New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1885-06-02
THE VILL1GE CATHEDRAL.

The building erected by MIS-. Stewart IN
memory of her husband is TO be cOnsecrated to-
day rs n cathedral. No such result us this was
anticipated by tho great merchant when he
planned Il city with gardens in the barren waste
of Hampstead Plain lie was IA practical man.
He was making what he considered would prove
n shrewd real estate investment. AT the same
time he hoped to enable families of moderate
means to live in comfortable rural homes within
n short distance of the metropolis. He had these
ends in view when he made the purchase ; and
il is probable that he contemplated building
auiet country church in the centre of the
village. He would have been amazed if anyone
with clairvoyant intuitiOns had limited that
series of novel ecclesiastical establishments
would he founded on the broad avenues where
he was planting OIse-chestnuts and naples
that n costly cathedral would be opened with
imposing ceremonies in place of the rural church
which he had planned that huge pile of brick
and mortar would bear the name of the
Cathedral School; and that another structure
contrasting strangely with each in architectural
effects would be bishops residence, or
technically n sce-house. Mr. Stewart would
have been amazed, because lie was a.plain maj,
and hard and practical in his ideas. If he had
lived he would have built great many cottages
and possibly one or two small churches in
Hampstead Plain. A cathedral would not have
found a place in his closely calculated real
estate investment
This is not the only anomaly in connection
with to-days conservation services. The
Cathedral is to be dedicated for religious and
diocesan purposes by a Bishop who has recently
made n mastery plea in favor of cities rs the
true centres of intellectual influence and re-
ligious and missionary work. Bishop Little
Johns address tn the Episcopal Convention OF
Long Island fortnight ago was largely taken
ND with an eloquent recital of the religious
needs of Brooklyn. He demonstrated that that
city had only one place of worship to each 2,c2l
people, lower proportion than any other city
in the country. He directed attention to the
fact that there were four wards with an aggre-
gate population of 100000 in which there was
not n single church represented IN that c0nVen-
ton and that in one OF those wards, where
there were 80, 900 souls other religious bodies
had eleven places of worship, and the Episcopal
Church neither mission nor Sunday school. No
more stirring appeal no more impressive argu-
ment in behalf of church extension in great
centres of population has been heard in this
generation than this address And the Bishop
who with n deep sense of the urgent necessity OF
building churches in the waste places OF popu-
lous city cited Apostolic precedentS, As well as
plain. unvarnishcd statistics, is to-day TO con-
sccrate n cathedral in n country village OF
seyenty-fve houses! With "A population OF
fifty thousand in n single Brooklyn ward with
out a single church OF his communion, he dedi-
Gates nineteen miles from the city line costly
cathedral where services are to be rendered by
clergy and supplied choir at an expense of
81 ., 900 year.
One of the remaining anomalies of to-day's
religious event cannot be definitely stated. The
cathedral system has been attempted in seven
or eight dioccses of the Episcopal Church in this
country. In each instance tho cathedral is
little more than the Bishops church. In
several cases there is clergyman in charge
known as the Dean; in one or two there Is
n Chancellor or a Canon but in effect 1t
is only n feeble imitation of the English
system. The arrangements To be made IN
Garden City have not been announced. The
office of Dean is unknown in the general canon
law of the Protestant Episcopal Church and
wherever il is instituted it has only the sanction
of diocesan statutes. In this instance govern
ing chapter composed of members of various
committees, numbering forty have been IN
vested with the power of accepting or rejecting
nomination when made by the Bishop.
Various proposals have been made for reylv-
inc other English offices, notably those OF Arch
deacon and Canon, but no definite action has
been taken. 1t seems predetermined whether
these limitations of the English Cathedral sys-
tenn can be adapted to the practical require
ments Of an American dioccse-especially when
the cathedral is in village.
The president of the broken Penn Bank, contrary
10 the prophecies of his enemies and in obvious
coptradistIncton to tho long established usage of