The Savannah morning news., 1903-08-20
NEW WAY TO KNEEL
ORDER OF WORSHIP FOR METHO-
DIsTs SAYS MUST FACE PULPIT.
POSITIONS WHEN PRAYING
REGARDED BY SOME AS RETURN
TO CHURCH OF ENGLAND.

Movement Was Started in Effort to
Unite Two Divisions of Church.
Local Ministers When Consulted
Hold Varying Opinions as to Adj
visibility of Adopting RecOmmen-
datiOns-Rev. A. M. williams Holds
Changes Are Not Radical and Are
OptiOnal-Rev. Christian and Rev.
Smith Are Opposed to New Order
as 1t Now stands.
The commission composed of repre-
sentatives of the Methodist Episcopal
Church and the Methodist Episcopal
Church. South, which met to formulate
a new order of service and at last
succeeded in reaching an agreement
has been the subject OF special interest
among Methodists for the last few
weeks, and the results of the work
done by the commission have come in
for goodly- share of criticism both.
favorable and unfavorabIe. .
Two features of the new order are
considered in many sources as pos
sessing a decidedly Protestant Episco-
pal tinge and they will no doubt Gre
ate considerable surprise among the
adherents of the churches concerned.
The commission asks that all worship
pers kneel in prayer upon entering the
church to attend a service, and that
the congregation kneeL, facing the min
lister Whenever the latter Engages in
prayer.
The phraseology Of the paragraphs
of the new order setting forth these
changes is as follows: :
Let all our services begin exactly
at the hour appointed, and let all our
people kneel in silent prayer on en-
tering the sanctuary. re- .ee9
9Let all the people be2exhorted to
-kneel in prayer, keeping their faces
toward the minister" e.. -.
With the exception of these two fea-
lures and the introduction OF one or
two minor ones the order Of the serv-
ices is the same as that now in use by
the churches. -
Regarded Too RituaIistic.
Both of the new customs proposed
are in use among the Protestant Epis-
some have looked upon them as
return to the Church of England. In
many places the habit of engaging in
silent prayer upon entering the church
has been practiced by Methodists, but
this is the first time that it has been
especially urged as a church custom.
Devout Mcthodists have always been
accustomed to kneel whenever the
minister prays, but heretofore they
10. 60 Il,
they were sitting. The recommended
ton that the people kneel facing the
minister is therefore a decided innova-
tion and enc which is in many places
regarded as long step toward a re-
turn to the Church of England. Opin-
ions differ considerably on the advisa-
biilty of adopting the new order of
service, come being ardent admirers
of 1t and others being just as strong
ly opposed to it.
The Christian Advocate of Nashville.
Tenn, the organ of the Methodist
Church in the South has thus far. re-
fused to take any ground either for or
against the new order, claiming that
as yet the commission has not vet
made public its report and that the re-
ports OF the new order as given in the
secular press are wrong. The rea-
son given for the commission still
WrnhOiQlng ltS report is that they were
in doubt as to whether or not their ac-
ton was final or as to whether they
must first secure the Endorsement of
the general conference of the two
branches OF the church,
What savannah Ministers Say,
Among the Savannah ministers there
is also considerable of a variance in
opinions, though in some quarters.
there is leaning toward turning down
the recommendations of the joint COM
mission. A representative of the
Morning News called on several of the
local ministers and asked their opin-
ion of the new order of services.
Rev. A. M. Williams seemed to be
heartily in favor of the new rules of
order and In speaking of the matter
said, among other things:
I'm the first place there is nothing.
radical in the changes that have been
made in the order of services, and.
further, in addition to this, all of the
new features are optional. AS for the
practice of kneeling when entering the
church and engaging in silent prayer,
many Of our people are in the habit
of doing so now, and the practice was
one which was general In the early
days of Methodism.
LAS for return to the customs and
practices of the Church of England
this move is not nearly so close to be-
ing Of that nature as the effort that
was made by the general conference
of the Methodist Church, South, in
1866, when they undertook to return
to the use of the prayer book by Mr..
Wesley, a prayer book that was sim