The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1853-10-25 00:00:00

DISGRACEFUL SCENE IN ST.
JUICE-ABE' S CHURCH.

Orr Sunday a circumstance, thoroughly disgraceful to
the parties concerned, took place at St. Michael's Church, '
Pitt-street, in this town. As in all such cases, the truth
is overlaid by an immense amount of misrepresentation,
to use the mildest phrase. We give the accounts pub-
lished by our contemporaries, and subjoin a statement
from a correspondent, who appears to be well informed on
the subject, and on whom we believe reliance may be placed.
The Albion says :—" Yesterday two scenes, happily as
rare as they are painful, took place in St. Michael's Church,
in this town, an establishment which all diligent perusers
of the recently-published Borough Fund well know is the
property of the Corporation. From what we gather, it
seems that, for some time past, a disagreement on doctrinal
points has existed in this church between the two minis-
ters, the Rev. Mr. Carpenter and the Rev. Cyrus Morrell,
the congregation in general siding with the former. The
disputes have mainly arisen from the recent sermons and
proceedings of the Rev. C. Morrell, who is accused of having
a leaning towards Puseyism. His sermons have been sent
to the Bishop of Chester, accompanied by the indignant
comments of some of the members of the congregation,
while, on his part, the Rev. Mr. Morrell complained also
to his diocesan of the doctrines urged in some sermons
by his fellow-minister. Respecting Mr. Carpenter's, we
are informed that his lordship said, "he could see no
fault in them, and he wished every clergyman of the
establishment would preach as good ones." Though
frequently urged to take some decisive steps to put a stop
to these scandalous proceedings, his lordship is said to
have replied that he could not legally interfere, the baffled
congregation, finding that ecclesiastical law, like other
and more common descriptions of law, is susceptible of
being stretched to a wonderful extent without being
broken. Matters have remained in this state for several
months past, when a fresh cause of dissension was intro-
duced by the Rev. Mr. Morrell, in the person of the Rev.
Mr. Pughe, of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields. During the last
week, at the request of his congregation, the Rev. Mr.
Carpenter introduced an afternoon service for the special
benefit for those who objected to the Rev. Mr. Morrall's
proceedings, but, from some cause or other unexplained to
us, the Rev. Mr. Morrell has lately introduced the Rev.
Mr. Pughe to preach in the afternoon. The views of this
gentleman, urged, we believe, with great talent, are what
is termed " extreme High Church," and they have finally
brought to a head these lamentable disputes. For
the last three Sundays the Rev. Mr. Pughe has
preached from the same text, " Baptism doth also now save
us," Ist Peter, in. chap. 21st verse, his views on the
vexata questio of baptism being thosel approved by the
Bishop of Exeter, and so notoriously introduced in the
Gorham dispute. Finding that they could obtain no legal
redress, the congregation determined to take matters
into their own hands, by leaving the church en masse
when either of the offending ministers preached, and
yesterday they carried their intentions into effect
for the first time. In the morning the church,
which latterly has presented a beggarly account of
empty pews, once well filled, was attended by the usual
number of worshippers, who listened with attention to the
prayers read by the Rev. H. Carpenter. At the conclusion
of that portion of the service, the Rev. Cyrus Morrall as-
cended into the pulpit and gave out his tezt,thebehaviour
of the congregation being all the time most exemplary ;
but no sooner did the preacher speak the first words of his
sermon, than at least two-thirds of the congregation sud-
denly rose, and as quietly as possible left the church.
Such a strange peoceedinF created the greatest excitement
amongst those who were ignorant of its cause. The rev.
gentleman in the pulpit appeared to be taken somewhat by
surprise also; for he changed colour, and for a brief time
appeared exceedingly nervous. He took his, text from the
23d chapter of Ezekiel and the 11th verse; but in his sermon
he made no allusion to the singular events which had taken
place. A considerable crowd of people surrounded thechurch
at the termination of the services, the eventsof the morning
forming the principal topic of conversation. In the after-
noon the prayers were again read by the Rev. Mr. Carpen-
ter,—the Rev. Mr. Morrell sitting in a pew, and the Rev.
Mr. Pughe in the communion. The sermon was preached by
the latter gentleman, and the scenes of the morning were
re-enacted; for no sooner did he give out the text, on which
he had been preaching for the three preceding Sundays,
than the greater portion ofthecongregation left the church,
in the same manner as in the morning. The rev. gentle-
man appeared nothing daunted, for, after calmly waiting
till the noise caused by the departing congregation had
subsided, he quietly resumed his discourse, which, from
the little we heard of it, appeared to be of a highly contro-
versial character. The sermon in the evening was
preached by the Rev. Mr. Carpenter, to a large and re-
spectable congregation. He made no allusion to the events
of the day. The prayers were read by the Rev. Mr. Mor-
rell, who, at their conclusion, abruptly left the church.
We understand that the congregation aredetermiued to act
in a similar manner every Sunday, till the doctrines
preached in the church are more in accordance with
their ideas ; but it is to be hoped that the enemies of the
Established Church will not again be afforded opportuni-
ties of witnessing any rejoicing at such scenes, which are
painful to all who value that peace and good-will amongst
men,' which is one of the primary doctrines of Christianity
itself, and the practice of which is more especially binding
on those who profess to be its exponents."
The Northern Times says :--- Yesterday afternoon a
scene of a most unusual and painful nature took place at
St. Michael's Church, Pitt-stteet. The incumbents of St.
Michael's are the Rev. Cyrus Morrall, and the Rev. H.
Carpenter, the former belonging to what is known as the
High Church or Puseyite party, the latter to the Evan-
gelical party. For some considerable time a misunder-
standing has existed between Mr. Morrall and a section of '
his congregation, who did not concur in his views, and
placards have been posted in the neighbourhood of Pitt
street, announcing the loss of a promising young preacheri:
any person returning him will be rewarded with an empty
pew. In consequence of the dispute to which we have
adverted, it would appear that an arrangement was come
to, that the Rev. Mr. Bardsley was to assist at the
services in St. Michael's on Sunday. Some views of Mr.
expressedorrll,
afrothme tlhaetteprulgpenitilenmoatnagreein,
as
wegkarnwitli
those,
refused
allow Mr. Bardsley again to officiate, and
engaged n his Morrell,
place the curate of St. Mark's, who is also
Bardsley,
of
to
m r.
supposed to be favourable to Puseyism. This. appoint-
ment, however, did not meet with the sanction of the
Churchwardens Mr. Alderman Lawrence and Mr. Council-
lor Wagstaff, and several of their friends immediately rose
and left the church in an abrupt manner. A portion of
the congregation, not aware of the cause of this movement,
became alarmed, and something like a cry of fire was
raised. The result was, that the entire congregation
rushed from the church, and the scene which ensued was
more exciting than edifying. A foreign gentleman who
was passing at the time, expressed, in very strong lan-
guage, his surprise at the scene he had witnessed. Some-
thing like a repetition of the scene occurred in the after-
. noon."