The Alaska daily empire., 1916-10-27
Mass Meeting of the Various 0rganiza- tionS Are Held by
 Two Houses.
DEFEAT DIVORCE CANON
Revision and Enrichment of Prayer BOok-A New
 Hymnal Is Approved
 with Other Things.
Especial CorrespondcnceJ

Special Correspondcnce)
 ST. LOUIS. Mo-. Oct. 16-lt would be impossible Co give details of this immense convention. with its au.doy sessions of House of Bish- ops and House of Deputies, the numberless mass meetings-in the interest of social service, war relief missions" theological education, Sunday schools. eto.-conferences, study classes, reunions, sessions of the Woman's Auxiliary, Junior Aux Hilary. meetings for the Brotherhood of st. Andrew Daughters of the King. Deaconesses, Nurses, etc. etc. But word about few of each oi these will give some idea of what goes on daily.
 At the Triennial Mass Meeting of the Woman's Auxiliary, their united offering was announced over S352,- OOO-about $5O.OOO more than at the last riennial-besides over S45O0OO contributed in other ways.
 At the Church Periodical Club mass meeting, Bishop P. T. Rowe spoke. This organization. with its branches in many parishes, sends out thousands of magazines and oth- CT periodicals Co missionaries and mission stations who cannot afford them. The mission at Fairbanks distributes hundreds of packages to the creeks adjacent
 At the missionary mass meeting on Sunday afternoon the missionary bishops from New Mexico. China, the Philippines, Honolulu, and else where spoke. At an after meeting. Bishop Brent Cof the Philippines, raised the $26OOO needed for his mission schools
 Three joint sessions of the two houses are provided for. at which The whole convention sits as a board of missions and hears reports from the various domestic and foreign fields. followed by discussions. Al one of these the treasurer announced that the theatened deficit of $l5o.- 900 had been made up. and that a million and a hali had been given for domestic and foreign missions during the year
 Some of the numberless matters already disposed of are the follow ing:
 In the House of Deputies, three lay votes prevented the proposed cvhange in tbe canon which would prohibit re.marriage (by clergy of Che Church. of divorced persons al' together. The present canon per- mits re.m0rr!Gge of the innocent ' person # diyroce for adultery though it also permits every clergy man to refuse to officiate in such ease. The clergy were largely for the new canon, and the presence of a few more lay delegates from dis tant missionary districts might have won the day
 The House of Deputies, with little opposition, adopted the new hymnal which is smaller than the oll by nearly 200 hymns. This omits many hymns which are almost never used, inserts new ones for missions, ma tional days. brotherhood, and ser vice: also. more Communion Hymns which express the Church's teach ing as to the Eucharistic Sacrifice, in addition to those already in the book.
 The lower house has already at- tackled the huge work of Prayer Book revision and enrichment With so much before it. the revision of the Marriage Service was laid over to the nex- convention
 So fer after two days debate, the lower house has adopted the following. subject to concurrence by the House of Bishops:
 Shortening the daily morning and evening prayer; simplifying the ser vices by emitting some alternative Forms. and thus making it easier for strangers to follow the service; more elasticity in the use of the Psalms. division of the Te Deum into three parts, to mark the natur- al distinctions; also printing the Benedicte in portions adding "Bene- dictus es Domino" as a permissiye use: revision of the Prayer for the President of the United States; sub- stitution of an ancient form of Ab- solution (Sarum U5e) for the sec ond shorter form, retaining the long CT form; permitting the use of a hymn in place of the chant after the first lesson; and many minor
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