Premier W. L. Mackenzie King, Cabinet Ministers, Members of Parliament and of the Senate, representatives from Government House, and many distinguished laymen were present. The Cathedral was crowded. In April, 1927, His Grace, Archbishop Neil McNeil blessed the beautiful Gothic Chapel of Newman Club, Toronto, to be called "St. Thomas Aquinas. He had laid the corner-stone in the previous September. This chapel, with a resident chaplain, was to be the parish church for all Catholic students attending the University of Toronto and other institutions of higher learning in that City. The celebration of the 75th anniversary of the arrival of the Christian Brothers in Ontario took place in Toronto on May 15, 16 and 17, 1927, following another event of importance in the annals of the Roman Catholic institutions of Toronto, the 75th anniversary of the founding of St. Michael's College. Like the Basilian Fathers, who founded St. Michael's College, and the Sisters of St. Joseph, who include teaching among their activities, the Christian Brothers came to Toronto on the invitation of Right Rev. Armand François Marie, Compte de Charbonnel, the "father and founder of the ecclesiastical province of Toronto." Seven archbishops and many bishops from all over Canada participated in the ceremonies. The death took place on Aug. 15, 1926 of Right Rev. Paul Larocque, Bishop of Sherbrooke. Rev. Patrick Sylvester Dowdall, D.D., Rector of St. Columbus Cathedral, Pembroke, former parish priest of Eganville, and one of the most widely-known and active diocesan priests in Ontario, died in his 72nd year in Pembroke Hospital on Apr. 17, 1927. He was buried at Eganville, his services and personality drawing great crowds to pay their last respects. A Catholic Aid Society to act in conjunction with the colonization organizations of Canada in assisting newcomers on their arrival in Canada was announced at the end of April by His Lordship the Rt. Rev. J. H. Prud'homme, Bishop of Prince Albert and Saskatoon. The head offices were to be at Wakaw, Sask., and other offices were to be opened in Prince Albert and Saskatoon. It was intended that the work should spread over all Canada and give practical assistance to Catholic new-comers, from the time of arrival. Rev. Abbot S. Gertken in April, 1927, was named Abbot Ordinary for the only Benedictine Abbey in Canada at Muenster, Sask. He was consecrated on May 4. On May 13, it was announced that the archdiocese of Quebec was to be divided into two with the new See located at Ste. Anne de la Pocatière, sixty miles East of Quebec, and extending as far as Rivière du Loup, 120 miles from Quebec. On the same day official word reached Brockville, Ont., of the appointment of the Very Rev. Gerald Murray, Rector of St. Mary's College, to the position of Provincial Superior of the Redemptorist Order in Canada, exercising jurisdiction over English-speaking Redemptorist establishments at Saint John, N.B., Quebec City, Montreal, St. Mary's, Brockville, Toronto, London, Winnipeg, (E. Kildonan), Regina, Yorkton, Edmonton and Vancouver. Monsignor Joseph Onesime Routhier died at Ottawa on May 22, 1927, in his ninety-first year. The funeral was held from the Basilica on the following Wednesday. Mgr. Routhier, on occasion of celebrating in 1914 the golden jubilee anniversary of his ordination, had been honoured by both the Catholic and Protestant population of the district. So it was again at his funeral. He founded the Independent Garde Champlain and he was chaplain of this and other French-Canadian religious organizations up to the time of his death. On June 23, His Holiness, Pope Pius XI appointed Mgr. Homer Plante, Auxiliary Bishop of Quebec and Titular Bishop of Doberus, Macedonia. Mgr. Alphonse Osiah Gagnon was appointed Bishop of Sherbrooke, Que. On the previous day he granted a private audience to Mr. P. M. Draper, Secretary-Treasurer of the Trades and Labour Congress of Canada, and said to him, "Please take my Apostolic Benediction to all Canadian workers.' Following a Silver Jubilee rally demonstration at Exhibition Park, Toronto, on Sunday afternoon, June 12, 1927, a one-day convention of delegates of the Holy Name Society from all parts of Ontario was held on Monday. Three hundred attended High Mass at St. Michael's Cathedral at nine o'clock. As there were 680 Holy Name Societies in Canada the advisability of having a Canadian headquarters was discussed. A favourable vote was sent to the New York Bureau, which was expected to take up the matter with Canadian representatives. China Mission Seminary, Scarboro Bluffs, Ontario, was moved to its present locality in September, 1925, from Almonte where it had been established in 1918 by the Very Rev. J. M. Fraser, M.AP., for the purpose of educating priests for mission work in China. In 1925 the district of Chuchow in the Province of