New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1899-05-15
DIR. BRIGGS MADE PRIEST.
NO PROTEST AT THE ORDINATION
SERVICE.
CEREMONY IN THE PRo-CATHE-
ORAL IN sTANToN-sT - THE
REV. DIR. GEORGE WILLIAM
DOUGLAS breaches
The SERMON

THE SERMON
Without a single voice being raised in protest,
the Rev. Dr. Charles A. Briggs was yesterday
morning ordained priest OF the Protestant
Episcopal Church. Despite the great amount of
opposition which had been manifested by many
ministers and laymen of the Church to the ad-
vancement of Or. Briggs. when Bishop Potter
asked the prescribed question as to whether
any impediment was known for which the can
didate should not be received into the Church.
pausing momentariy to give any one who so
desired a chance to object to the ordination.
word OF dsapproval was forthcoming. IL
was stated in yesterdays Tribune that none OF
the ministers who have been prominent in urg-
Ing that DR.. Briggs should not be received into
the priesthood would interfere in any way with
the ceremony.
The possibility not overlooked, however,
that, in view of the feeling which has been
widely aroused, some individual priest or lay
man, acting within his own individual right,
might rise in the body OF the congregation and
make formal charge Of heresy against DR..
Briggs. But nothing OF the sort happened. No
bar OF any kind was raised against the entrance
of Dr. Briggs into the Protestant Episcopal
priesthood. The whole service smoothly
as though his fitness for the priesthood had
never been brought into question.
THE CHURCH SOON FILLED.
The ordination ceremonies took place yester.
day morning in the Pro-Cathedra No 130
Stanton-st. Nearly an hour before the time
named for the beginning of the service almost
every seat was occupied 1t was not long before
every inch OF seating space had been taken by
between six hundred and seven hundred people
OBJ "
refused. The congregation which assembled was
not of the character usually seen in a Stanton
ST. place of worship. For the most part 1t was a
well-dressed fashionable congregation. Many OF
them came in carriages Perfectly equipped
broughams and liveried coachmen some
what OF an incongruity amid the surroundings
of Stanton-st, and the presence OF these equi-
pages and a squad of policemen. under the per-
sonal command OF Inspector Cross. stationed
around the entrance to the Pro-Cathedral made
It evident to the residents OF that locality that
something out of the ordinary was to take place.
Throughout the service big crowd OF curious
East Siders stood about the building. while
every window in the tall tenement houses
the opposite side of the street held from one
to half dozen occupants. Probably not one In
hundred of these people had the least COM
prehenslon or the slgnlncahce or What was TAX
ing place within the church Now and again
some one in the crowd would ask a policeman
or person able to reply 10 the question what
was going on in the Pro- Cathedral, but the in
formation that DR.. Briggs was being ordained
as a rule conveyed nothing to the inquirer.
And yet, despite the efforts OF the police 10
keep the throngs moving they filled the street
for three hours, apparently in the expec-
fancy Of witnessing something extraordinary.
but with no well-forme idea Of just what the