The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1846-10-06 00:00:00

UNIVERSITY 4.- CLERICAL NEWS.

A new church, one of ten, was consecrated on Wed-
nesday in Birmingham.
Much interest was excited in Cambridge on Sunday
week, by the Bishop of Ely holding his Ordination in St.
Michael's Church during the hour of Divine service, and
the ceremony being performed in " the face of the whole

congrega►ion."
Ti►e congregation of St. Mary's Church, Bootle, are
about to present their late pastor, the Rev. John Glad-
stc,ne. with a silver waiter and a coffee and tea service,
" as a testimony of their respect and regard, and of the
high sense they entertain of his services as minister of the
church during nineteen years." The plate is very ele-
gant, and was manufactured by Mr. Wordley.

RESIGNATION —The Rev. Dr. Scoresby. -the Vicar of
the parish of Bradford, has resigned his charge—a step
which it has been said he has for some time contemplated.
We have not heard the reason of the rev. gentleman's
resignation, nor if he has obtained any other cure. It is
,tared that the Rev. John Burnitt, of St. George's, Mac-
cle.field, will succeed the rev. doctor a' Bradford.
DR. HOOK ON EDOCATION.—The Times of Thursday,
in reviewing the la,t pamphlet of the Vicar of Leeds, has
the following :—" We have read with great amusement
a quotation from a former pamphlet of Dr. Hook, in

which he indignantly condemned the combination he now
recommends ; declaring every expectation of obtaining
unity and concord trozn an unholy mixture of the orthodox
with he, etics' to be as wild and vain, as that which led
dupes of old to seek for gold in the crucible of the

alchemi,t."

THREE GENERATIONS OF CLERGYMEN OFFICIATING
IN THE SAME SERVICE.—On Sunday week, the village of
Croston, Lancashire. witnessed the almost unprecedented

occurrence of three generations of clergymen officiating in
the same service. It was on the occasion of the anniver-
sary sermons for the support of the Sunday Schools con-
nected with the Parish Church. Prayers were read by the
Rev. G. S. Master, 11. A, curate of Ellesmere; his father,
the Rev. R. M. Master, of Burnley; and his grandfather,

the Rev. S. Master, M.A., rector of Croston, officiating
in the Communion Service. Many eyes were bedewed
with the tear of sympathy, when the circumstance was
afterwards alluded to in the sermon.
SEES OF BANGOR AND ST. ASAPH.—A few days since
th,. Bishop of Bangor delivered his charge at Beaumaris,
and in the course of it he to,,k occasion to allude to the
proposed union of the two sees of Bangor and St. Asap!),
a question which the lamented decease of Dr. CAREY,
late Bishop of St. Asaph, must bring to a speedy issue.
His Lordship of Bangor does not appear to entertain any

See, which has been doomed to abolition by our politic

economical rulers; he asserts, however, that he does not
desp it of the anticipations of the friends of the Church,

who would preserve the Welsh Episcopate in all its inte-
grity, being realized. A renewal, therefore, of the stre-
nuous efforts which have hitherto been made to rescue it
from the threatened spoliation, should be vigorously and
honestly promoted. In the mean time, we presume, a
new Bishop of St. Asaph will be appointed; unless minis-
ters should adopt the miserable pro tempore expedient,
which has been suggested to them, of assigning the Epis-
copal care of that diocese to the Bishop of Sodor and Man.

THE RECTORY OF MANCHESTER.:-We beg to inform
the correspondent who has pointed our attention to the
article in the Liverpool Standard, that the canons of
Manchester are not rectors of the parish in the sense of
having cure of souls, but, like other similar dignitaries of
the church, have merely the care of the Collegiate Church.
The parish of Manchester is already divided into districts