Chekiang, China, with ten thousand square miles in area and two millions in population was alloted it. Father Fraser took charge of it early in 1926 with two other priests. Since that time the Seminary had sent four more. With headquarters at Chuchow and already four missions, it was hoped that additional missions would be opened, as the number of priests from Canada increased. The Church of England, 1926-27 Although the proposals of the bishops of the Church of England for the use of the new prayer book, called "The Composite Book," which was to replace (for those who wished to use it) the old Book of Common Prayer, did not directly affect Anglicans in the Dominion of Canada, the clergy and members generally of the Church took keen interest in the proposals and the controversy it excited during 1926-27. The Church of England in Canada, acting in its independent capacity, had its own prayer book, revision of which had been completed and adopted by the General Synod a few years before. No controversial changes such as were proposed by the Bishops in England were made, however. "The Composite Book" constituted the first revision of the Prayer Book in 265 years and it was the outcome of sixty years of study "to make the services richer and more elastic." When the Archbishop of Canterbury placed the proposals before the Convocations of Canterbury and York in the little church house of Westminster at London, England, it was soon made clear that no adequate revision was possible except on condition that it should take the form of alternatives for permissive use. Even at that the Bishop of Norwich disassociated himself from the changes early in the proceedings. The new alternative order of the Holy Communion was the centre of interest. Eucharist vestments were allowed, the ten commandments might be recited in shortened form and what was known as the evangelical summary might on certain days be substituted for them. The Greek supplication "Kyrie eleison" might be used in the same manner. The canon was altered and contained invocations of the Holy Spirit. Commemoration of the dead was introduced not only in this service but in others. Proposals for the reservation of the sacrament for the sick caused keen controversy. Hereafter, the recitation of the Athanasian Creed was to be optional, not obligatory. The word "obey" was eliminated from the bride's vow in the marriage service. The phrase, "With my body I thee worship,' became "With my body I thee honour," and "with all my worldly goods I thee endow" was changed for "all my worldly goods I with thee share." The Evangelical or Low Church critics complained that the alterations, especially in the communion service, were reactionary and carried the Church to a position incompatible with the principles it proclaimed at the Reformation. The AngloCatholics thought the revision did not go far enough in this respect. The Bishop of Birmingham, while supporting most of the changes, feared that the permission of extempore prayer might lead to invocation of Saints and that the appointment of a thanksgiving service for the institution of Holy Communion might encourage the cultus associated with Corpus Christi Day in the Roman Catholic Church. The new form of consecration prayer, he declared, brought the English Church office nearer the Roman Catholic Mass. He thought the permission of perpetual reservation of consecrated bread and wine also highly undesirable. He thought that only the non-contentious proposals should be accepted and the others should be postponed for a generation. The Archbishop of York said that, though permission was given to the minister to use the new proposals at his discretion, changes could not be made without the goodwill of the people as represented in the Parochial Church Council. If difficulty arose it had to be referred to the Bishop for final decision. No authority could compel any clergyman to use the new proposals if he did not wish to do so; the Book of Common Prayer would remain as the authoritative expression and standard of the doctrine of the Church of England. The Times, London, on Feb. 8, 1927, editorially approved of the proposed prayer book as containing "nothing that conflicts with a great tradition." It continued, "It affords a supreme opportunity to Churchmen to combine in the interests of unity and order." Archbishop Worrell, Metropolitan of the Anglican Ecclesiastical Province of Canada, said on Feb. 8 that the Canadian prayer book was in all essentials the same as the old prayer book used in England though adapted more to life in Canada. "We retain the word 'obey' in the marriage service. How far we might adopt any changes which the revisers in England agree to is a matter which would have to be considered by the General Synod, which is an independent, self-governing body." Rev. Canon Plumptre, speaking in