IT APPEARS that a new Use
of Hereford has been created, the chief feature of which is the
omission of the Quicunque vult from the morning office on
the days on which it is appointed by the Church of England to be
recited. An order to this effect was issued the other day by the
Dean and Chapter to the Minor Canons to ignore the existing rubric
from St Andrew's Day onwards. In consequence of the Dean and
Chapter's action, Dr Hermitage Day, who was announced to preach a
course of sermons in Advent, declined to do so, and there was no
sermon at Friday's service. The last has not yet been heard of the
matter. There exists among the clergy of Hereford Cathedral, the
prebendaries and others, a strong feeling against the arbitrary and
unwarrantable conduct of the canons, whose aim, it appears, is to
make it into a centre of advanced Liberal opinion. It is not to be
supposed that it will suffice them to get rid of the Athanasian
Creed. The next thing they will do will be to excise from prayer,
collects, and creeds all reference to the Virgin Birth. If they are
to be opposed they should be opposed now, and it seems to us that a
grave responsibility rests upon those whose business it is to
recite the daily offices in Hereford Cathedral. If they were to
insist upon their position as ministers of the Church, not the
servants of the Chapter, they could not be compelled to obey an
order which forbids them to do that which they are required by a
higher authority to do.
[Dr Day, a frequent contributor to the Church
Times, became its Editor in 1915.]