THE festival of Our Lady was observed in the county of Suffolk
with the inauguration of a new era in the history of the Church in
East Anglia. St Edmundsbury, a town with a tragic past, which is
visibly marked in the pathetic ruins of one of the greatest of
English religious houses, became on Wednesday the seat of a Bishop,
and the parish church of St James assumed Cathedral rank, when the
first Bishop of the new See was solemnly enthroned. Outwardly
impressive as the ceremony of enthronement was, its true
significance lay in the opening of a new chapter in the record of
the town and county. The formation of new Sees in our day has
everywhere been followed by a fresh and vigorous outburst of
quickened Church activity, and we cannot doubt that, by the Divine
blessing, the Church in East Anglia will increase in strength,
though, as the new Bishop said in his sermon, the severance from
Ely and Norwich which is involved will at first be felt with regret
by many Churchpeople. The Bishop read a happy omen in the very name
of Felix, the saint whose name is plainly seen in Felixstowe and
can be dimly discovered in other place-names that have undergone
phonetic changes; and pointed to the fact that the faith which St
Felix believed and taught will still be taught and believed in East
Anglia.
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