practice of the oldest British cathedrals.

I

The ancient presbytery was to be the bishop's council of advice. So important was this factor that the American Church has unconsciously provided for this particular function, seemingly of necessity, in the creation of the standing committee, for the standing committee's functions, so far as they go, are largely functions of the ancient presbytery of the cathedral, but the presbytery of the cathedral had also executive functions which have not been committed to the standing committee except when there is no bishop. It is these executive functions of the presbytery, which the restoration of the cathedral system will give back to the church.

his ministers, the President of the United States and his cabinet, the head of a corporation and his board of directors.

It is to the executive side of the church's life that we must look for progress and a cathedral organization must be progressive or it is of no value, but in order that progress may be in the right direction, it must be based on precedent or, to express it in another way, it must have the safeguard of historical authority, and it must have for the future the security of permanence. These three words express best of all the three principles of the cathedral system, progressiveness, precedent and per

manence.

II

The

In order that the cathedral organization might not be without a head in the absence of the bishop on his visitations and for other causes, chapters have a dean or an officer to correspond to the dean. dean should be the bishop's representative and agent in the general ordering of the work of the cathedral. He is under all circumstances and conditions subordinate to the bishop. (In modern days, the office of dean has come somewhat under a cloud because of unfortunate conditions in certain English cathedrals.) There are in England what are known as the cathedrals of the old foundation and cathedrals of the new foundation. Those of the new foundation are for the most part cathedrals which have been formed out of ancient abbey churches and because only the more important abbey churches became cathedrals, in many cases these abbeys were what were

The bishop's presbytery should be the heads of the various executive departments of the church, which come under the bishop's immediate care. As such, the heads of those departments should have independence of action, up to the limit of safety. Inasmuch as the bishop is responsible for all their acts, they should be a body of men chosen by him and of unquestioned loyalty to him. This is the more important because a body of men without independence of action or initiation could by no stretch of ancient precedence be termed the bishop's presbytery. They would rather then become curates, the bishop being then the rector of the cathedral church. The bishop and his presbytery thus formed the precedent for other modes of corporate organization such as that of a constitutional monarch and

known as mitred abbeys. A mitred abbot received that name when freed from allegiance to his diocesan bishop and was under the direct authority of the pope. At the time of the Reformation, these abbey churches were dissolved and later some of them were formed into cathedral churches; the authority of the pope did not revert to the bishop but to the Crown and the dean of the cathedral, who took the place of the mitred abbot, found himself in an independent position, an appointee of the Crown and not subject to the bishop. This created scandalous divisions of authority. There are many cases in which the bishop has not entered his cathedral for years at a time, owing to his differences with the dean.

In spite of the encroachments, which in times past the office of dean has made upon the bishop's prerogatives and authority, these are in no sense justified, nor do they militate against the necessity for a dean. In order that the bishop may be freed from the mass of detail which a great organization, such as cathedral should become, involves, the

a

dean has a two-fold office. In the first place, he is charged with the general conduct and maintenance of the cathedral work and should be held responsible by the bishop for its development under the bishop's instructions. He is the bishop's Secretary for Administration and in the second place it is the dean who may represent the bishop and the church in those various civic interests, for which the late Bishop Williams so eloquently pleaded.

III

At no time in the history of the church have parish churches been

enabled to do more than reach a certain portion of a community. There has always been the necessity of mission preaching. There has always been the "man outside"! As in heathen countries, the bishop's staff of clergy undertook the mission of preaching the Gospel of Christ, so in every community there should be a staff of preachers whose especial duty would be the extension of Christ's kingdom. The Canon Missioner, therefore, becomes what Archbishop Benson terms him "the Bishop's Secretary for Missions." As such, his work is not necessarily confined to the organization and maintenance of the missions in the diocese or of missionary work in the diocese, but may extend as far afield as opportunity may offer.

IV

In early days the entire education of the children was maintained by the cathedral schools. Later, when the

parish churches became established parochial schools supplied what the cathedral schools could no longer completely undertake. Still later, the State undertook to aid the parish schools, the latest development being that of which we, the United States, have been pioneers, being the assumption in its entirety by the

State of the secular education of the children relieving the church entirely. It is not too much to say that the mother of our present wonderful educational system, the mother of our schools, colleges and universities, is, historically, the ca

thedral. While the State has undertaken the secular education of the children, the church has retained the religious education.

The State undertook to bear the

expense of the secular education of its children because it needed a well educated body of citizens for the sake of the State. It is no wiser for the church to shift the religious teaching of the children and place it on the shoulders of the parents than it would be for the State to do the same thing with regard to the secular education. The church must train its own children for its own sake as well as for the sake of the children. In order to do this properly, a comprehensive system of religious education is necessary. In Washington, for instance, we have seven thousand children in the Sunday schools and many Sunday schools have their own course of study so that no child can pass from one Sunday school to another and find his proper grade with any degree of ease. No township in the United States, having seven thousand children in its public schools, would allow the superintendent of one school to prepare his course of study independent of the rest. For the sake of the church, as well as for the sake of the children, we need the development of the Sunday School Institute with a department of religious education under the immediate direction of the bishop.