for spiritual purposes, and to each a clergyman is ap-
pointed. The canons are only properly styled sectors, as
a layman mis!ht be in consequence of holding the recto-
rial tithes. By the new act there will probably be at no
distant period a bishop, dean, chancellor, archdeacon,
and one canon in residence.—the canons taking the duty
by turns, each for the space of a quarter of a year.—
Manchester Courier. [We have no doubt that the re-
presentation of our contemporary is perfectly correct,
though we cannot exactly reconcile it with that portion
of the " Memorandum" of the Churchwardens of Man-
chester, which expresses their regret at the loss sustained
by the removal of Mr. Parkinson, and the certainty that
the " parish" will suffer in consequence. They also ex-
press their conviction, that " the large parish requires an
increase rather than a diminution of clerical superinten-

dence."]
NEW CHURCHES IN LONDON.—About eieht years ago
the Bishop of London issued his appeal for building fifty
churches in London. Since then nearly the whole fifty
have been consecrated. No further special subscription
has been requested by his lordship, and yet it appears,
from the report of the Church Building Commissioners,
that besides those there are twenty-seven new chinches,
four of which are just completed, and the remaining
twenty-three in various stages of progress, in or near the
metropolis only ; and this in addition to all that had been
done in the twenty years preceding. Nor does this pre-
sent a complete view of what is doing. There are three
churches now building in or near the City Road, and
two are proposed in Islington ; but none of these five find
a place among the above. There may be many others
omitted, in like manner, from various causes. INI,r is
this all. Men will hardly tolerate, now, the mean and
cheap sort of building they were contented with ten years
ago. Stone is now becoming, in almost all cases. the
material used. A few years back, £4,000 or £5,000 was
th.ught a sufficient outlay on a church ;—now £7,000,
£lO,OOO, or even £15,000, is often named as the intended
expense. There is, notwithstanding, little probability,
after all, that the wants of the country will be even mode-
rately supplied. The statistical view of the metropolis,
given by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners in 1836, sta•
ted, that to accommodate one-third of the people, as
many as 271 additional churches would be required. We
certainly have not yet provided, in the ten years which
have elapsed, so many as one-half of that number.

THE TRACTARIANS.—The Warwick Advertiser states
that the Rev. Mr. Bittlestone, curate of the episcopal
chapel at Leamington, has excited the displeasure of the
Bishop of Worcester, by practices inconsistent with the
tenets of the Church of England. Towards the end of
last month, it appears that a young female servant called
upon a clergyman at Leamington, and anxiously inquired
whether he administered the sacrament of absolution.
She was questioned, and then stated that she had attended
the episcopal chapel, and bad been induced, by the urgent
exhortations of the curate, Mr. Bittlestone, to go before
him at his lodgings, for the purpose of confessing her sins.
He there received her in full clerical attire, and, bidding
her kneel down, put into her hand a little book, entitled
" Questions for Self-examination," containing a series of
minute interrogatories upon each of the ten command-
ments, " the seven deadly sins," and " the three great
enemies, the world, the flesh, and the devil." These in-
terrogatories she was directed silently to peruse, and, if
her conscience returned an affirmative answer to any of
them, she was to confess her guilt to him. He also ques-
tioned her whether she had not committed various sins ;
and at length, Inter reading a number of prayers over her,
formally absolved her. This interview lasted an hour and
ten minutes, and at its termination Mr. Bittlestone en-
joined her to return in a month's time, for a repetition of
this " sacrament of absolution." The girl, however, felt
alarmed at the unusual nature of these directions, and
resolved to consult another clergyman of the established
church upon the subject. The result of her disclosures
was, that an app,ication was immediately made to the
Bishop of Worcester. who instituted au investigation into
the affair. As Mr. Bittlestone did not deny the truth of
the girl's statement, the bishop declared that the curate
must desist immediately from such practices, or a com-
mission should be appointed spec•ally to investigate the
whole of the circumstances upon evidence, and if the
facts of the charges were proved, he would be deprived of
his license. Mr. Bittlestone has requested to be allowed
a month for consideration, and this time has been granted
to bim by the bishop. It is stated that several young
persons, some belonging to the upper classes, have been
induced by Mr. Bittlestone to confess to him.