Churchwarden

“ Churchwardens are always lay persons, and as they may, like “artificial persons,” hold goods and chattels and bring actions for them, they are recognized in law as quasi-corporations. Resident householders of a parish are those primarily eligible as churchwardens, but non-resident householders who are habitually occupiers are also eligible, while there are a few classes of persons who are either ineligible or exempted. ”

“ Churchwardens must work with the Clergy and the Clergy with the Churchwardens if they are to be a blessing in the parish in which they are elected to serve. They have not been brought by chance into connection with the Incumbent of their parish, for chance is not a word to be found in the Christian’s dictionary. ”

“ It is a Manual which ought to be in the possession of every holder of the important office of Churchwarden, and which other Churchmen also would do well to familiarise themselves with, as a better understanding of the subject would be greatly to the advantage of many parishes ”

“ In general, churchwardens are appointed in Easter week, usually Easter Monday or Easter Tuesday, but in new parishes the first appointment must be within twenty-one days after the consecration of the church, or two calendar months after the formation of the parish, subsequent appointments taking place at the usual time for the appointment of parish officers. Each churchwarden after election subscribes before the ordinary a declaration that he will execute his office faithfully. ”

“ If one thing is more absolutely necessary than another for the harmonious working of Clergy and Laity in a parish, or the welfare of the whole, it is that there should be no suspicions the one of the other. Perfect confidence and a generous trust should be the rule of all dealings between Incumbents and Churchwardens. ”

“ The Churchwarden or Questmen of every parish, and two or three or more discreet persons in every parish, to be chosen for Sidemen or Assistants by the Minister and parishioners, if they can agree (otherwise to be appointed by the Ordinary of the diocese) , shall diligently see that all the parishioners duly resort to their Church upon all Sundays and Holy-days, and there continue the whole time of Divine Service; and none to walk or to stand idle or talking in the Church, or in the Churchyard, or in the Church-porch, during that time. ”

“ Churchwardens are trustees of money given for the benefit of the church, and must attend to repairs of the church and fences of the churchyard. The pews in a parish church are the property of the parish; distribution rests with the bishop or the churchwardens. The churchwardens of a parish in which a dead body is cast ashore from the sea, must have it interred in the parish burial ground. ”

“ Churchwardens’ Accounts, giving particulars of rates, receipts, and payments for church purposes, are often highly interesting, and should be carefully preserved. Sometimes they are found entered in bound volumes, but more often tied up in bundles or tumbled in confusion in the parish chest. Still more often they are altogether missing. They can occasionally be recovered from the private dwellings of present or past churchwardens. ”

“ Disturbers of Divine Service to be presented.
In all visitations of Bishops and Archdeacons the Churchwardens, or Questmen, and Sidemen shall truly and personally present the names of all those which behave themselves rudely and disorderly in the Church, or which by untimely ringing of bells, by walking, talking, or other noise, shall hinder the Minister or Preacher.
118. The old Churchwardens to make their presentments before the new be sworn. ”

“ Not only did the clergy exercise more authoritative oversight over their people than they do in these times, but it was the duty of churchwardens to present people who were flagrantly negligent of their religious duties, and of the Ecclesiastical Courts to punish them. ”

“ In the former case the expenses would, under the Local Government Act, be repaid to the Churchwardens in rural parishes by the Parish Council, on presentation of the proper certificate as mentioned in the previous paragraph.
If the Churchyard requires enlargement, and an adjoining piece of ground can be obtained, it is well to remember that a special Act has been passed (30 and 31 Vict., c. 133) for diminishing the expense connected with the consecration of ground so added to an old Churchyard. ”

“ Within, carving in ‘right oak’ was bestowed with no sparing hand, especially in the altar-piece. And here one may say that, while defects in church arrangement, such as galleries, pews, and the like, are invariably laid on Sir Christopher and said to be the inevitable concomitants of his style, it should be borne in mind that in many and many an instance the churchwardens during the eighteenth century repewed and ‘beautified’ the churches which Wren had left as completed ”

“ The Churchwardens have the custody of the bells, and the bell ropes are in most cases Church property placed under their charge, but the law with reference to the ringing of the bells is undoubted; that for any occasion except that of Divine Service the permission of the Incumbent is absolutely necessary for the ringing of the bells. Without that permission they cannot be rung. [54]
There is one further point on which a question sometimes arises in connection with offertories and collections in church. ”

“ Incumbents are thankful when the Churchwardens help them with their advice as to what objects shall be brought before the congregation. In the case of all collections, for whatsoever purpose they be made, it is most desirable for the avoiding of any possible difficulty that a written statement should be put upon the Church door on the Sunday after, stating the amount of the collections made on the previous Sunday. If the collection be made for any charitable or missionary society the official receipt for the money collected and sent should also be affixed to the church door. ”

“ She stood with tightened lips, during the Apostles' Creed, listening to his voice as it rose, strong and unfaltering, above the murmur of the congregation.
At last she saw him swiftly crossing the chancel, mounting the pulpit steps, and he towered above her, a dominant figure, his white surplice sharply outlined against the dark stone of the pillar. The hymn died away, the congregation sat down. There was a sound in the church, expectant, presaging, like the stirring of leaves at the first breath of wind, and then all was silent. ”

“ The matter of choosing a rector to-day, when clergymen are meddling with all sorts of affairs which do not concern them, is not so simple as it was twenty years ago. We have, at St. John's, always been orthodox and dignified, and I take it to be the sense of this vestry that we remain so. I conceive it our duty to find a man who is neither too old nor too young, who will preach the faith as we received it, who is not sensational, and who does not mistake socialism for Christianity."
By force of habit, undoubtedly, Mr. Parr glanced at Nelson Langmaid as he sat down. ”

