Cannot be

erected without a faculty.

Their erection not to be discouraged.

the decent performance of Divine worship, therefore the parishioners are not bound to provide an organ; but though not necessary, they are extremely decent, proper, and even customary in a parish that is extensive and opulent. (7)

As is the case with alterations in or additions to the sacred edifice, organs cannot be legally erected in a parish church without a faculty. (s) A faculty for such purpose is not granted without a decree and intimation to the parishioners, in order that any one may object. The consent of the parishioners, however, does not bind the ordinary; it is in his discretion to grant or withhold the faculty; but he should not be inclined to discourage the erection of an organ. (t)

The erection of organs in parish churches is not to be discouraged if the circumstances of the parish, regard being had to its opulence and population and to the size of its church, offer no objections. Of these circumstances, the ordinary is to judge; on any expense to be incurred the parish alone is to decide. (u)

The wishes of the parishioners will be consulted as far as possible, and provisions inserted in the grant of a faculty to prevent the expense falling upon them. But "the consent of the parishioners to the erection of an organ is not the only thing material to found the application for a faculty for that purpose, since the measure may be improper in consideration of the parish or church, or private rights may be affected. It may therefore be the duty of the ordinary to interfere and protect the parish from its own indiscretion, as if the parish was small and the rent of houses high, or there should be other circumstances rendering such an addition to the church inexpedient. Attending to these considerations, the Ecclesiastical Courts have usually adopted the rule of inserting a clause in (r) Pearce & Hughes v. The Rector of Clapham, 3 Hagg. Eccl. 10. (s) Part ii. chap. iii. sect. 2.

(t) Ibid.; and see Pearce & Hughes v. The Rector of Clapham, ubi supra. (u) Ibid. See also Jay v. Webber, 3 Hagg. Eccl. 4, 8.

the faculty that no expense shall fall on the parish, but this rule is discretionary only, and though generally proper, by no means binding." (x)

A faculty for accepting gift of an organ given, though opposed

by some parish

These principles may be considered in connection with the cases following, relating to the grant of a faculty to enable an organ to be erected. In the first, an organ having been presented as a gift by a parishioner, a faculty for accepting it and ioners. erecting it was granted on the application of the churchwardens, although opposed by a portion (not the majority) of the parishioners, and that without any clause respecting the provision for an organist or for exonerating the parish from the expenses that might be incurred in maintaining it. (y)

In the next the organ was also a donation from a parishioner, and a faculty was applied for to enable the churchwardens of a parish church to accept and erect it. Before granting the faculty, Lord Stowell said, "That although the organ would be a gift still there might be expenses arising out of it, as for erecting it, keeping it in order, and for an organist, and as those might fall on the parish it might render the consent of the parishioners generally necessary, adding, however, that he was disposed to hold the majority of the parish (which was in favour of the faculty being granted) binding in such a question as that, although it might not bind in all cases, as if an organ was to be voted without the authority of the ordinary." (z)

where organ would lessen

In another case, where it clearly appeared that the church was Faculty refused already too small for the inhabitants of the parish, and that the erection of an organ would lessen the number of sittings by

causing their removal, Sir George Lee, Dean of the Arches, refused to grant a faculty reversing the decree of the Consistory Court. (a)

(2) The Churchwardens of St. John's, Margate, v. the Parishioners, Vicar & Inhabitants of the same, 1 Hagg. Cons. 198, 200.

(a) Randall & Horden v. Collins & Ludlow, 2 Lee, 217.

the already too

small accom

modation.

Organ may be necessary in collegiate chapels.

It is evident that in a collegiate church an organ may be necessary from the manner in which the service is there performed, but in a parish church it is not an article of legal ⚫ necessity. (b)

The churchwardens have no power whatever as to controlling the organ or other music. In Hutchings v. Denzile & Lovibond (c) they were proceeded against by the officiating curate for obstructing the singing of the children of the ward, accompanied by the organ. The articles were admitted, the Court, after examining the history and introduction of music into our church service, ruling that the churchwardens had illegally interfered.

(b) Jay v. Webber, 1 Hagg. Eccl. 4, 8.
(c)

Hagg. Cons. 170.

CHAPTER X.

THE POSITION OF THE LAITY WITH REGARD

TO THE CONDUCT OF PUBLIC WORSHIP.

HE relation of the laity to Public Worship, and their rights, privileges, and duties in respect thereof, will not need a lengthened discussion. They are in a manner passive. They may attend the services, may join in them and partake of the sacraments, but they do not control or direct the services or any portion of them; they cannot originate innovations in or omissions from rites or ceremonies; they cannot introduce ornaments into the sacred edifice. Nor, indeed, have they power directly to prevent this. They can do so only indirectly and at great expense and trouble, by setting in motion the machinery of the law.

The laity in

manner pas

sive.

be considered,

In matters affecting the laity, two distinct classes of persons Two classes to have to be considered, viz. first, the churchwardens or sidesmen, churchwardens and secondly, the ordinary laity. The former have an official or sidesmen ; position and a status, both legal and ecclesiastical, which frequently brings them directly into contact with ecclesiastical personages and under the supervision of the Ecclesiastical Courts. Consequently they possess rights and are under duties very different from those which are incidental to other laymen.

As regards the ordinary laity, they for many purposes must

and the ordi

nary laity.

What persons are members of

England.

be distinguished, first, into those which are, and secondly, those which are not members of the Church of England. It is true that at birth, marriage, and death the Church recognizes little if any distinction, and at these most momentous periods of a human being's history she extends her ministrations to all alike. (Perhaps the only exceptions are in the case of the marriage and burial of excommunicates.) But in many other matters important differences arise, e.g. in respect of the participation in the Holy Communion, the right to institute proceedings, whether civil or criminal, before ecclesiastical tribunals, and the like.

As to the persons who are members of the Church of Engthe Church of land, Dr. Stephens, after referring to the rubrics of the Confirmation and Communion Services, says: (d)—“These rubrics, in conjunction with Stat. 1 Ed. VI. c. 1, are very important, because if any person be baptized and confirmed, or ready and desirous to be confirmed, he has then (unless he labour under a disqualification which would justify a priest in repelling a member of the United Church of England and Ireland from the Holy Communion) a legal right to be admitted to the Holy Communion, and when admitted to the Holy Communion he becomes, eo instanti, whatever his previous religious tenets may have been, a member of the United Church of England and Ireland, and the right to be so admitted he can enforce by mandamus."

RIGHTS AND PRIVILEGES.

It may probably be laid down that all persons, without distinction, whether members of the Church or not, have the legal rights first, to be present at and to join in the ordinary daily services that is to say, the Morning and Evening Prayers, the Litany, and the Communion Service, up to and exclusive of

(d) "The Book of Common Prayer, with Notes," by A. J. Stephens,

Pp. 1061.