St. James Cathedral, Toronto, on the morning of Feb. 13, expressed his accord with the proposed alterations in the baptismal and marriage services. Nor did he see any strong reason against prayers for the dead. He deplored, however, the proposed changes in the Communion Service, saying that "The Lord's Supper" rather than the "Sacrifice of the Mass" had been the form of communion for which the early martyrs had shed their blood. To-day men were thinking scientifically rather than theologically, and they would not be attracted by claims of a semi-magical type which science and philosophy did not endorse and which history and experience did not verify. On the other hand, Rev. H. G. Hiscocks, Toronto, Vicar of the Church of St. Mary Magdalene, an Anglican "High" church, expressed the opinion that the Catholic movement in the Church of England was reviving the whole Church. He supported the practice of reservation of the sacrament, Unction, the restoration of the sacrificial priesthood and the wearing of vestments, but rejected the idea of Transubstantiation. He asked his hearers not to be alarmed about the "monster Protestant demonstration in England." There were less than one hundred people in it and seven only of those were priests. "Do not be stampeded by the thought that Protestant agitation in England is going to prevent revision along Catholic lines" he concluded. Rev. J. T. Robbins on the same day in St. Augustine's Church, Toronto, thought there was great value for the Church in the view of the extreme evangelical and also in the view of the socalled Anglo-Catholic. If extremes were to be permitted they should be permitted at both ends. The final draft of the proposals on Mar. 22, 1927 drew a statement of opposition from the National Church League, and the Federation of Catholic Priests, meeting at Birmingham, also expressed opposition on the ground "that the general effect of the Book is to arrest development in worship and to block the road to legitimate liturgical experiment; that the proposals of the Bishops are evidently intended to prevent the corporate expression of Eucharistic Adoration when the Sacrament is reserved, which is a legitimate inference from the doctrine of the Real Presence; that the Bishops' proposals tend to set back the growing movement towards unity and peace and mutual understanding in the Church." In May, 1927, at the opening business session of the Synod of Huron, His Grace Archbishop David Williams strongly advised against the stirring up of animosities concerning the Prayer Book question in the Dominion, "it would be foolish and precipitate to undertake a further revision so soon after 1921." At the Annual Meeting of the General Board of Religious Education in St. Luke's Parish Hall, Winnipeg, Man., the purchase of The Canadian Churchman and adoption of it as the official organ of the Anglican Church in Canada was approved. Rt. Rev. J. C. Roper, Bishop of Ottawa, in his annual charge to the Anglican Synod of the Diocese of Ottawa deplored the great increase in divorce in Canada during the last ten years as an evidence of the tendency towards "self-expression, unchecked by selfdiscipline or self-restraint" apparent on all sides. The annual charge of the Bishop of Toronto on June 27 emphasized this evil also. The suggestion that the Diocese of Qu'Appelle should be subdivided on a line running north and south between Moose Jaw and Regina was debated at Synod meetings in 1926 and 1927. On June 3, 1926, at Regina the Synod of Qu'Appelle gave an unanimous standing vote against the proposal to surrender territory lying in Alberta to the Calgary Diocese and the suggestion that four townships should be yielded in the north towards the formation of a new diocese with its centre at Saskatoon. The matter was still under consideration in June, 1927. An exchange of parishes for a year or more between clergy in Great Britain and in Canada with a view to assisting in the promotion of the British Empire Settlement scheme was an interesting recommendation of a motion sponsored by Canon G. C. Carruthers, Edmonton, at the meeting of the Synod of Rupert's Land on Sept. 21, 1926. On June 2, 1926, Rev. Dr. C. A. Seager, Provost of Trinity College, was elected to succeed Right Rev. E. J. Bidwell as Bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Ontario. On Aug. 24, in St. George's Cathedral, Kingston, Ont., he was solemnly consecrated in his new appointment by the Rt. Rev. David Williams, Bishop of Huron. In his first charge to the Synod on May 17, 1927, Bishop Seager proposed three new canons for adoption by the Synod: a minimum stipend of $1,400 and home for missionary clergy; group insurance of the clergy; and reciprocity with other dioceses in the matter of beneficiary funds. It may be added that similar proposals were made to several other Synods in Canada. |