“ John's Church was not often mentioned in Mr. Bentley's presence.
"Well, grandmother," said Phil Goodrich, who was the favourite son-in-law, "how was the new rector to-day?"
"Mr. Hodder is a remarkable young man, Phil," Mrs. Waring declared, "and delivered such a good sermon. I couldn't help wishing that you and Rex and Evelyn and George had been in church."
"Phil couldn't go," explained the unmarried and sunburned Evelyn, "he had a match on of eighteen holes with me."
Mrs. Waring sighed.
"I can't think what's got into the younger people these days that they seem so indifferent to religion. ”

“ Now, a word from Eldon Parr might turn the trick. Every parson wants to be a bishop."
Langmaid shook his head.
"You're getting out of your depths, my friend. The Church isn't Wall Street. And missionary bishops aren't chosen to make convenient vacancies."
"I don't mean anything crude," Mr. Plimpton protested. "But a word from the chief layman of a diocese like this, a man who never misses a General Convention, and does everything handsomely, might count,—particularly if they're already thinking of Hodder. The bishops would never suspect we wanted to get rid of him." ”

“ He wrote asking to come and see me, but I went to him in Dalton Street the day I returned. And it gives me satisfaction, Mr. Holder, to confess to you freely that he has taught me, by his life, more of true Christianity than I have learned in all my experience elsewhere."
"I had thought," exclaimed the rector, wonderingly, "that I owed him more than any other man."
"There are many who think that—hundreds, I should say," the bishop replied . . . . "Eldon Parr ruined him, drove him from the church.... ”

“ Nothing so quickly awakens doubtful feelings in the breast of a passer-by as to the zeal, energy and devotion of the Incumbent, as a Churchyard untidy and unkempt, paths full of weeds, hedges untrimmed, grass long and straggling. Nothing, on the other hand, is so grateful to all the parishioners of a particular parish as the Churchyard well kept and looked after, the graves neat and trimmed, the whole place by its very appearance asserting its right to the title of God’s Acre. ”

“ Everett Constable coughed, Wallis Plimpton shifted his position, the others sat like stones. Asa Waring was giving vent at last to the pent-up feelings of many years.
"And now that power, which respects nothing, has crept into the sanctuary of the Church. Our rector recognizes it, I recognize it,—there is not a man here who, in his heart, misunderstands me. And when a man is found who has the courage to stand up against it, I honour him with all my soul, and a hope that was almost dead revives in me. ”

“ The majority of people in St. John's are no more Christians than I am. They attend service once a week, and the rest of the time they are bent upon getting all they can of pleasure and profit for themselves. Do you wonder that those who consider this spectacle come inevitably to the conclusion that either Christianity is at fault, is outworn, or else that it is presented in the wrong way?”
The rector rose abruptly, walked to the entrance of the arbour, and stood staring out across the garden. ”

“ He counted amongst his religious friends, the High Churchman, Seth Ward, Bishop of Salisbury, as well as the Broad Churchman, Wilkins, Bishop of [482] Chester, and the Low Churchman, Richard Baxter, who refused to be a Bishop at all. It suggests rebuke to all bigoted partizans, to remember that a layman of the latter half of the seventeenth century most renowned for his wisdom, justice, charity and piety, was one of whom it is equally true that he can be claimed by no particular party, and yet can be claimed by all single-minded Christians. ”

“ They retorted that the Bishop who pronounced the Sentence was himself a heretic, and turning to the people they said: "We believe"—and here they rehearsed the Articles of the Apostles' Creed, but omitting "the Holy Catholic Church." "We believe in confession of heart and mouth. We believe that he who does not eat the Body of Christ is not saved, and that it is not consecrated except in the Church, and by a priest, good or evil, and that it is not better done by a good priest than by an evil. We believe that {45} no one is saved except by baptism, and that little children are saved by baptism. ”

“ They are elemental; and they feel intuitively that Christianity contains a vital spark which, if allowed to fly, would start a conflagration beyond their control. The theologians have helped them to cover the spark with ashes, and naturally they won't allow the ashes to be touched, if they can help it."
She lay very still.
The rector had listened to her, at first with amazement, then with more complicated sensations as she thus dispassionately discussed the foremost member of his congregation and the first layman of the diocese, who was incidentally her own father. ”

“ Churchill himself is represented to me as a model of all that a clergyman ought to be. Whatever we may think of his functions, that he should have all the virtues supposed to be attached to them is desirable in every point of view ”

“ I felt that a great body of unsatisfied men and women existed, but that I was powerless to get in touch with them; I had discovered that truth, as you have so ably pointed out, is disguised and distorted by ancient dogmas; and that the old Authority, as you say, no longer carries weight."
"Have you found the new one?" Mr. Engel demanded.
"I think I have," the rector answered calmly, "it lies in personality. I do not know whether you will agree with me that the Church at large has a future, and I will confess to you that there was a time when I thought she had not. ”

“ The constitutional reluctance of Eldon Parr to fight openly could not have been more clearly demonstrated.
“Because you are a clergyman, Mr. Hodder,” he began, “because you are the rector of St. John's, I have allowed you to say things to me which I would not have permitted from any other man. I have tried to take into account your point of view, which is naturally restricted, your pardonable ignorance of what business men, who wish to do their duty by Church and State, have to contend with. When you came to this parish you seemed to have a sensible, a proportional view of things ”

“ The modern desire of clergymen to interfere in these matters has ruined the usefulness of many of them.
“I repeat, I have tried to be patient. I venture to hope, still, that this extraordinary change in you may not be permanent, but merely the result of a natural sympathy with the weak and unwise and unfortunate who are always to be found in a complex civilization. I can even conceive how such a discovery must have shocked you, temporarily aroused your indignation, as a clergyman, against the world as it is—and, I may add, as it has always been. ”