Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-05-31
THE CONFESSIONAL
No Place in the Episcopal Church
Service.
BISHOP PARETS TALK TO THE CLERGY
Annual Diocesan Convention at
Baltimore.
SHOP PAREFS TALK TO THE CLERGY
WHAT WAS DONE YESTERDAY

WHAT WAS DONE YESTERDAY
The third annual Maryland diocesan con-
vention Of the Protestant Episcopal Church
was begun yesterday morning in Emmanuel
Church, at Baltimore. The opening service
of morning prayer was conducted by Bishop
Paret He was assisted by Rev. DIR. ]. II.
Eccleston, rector of the church, and Arch
deacon T. E Gambrail of Curtis Bay. The
Bishops annual address to the clergy of
the diocese occupied the place of the sermon
in the service.
The Bishops Address.
The address Of Bishop Paret was in part
as follows:
II must bring before you a subject with
very great sorrow, but under very strong
convictions of duty. Almost ten years have
passed since God called me to the Office OF
bishop of Maryland. There have been diver
stiles OF opinion and there always will be.
and so long as these diverse opinions do not
pass the limits set by the creeds, the ar
ucles, the prayer book and the church's
other definitions. and so long as they are not
in preaching or in practice forced upon souls
as matters of obligation. such opinions are
/ TO be tolerated. But there are limits; there
| is law.
The Oath of the Priest.
I'm the hour OF my conservation 1 made
the vow TO promise conformity and obedi-
ence to the doctrine. discipline and worship
of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the
United States Of America. And no man can
enter the ministry. even in its lowest grade.
without masking. though not in the form of
an explicit oath, similar declaration.
! These words are very precise and clear.
They set forth no indefinite standard. Every
bishop priest or deacon is bound by them.
lie may not substitute for them his own or
any other mans ideas of what was true
doctrine. discipline and worship In the early
times. even II those ideas be founded on
sound historical studies. He may not sub
stitute for them his own or any other mans
| IDEAS OF what would be better doctrine dis
cipline or worship for these later times and
the needs OF the present age.
| When the law Is clear and plain and
! transgression comes to the bishops knowl-
edge it is his duty to warn and to correct;
| to see that the law Is respected.
| Il cannot understand the spirit OF those
| who are forever carping at canons and
rubrics. as IL the very names were disagree
able. thank God that we have them: that
the church has been and is so careful. so
lovingly careful. in directing me; that IL
does not leave me TO myself. that il has pre-
scribed holy forms and tells me plainly how
! to use them: that IL has treasured up for
us, in careful directions. the fruit of ages
4 Of. holy ekFerfenes. / cannot understand
y those who are always burning with desire
to break through or climb over these pro-
Is not a restraint to liberty, but it's security;
security, however, TO those who obey II.
One of the strongest words used in holy
writ for naming wickedness is anomia. law
lessness, the defiance. the disliking. the dis
obeying. the neglecting. the despfsing of
law, and the modern name for anomie is
anarchy.
short Services Deprecated.
lone of the pleas by which the demand
for the revision of the prayer book was
/ fha EOS
Permission to shorten was called for, and it
was given. but it was given very carefully,
and after fullest comparison Of views The
conditions under which the exhortation,
confession and absolution might be omitted
We're most precisely stated as were also the.
conditions under which certain final prayers
might be left out. III these were followed. /
am sure the services would be found quite
as short as is consistent with reverence and
reality, and quite as short the people
WISH
But the hunger for abbreviation is not
satisfied, and clergymen have been invent
ing for themselves ten-minute services as
substitutes for the morning evening
prayer. But the laymen and women do not
want these very short services.
! Brethren, when you shorten the morning
or evening prayer by reading only one les
son, or in any way without great reason IL
1t is debasing the ideal and standard of true
worship. 1t is departing from one of our
most sacred and beautiful traditions. 1t is
dishonoring the word of God, and UNDER
mining mems reverence for it.
| again. there was call for new services
Tor liberty to have something besides
morning prayer, evening prayer. litany and
holy communion; forms for special occa-
sfons or liberty to provide such forms or
freedom In using the prayer book. The call
was answered. New forms were provided
and directions given by which a guarded
liberty was granted for special occasions
| mo prayer meeting. whether with written
or extemporaneous prayers, is to be a sub
sutute Tor what the prayer book calls for.
So II the morning and evening prayer have
been said or are to be said, then, not
otherwise, comes permission for special SER
vice. But still. under conditions II must be
made up from the prayer book The church
adds one condition more She is not willing
that the making and using and multiplyin ing
OF such irregular or special services should
be left to each clergyman's individual dis
| erection or indiscretion. She recognizes the
church as episcopal in something more than
name. and defends the bishops authority
and emphasizes his duty to guard the rev
erence ana dignity OF worship 10y declaring
all this subject TO the bishops direction.
Open Churches Every Day.
IF, after following the church's own holy
order and using all her rich provisions. YOU
really need more. and your spiritual wants
are not satisfied. IL your guilds and brother
| hoods cannot tell their praises and speak
] their wants by attendance in a body at one
| of the regular services, which would be IA r
the better way, be sure, / beg of you that
the need is real one before you act and
| II you do act let it be exactly as the prayer
book bids. But first try the churcn's full
order. Let your churches, especially in the
| city, stand open every day and all day
long. Do not let the often needless machin-
cry Of multiplied organization so fill your
hours that you have no time TO say morn
ing and evening prayer.
The Communion Service.
But If there be any part of the prayer
book more sacred than the rest, and to be
more scrupulously studied and obeyed, it is
the office for the administration of the holy
communion, and yet 1t is known that under
the plea OF haste, of WEAKNESS, of want of
time. Of frequent repetition, of crowded
services. some Of the clergy are shamefully
and irreverently mutilating and corrupting
that molly service.