religion of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

V

In the history of Christianity, some of the darkest pages are those which record so-called ritual controversies and this is not unreasonable. It is striking that in the ten commandments, the only one with a penalty attached is the second, which relates to false worship. The familiar scriptural adage that the sins of the fathers are visited upon the children unto the third and fourth generation—is not applied in the Bible to the sins of the flesh but

to the sin of false worship. It is most important that the worship of God should be expressed in proper form. The cathedral officer charged with the due maintenance of worship is the precentor. It is his duty to see that the services are orderly and lawfully conducted. He has charge of the choir and the music of the cathedral. He is in reality the bishop's Secretary of Public Worship. It is not too much to say that if in each diocese this officer of the cathedral had been retained from the beginning and the office had not been allowed to pass into abeyance, nine-tenths, if not all, of the ritual controversies would have been avoided for it is not conceivable that with an officer in each diocese, charged, under the bishop, with the wise and proper direction of public worship, any combined defection could have gained strength enough to develop into serious proportion. While the precentor has charge of the worship and service of the cathedral church, he should not have, under his sole control, the ritual or

The bishop's Secretary for Religious Education is the canon chancellor, who would have charge of the religious instruction of the children, the training of young men for the ministry, examinations for Holy Orders, while before him would lie the whole vast field of the student life of this country, that student life in which, to our shame be it said, everything under heaven is taught and admirably taught except the

the ordering of the cathedral ser

vices.

For the present, our Constitution provides that this control or ordering shall be entirely in the hands of the bishop "and the delegation of any part of this power to the dean or the precentor, is left for future consideration." Experience in English cathedrals, however, has taught that the ritual of the cathedral church and the ordering of its services should not be in the hands of any one man any longer than is necessary, not even in the hands of the bishop. As soon as the proper precedent has been established, in order that there may be in the cathedral, the establishment of a permanent type of service for the diocese, not easily changeable by succeeding bishops, the control of the ritual and the ordering of the cathedral service should be delegated by the bishop to the presbytery.

VI

No age of the world has been so noted for the development of philanthropy as the one in which we are now living. While recognizing the great charities of our Church in this country, it is nevertheless a fact that those without the Church, secular or, as some say, "non-sectarian," are greater. The growth of the associated charities of the charity organization, for instance, is the secular development of a work which the Church could undertake far better. Organized charity, which has achieved admirable results in the cities, is nothing but the choosing of some one competent man to do the work and then putting it in his hands to do.

the cathedral had not been allowed to drop into abeyance, there would be no need for any secular secretary for the associated charities, because the greater part of individual charity work is still done by the churches. The associated charities, for instance, in this city, are obliged to maintain certain stations at considerable cost, but so far as the Church is concerned, each parish church in the city is a station to be used without cost and the Daughters of the King and the other organizations are visiting agencies capable of great use. What is needed is the placing of the charitable work of the Church in the hands of some one man in each diocese and making him responsible for its effectiveness. The almoner, as such, would be the officer to whom the hospitals, asylums and other institutions as well as the parochial charitable organizations would look for aid and for guidance.

The canon almoner is the bishop's Secretary for Social Service and as, with the other officers, his duties and opportunities are not limited to those of the city of Washington only but they have a wider outlook towards the poor, the sick, those who are in prison or in necessity throughout the length and breadth of the land.

VII

and laymen may be systematized and well-ordered, following the example of the Cathedral Church at Truro, one of the remaining two of the seven canons forming the presbytery should be appointed President of the Honorary Canons and Cathedral Lecturers. According to the constitution of Washington Cathedral, there could be ten Honorary Canons and fifteen Cathedral Lecturers. This body of twenty-five scholarly men, both clerical and lay, may be

come a force of inestimable value under wise direction. It would be the duty of the President of the Honorary Canons and Cathedral Lecturers, under the direction of the Bishop, to set forth and systematize their work in the most effective manner possible.

VIII

Of so vital necessity is it that the cathedral foundation when once established, should never be without an active head and because of the exigencies of modern times, the bishop must of necessity be absent on visitations and for other causes for a greater or less extent, the seventh of the canons forming the presbytery, should be the sub-dean, whose duty it would be to become the acting dean, in the absence of both the bishop and the dean and to take such other work as might be assigned to him by the bishop. In many of the cathedrals, the order of sequence of the clergy composing the presbytery is set forth by canon so that the one in proper succession becomes automatically the head of the chap

ter whenever, for any reasons, those in superior authority may be absent.

IX

Inasmuch as the work of the presbytery is necessarily of a general character and may often call individual members away from important service in the cathedral itself, to the end that the cathedral services may be maintained in due order, without interruption, minor canons or priests-vicar, as they are called in many of the English cathedrals, are provided. According to the same ancient precedent, their number should be, in Washington Cathedral, limited to seven, that is to say, one for each member of the Presbytery. The duties of the Minor Canons should be primarily the maintenance of the daily services in the Cathedral and such other work as may be assigned to them under the Bishop's direction by the Canon to whom they are appointed.

Four words suggest the character of cathedral organization: It is primitive, the oldest of all Christian organizations, and it has by no means outgrown its usefulness and its possibilities; it is progressive, though not necessarily from a political standpoint; it consists of a body of men under the bishop not hampered by the parochial ties, but free for active missionary work. It is a popular institution, able to bring all sorts and conditions of men together. It is the one organization that outlasts the rise and fall of the nations and the changes of government—the most permanent of all institutions.