Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from A Charge Delivered to the Clergy and Churchwardens of the Diocese of Worcester: At His Primary Visitation, in August, 1862
To you, gentlemen Churchwardens, I desire to offer my best thanks for the services you are rendering in the important office which has been entrusted to you. There are many duties in the Church which the law wisely commits to the care of laymen, because the clergy are thereby relieved from unnecessary labour, and the work is, in fact, better done than it would be, if it were entrusted to persons who have been admitted into Holy Orders. The care of the fabric of the church and of the burial-ground, the provision of things necessary for the cele bration of Divine service, the safe custody of the goods of the church, the assignment of sittings to the parishioners, the preservation of order and good behaviour in the time of Divine service these, and other like offices, requiring, it will be readily seen, great attention and judgment, are wisely committed by the law to lay church wardens. I need not remind you that there are many other offices in which the lay members of the Church may be of essential service in every parish, and which, though not imposed by any law other than the law of Christian charity, are often cheerfully undertaken by laymen, and performed with good effect. I refer to such things as the superintendence of schools, the management of clubs by which the poor are encouraged in habits of economy, the visitation of the sick and afflicted, the organization and conduct of societies for religious and charitable objects, things in which the hands of the clergy are very much strength ened by the co-operation and counsel of the laity. Happy is the parish in which the clergy and laity work together in such good offices, encou raging one another to fulfil the law of Christ. I rejoice to know that the diocese of Worcester affords many examples of such parishes, and of laymen in all ranks of society, who exert them selves to discharge the obligations of the law of Christian charity; by whose kind and ready help the clergy are set free from occupations which would otherwise engage much time, and are enabled to devote themselves to their special duty of setting forth God's true and lively word, and rightly and duly administering His holy sacraments. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
