Evening capital and Maryland gazette. (Annapolis, Md.) 1910-1922, 1915-12-04
VESTRYS AUTHORITY
HAS De FINITE LIMITS
Does Not Extend to Matters of
Ceremonial in Worship.
DIR. M'COMAS STAND is UPHELD.
Mr.. George 7. Melvin Writes oi Recent
Disagreement at St. Anne's
Church.

more than one reason, that some
members of the Vestry of ST Anne's |
Church have lately and. if l am cor
rectly informed. Intentionally brought
to public attention their personal mis- |
understanding of the Rector and have. |
so far as generally known, assumed |
the untenable position of claiming, or
seeming to claim. authority over mat |
ters of church worship with which
whatever may be their individual and |
conscientious views, and to such views |
they are, of course, entitled-they can |
hardly have any official concern as q |
vestry of the Protestant Episcopal |
Church constituted under the Mary
land Statute.
AS the situation now stands, | be- |
lieve, the vestry failed to accept his |
resignation freely and in good faith |
rendered, of Rev. DR.. McComas. and by |
a majority vote deferred any further
bringing up in the vestry-room of the
one-sided controversy so unhappily
and causelessly nurtured therein until
after Easter Monday. On that day.
the date fixed in 1898 by the Maryland
Vestry Act under which the St Anne's
vestry is incorporated, for the annual
election, the parishioners may put out
any four of the yestrymen whom they
please from among the eight lay
members, and are required to elect i'm
mediately afterward "by majority vote
of the parish" four others, or may re-
elect the four voted out. At this time
the voters of the congregation of st.
Anne's will have proper opportunity
as the ultimate governing body of the
parish in a most important respect, to
say by their sufirages whether criti-
cism of ceremonial matters in the
church service is to be taken too Sc
riously as an objection to rector so
loved and admired.
No one who knows Dr. McComas,
who is acquainted even in a small
measure with his fine sensibilities and
| with the sterling qualities of his ma
| ture character as a preacher and a
| man, is at all surprised that he should
at the show of antagonism in the YES
try, have promptly expressed his per-
! sonal readiness to withdraw from the
work with which he has been identi-
y
| has brought such ability and devotion
| His rendering of his resignation en-
| phasiZes the fact that he is not to be
| regarded as party to the division in
the vestry, and the further fact that
he is not fomenting any dissensions
in the church. Far otherwise DR.
| McComas as will be plainly apparent
to any disinterested observer, with
knowledge of the one point heretofore
sought to put in issue, is bound to up
hold in his capacity as clergyman the
dignity and authority belonging to his
! office. AS the sole judge of his course
in this case, he proposed to quietly re-
linquish his pastorate.
OF church ceremonial the rector too.
is the sole judge in his relation to the
parish. 1t is a peculiar feature of the
Protestant Episcopal Church in it's
| appeal to all classes and conditions of
men that its formularies have allowed
latitude TO a prescribed degree in rit-
ualistic worship, and this has given
rise to the three distinctions in Eng
land and in the United States so often
figuring in controversial way The
canons of the church in this country
recognize the accessories and modes of
worship of the earlier times, and con-
servative churchmen, grounded in the
history and doctrines, in the Book OF
Common Prayer, and in sympathy with
the spirit of their communion. incline
| to the ancient ritual" More radical
churchmen do not. But it must be
/ a. &c haf Il
| the duty of rector TO prescribe the
extent of compliance with the formu-
larry, and his responsibility for what
he does in this regard is to the ec-
clesiastical authorities above him and
TO the plain and unequivocal law Of
the church. which we believe will be
found to sustain Dr. McComas A
writer in the Baltimore sun so fully
expresses the kernel of the ST Anne's
affair that it is well worth careful con
sideration by all your readers:
1T is deplorable that man. whose
training has been so real, whose spirit
ual consecration to his priesthood has
been so profound, whose pastorate has
been the very gate of Heaven to so
many. after over 20 years of faithful
minlstratlon as against any rector
should have no value beyond the es-
timation that if minority of his
church disagree on the etiquette of his
worship he is to be cast aside
Those members of the vestry who
may be said to disagree with DR..
McComas as to ''the etiquette of his
worship" this expression aptly
/ he -
with much good work for the interests
of the parish. and with being actuated
by honest and worthy.if mistaken, mo-
tives. 1t is TO be sincerely hoped that
the immediate feuture viii see reviv-
al of the former good feeling and"team
work" between all the officials of ST.
. Anne's.