Part 17 (2/2)

On St Luke's Day, 1895, my loved and honoured friend, Edward Talbot, formerly Warden of Keble, was consecrated 100th Bishop of Rochester; and the diocese at that time included all South London As soon as he established himself there, the new Bishop, so I have already stated, asked me to come across the Thames, and do some definite work in South London At first, that work consisted of service on a Public Morals Coradually the field contracted in one direction and expanded in another

It was in 1891 that Dr Temple, then Bishop of London, and afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury, being anxious to lighten the burden of preaching which lies so heavily on hardworked clergy, deters It was a bold step, and of doubtful legality; but the Bishop characteristically declared that he would chance the illegality, feeling sure that, when the Vicar and Churchwardens invited a lay-reader to speak, no one would be churlish enough to raise legal objections The result proved that the Bishop was perfectly right, and the Diocese of London has now a band of licensed lay-preachers who render the clergy a great deal of valuable aid I was fro this band, but Parliament and Office left me no available leisure When Dr Talbot became Bishop of Rochester, he at once took in hand the work of reorganizing the body of Lay-Readers in his Diocese; and before long had determined to follow the example set by Bishop Temple, and to license some of his readers to speak at extra services in consecrated buildings He made it quite clear from the first--and the point has subsequently been established by Convocation--that there was no idea of reviving the Minor Orders The lay-reader was to be, in every sense, a layht speak, under proper restrictions, in a consecrated building, he still would speak not ”as one having authority,” but simply as brother-man to brother-men

I was admitted to the office of a Diocesan Lay-Reader, in the Private Chapel of the Bishop's House at Kennington, on the 15th of January, 1898, and have been permitted to spend fifteen years of happy service in this informal ministry

FOOTNOTES:

[62] Cf Froude's ”Short Studies in Great Subjects”

[63] Itthat my parents were randfather as Abbot of Woburn

[64] _Letters on the Church and Religion_ Vol I, p 385

[65] Pottesgrove

[66] J H Shorthouse--Introduction to George Herbert's _Temple_

[67] _Influences of the Holy Spirit_ University Sermons, Series II

[68] Charlotte Sophia, duchess of Beaufort, a leader of the Evangelical party, died 1854--aged eighty-four

THE END