as the Prime
Minister, or his Grace the Duke of Manchester, as the
chairman of the National Club, as having any autho-
rity of any kind whatever, ecclesiastical or civil, in
the parish of Morpeth. * I should, however,
office and in rank, and to walk in the pat which they
be sorry to follow the example set by those high in
h
have pointed out—the path of agitation and strife. On
the contrary, as in duty bound, I will do all that I
with all men, especially to pre-
serve in this parish the peace which has continued,
can to live peaceably
with no interruption worth mentioning, ever since I
came into residence on Dec. 17, 1842."
The churchwardens have published a reply, in
which they deny that " Mr. Churchwarden King"
,
attributed the request of himself and his colleagues
to have the choral services discontinued to the
publication of Lord John Russell's. letter. To
in
this, the rector, in a letter rejoinder,
dated the 12th inatant, reiterates his
King's"
former
statement respecting " Mr. Churchwarden
admission, and adds, " the impression on my memory
of what took place is so lively, that I should not be
afraid to take an oath in the most solemn way, in a
make the admission which I have stated him to have
court of justice, that Mr. Churchwarden King did
made in my letter." He then invites the " special
attention" of Mr. Churchwarden Douglas, one of the
deputation to him to request a discontinuance of the
chanting, to the circumstance of his having, along
with other of the parishioners, in December, 1846,
signed an address to him (the Rector), approving of
the choral service, and requesting that it might be
continued. The Rector concludes his letter in these
terms :—" I wish to remind you that you and your
colleagues are the churchwardens of St. Mary's
Church, not of St. James's. It is your duty to see
that all things are done decently and in order in St.
Mary's Church. With the mode of worship in St.
James's, you have no more authority to interfere
,han any other parishioner." So the matter rests for
he present.

--- -
RUTLAND STATUE.—We have the pleasure to an-
nounce that the casting in bronze of the Rutland Statue has
been completed, and most successfully. The statue is now in
effect finished, and all that remains is to set it up in its place.
In the present state of the Market-place, however, the erec-
tion of the statue must necessarily be delayed until the com-
pletion of the new Market-house— a delay which will be
fully compensated for by the exhibition of the statue among
the works of art in the great crystal Palaceicester
Jouqal.