Untitled - Electric Scotland

1 860-68] ST. ALBAN S, HOLBORN 423
beseeching him not to consecrate it. One of these, from
a neighbouring incumbent, was as follows :
The Rev. to the Bishop of London
"Feb. 18, 1863.
" MY LORD, I cannot suppress my sorrow that your Lordship
will consecrate St. Alban s with its present clergy. ... I entreat
your Lordship to consider the fearful responsibility that you, a
Bishop of the Protestant Church, are incurring. These are their
doctrines : Auricular Confession, Prayers for the Dead, Absolution
(opus operatum), Invocation of the Virgin, Extreme Unction,
Corporal Presence.
"
It was my duty, I feel, to have called upon the Primate with
all faithful diligence to banish and drive away all erroneous and
strange doctrine contrary to God s Word from his Province of
Canterbury. But I cannot bring myself to offer this obvious
slight to your Lordship, and therefore I trust I shall be held
harmless in this matter, and that your Lordship will write and
state the same to me for the relief of my conscience, since I
almost feel that I ought to have called together a meeting of
Presbyters when the leaders of the Church neglect their duty,
and certainly ought to have laid the matter before the Primate.
With deep regret that your Lordship s rule over London should
be instrumental to such doctrines, I remain your Lordship s
faithful servant,
The Consecration Service took place on February 21,
1863, and Bishop Tait s sermon on the occasion was full of
kindly sympathy and encouragement as to the difficulty
and the hopefulness of the new work thus begun among
those squalid streets.
But there was already friction between the founder,
High Churchman as he was, and the new Vicar. Within
a few days of the Consecration Mr. Hubbard, as church
warden, wrote to ask the Bishop s counsel :-
"As Altar lights were not used," he said, "on the day of
Consecration, I beg to know your mind upon the subject. If
your Lordship does not object to the use of lights as an accessory
."