Page:Distinguished Churchmen.djvu/113

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THE DEAN OF MANCHESTER
85

after the Cathedral fabric, and he is not soon likely to forget the hubbub created over the erection of the new reredos. Then, in a rash moment, Canon Knox Little expressed views on the subject of evening Communion, in the course of a Sermon preached at a Lenten Service. Certain people were loud in their protests. “The Church,” they argued, “laid down no law as to the time Communion ought to be taken, and Canon Knox Little had made a grave mistake when he used the Cathedral pulpit to attack a large party in the Church, who believed that evening Communion was perfectly lawful and right.” While agreeing generally with Canon Knox Little, the Dean did not approve the Canon's discretion in the way he treated a subject so highly controversial, and took him to task for the terms in which he spoke. The importance of that affair waned with age, and the storm eventually blew over. But not so with other matters. It seems the last has yet to be heard of the reredos, of coloured stoles, of lighted candles, of the eastward position at Holy Communion, of the singing of the Agnus Dei after the consecration of the elements, and of the Nunc Dimittis after the administration of the Holy Communion. All this opposition, it is fair to state, the Dean has met with a bold front, maintaining that he knows of no practice at the Cathedral contrary to the law of the Church of England, according to its most recent interpretation