The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1878-05-15
ssLer Your Women keep Silence in tho
Churches.'

The Diocesan convention Va Soo'Ai -"
DINA held its annual session III Charles
ton last week. Happy is the people VINO
have no annals, and happy is the church
that has little for its Convention 70 TALK
about. Judging thus. the Episcopallans
in this State are to be congratulated OH
the absence of excited and exciting dis
cussions in the late Convention. lhere
WAS no gnawing at the usual Theological
bones of contention: Ritualism, the Ihlr-
ty-pine Articles, and the Athanaslan
Greed were conspicuous by their absence.
There was not wen a little bit OF clerical
scandal for the laity to roll rs a sweet
morsel under their tongue. Tho pro-
ceedincs were almost entirely formal,
and rather uninteresting, as they chi
braced mainly the customary yearly re-
ports and There was nothing
to enliven the quiet routine until Friday
camc-thc day held sacred by our Saxon
Fore-fathers to the goddess of love, and
dedicated by the Convention to the dis
cussion of Woman's Rights. On that
day theDcommittee on constitution and
canons submitted their report upon the
question of amending Canon ), which re-
lates to annual parish meetings by adding
to it's third clause the following words,
..And at such meetings and elections
none shall vote except male members OF
the age Of 81 years."
Therefrom upsprang 4 lively, long and
learned debate on the subjecto of woman
Rights. Distinguished clergymen and
laymen took part in the interesting dis
cussion on the one side or the other, some
rs the advocates of woman's suffrage,
others as the protectors of woman's ST.
lence, and all as the champions of woman.
DR.. Pinckney as representing the COM
mittee said they deemed the voting OF
women an unwise privilege which was
contrary to the conservative spirit of the
Diocese. Some opposed the amendment
as an interference with the bylaws of the
respective parishes.
, Winnsboro delegate was of the opin-
ion that the amendment was ALLOW aimed
directly at the Ur-country, the effect OF
which would be virtually to silence the
Up-country churches. Poor, oppressed,
maltreated and sensitive Up-country.
Having Just with difficulty parricd the
blows dealt it by Low-country legislators
in Columbia, it finds itself attacked by
Low-country delegates in the courts OF
the Church in Charleston. When Will
the Up-couutry be cured of it's morbid
sensitiveness? 1t was silly enough when
Up-country legislators would fume and
fret if a Low-country member only
crooked his finger or cracked q joke in
the halls of State, but it is pitiful to
see the same petty jealousy exposing it.
self in the Convention of the Church.
What of local or geographical complex
ion the Winnsboro delegate saw III the
amendment passes u powers of vision
and why the Jisfranchizing Of woman
should silence the Up-country churches
exceeds our comprehension. The Up
country woman as we know her "keeps
silence in the churches as deep and
sacred as the ~Low-country woman, and
has as high a regard for the eloquence,
beauty, and 6%ivincness of silence in wo-
man.
Another opponent of the amendment,
looking OH woman as 'the soul and body
of our churches" without whose influence
tive are a dead body" moved to lay it on
the table, but was induced to withdraw
his motion that the question might be
more fully discussed. Several support
ers of the amendment regarded it as a
necessity in view of the advance of "that
terrible doctrine Of woman's rights which
is doing so much evil in the North and
Northwest, and which threatens Xix
some tidal-wave to sweep Over this entire
country" Rev. E. r. Miles thought the
amendment would ''prevent the anomaly
of two persons, who should be one in the
holy bonds of wedlock, appearing in con-
flict before a little parish meeting''-aspec-
tacle which another clergyman had char
acterized as "reyolting."
4hS1StPSll oAOoS q - etN ="
band, aud q bold husband was he, who
scorned the idea that any man should
fear that his wife and daughters would
vote against him, adding in ludicro-heroic
words, ~ am a married man, and I
have not the slightest doubt that Mrs. j.
will vote exactly as do" 1t was unfair
in that fortunate husband to parade his
domestic supremacy before other hus-
bands mayhap not so happily mated /;
unfair also in him to suggest the infer
once that to support the amendment was
to confess ones self hen-pecked. The
same dauntless husband, too, showed
himself utterly devoid of fear of woman
eve when in the form of "maiden ladies
and widows" He claimed that spinsters
should have "a voice in our delibera-
tions' and saw NJ danger to tho church
in this new form Of the widows might ;
and he pledged himself for them that
they will never want to go to Congress or
to be justices of the peace, or even aspire
to bc bishops Or ministers of the Cos
pei"
This comforting pledge did not seem
TO reassurc the conservative delegates.
who from this stage to the close of the
discussion carried everything before
them. By far the strongest and ~clearest
argument made in support of the amend
ment was made by MIR. Memminger who
seems in affairs both of chuHh and state
to be equally wise, equally precise, and
completely at home. The vote was taken
by Orders and resulted in the adoption OF
the amendment by tho unanimous vote
of the clergy and by all but two of the
laity.
Thus promptly and wisely has the
Episcopal Church of this State settled for
the present the vexed question of wo-
mans suffrage, a question of supreme
importance not only to the church but to
society and the State. Rev. E. r. Miles
was right when he said with as much
point and beauty as truth that while sen.
timent is a good thing "sentimeptallv is q
sham" and that ''if you analyze the
opinion of those who are in opposition to
this amendment, you will find that the
residuum will be nothing more than SEN
timentally." And a most dangerous and
deteriorating sentimentality it is. The
$1,000. o,o,,,, IF wop,dp 10 tho man for