From the Royal Cornwall Gazette, Friday 23rd May 1862, page 4.
We were able last week to give only a very hurried notice of the opening of the church that morning. We proceed to give a detailed account of the opening services.
As we stated last week, the clergy, about thirty in number, preceded by the churchwardens, members of the Committee, and other lay friends, walked in procession from the vicarage to the church, the organ playing the Hallelujah Chorus as they entered. The prayers were read by the Rev. R. Vautier, vicar, and the Rev. G. Woollcombe, curate, the Lessons by the Rev. Prebendary Tatham, and the Rev. C.D. Newman, and the Altar Service by the Archdeacon, the Rural Dean, and the Vicar. The Archdeacon preached, and afterwards, with the Rural Dean, and the clergy of the parish church, administered the Holy Communion to a large number of communicants. The Sermon was from Malachi Ⅰ, 8: “If ye offer the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil, and if ye offer the lame and the sick, is it not evil?” He observed, that it might be asked, what difference could it make to God, who in the 50th Psalm declares ‘I will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices,’ &c. The reason is simple. It made no difference to God in respect to His own advantage, but the difference was in the disposition of him who made the offering, and the Lord was displeased or pleased accordingly. So it made no difference to God whether the house erected to His worship was a stately building of architectural propriety, or one of the hideous conventicles which disfigure this county. The difference is in the state of mind of those who give to God what they would not think good enough for themselves. If any person give the greater part of his wealth in works of piety and benevolence, reserving to himself mere necessaries, this might be deemed an excuse for abstaining from contributing to the building of a house of prayer; yet the poor widow in the Gospel was commended by our Lord for casting two mites, her whole living, into the Treasury of the Temple. And it is to be remembered that women were continually found setting an example in all good works to men. The Bible presents many such examples—Hannah, who gave her first-born to serve in God’s tabernacle, and who obtained in return manifold and enduring blessings; the woman who anointed our Saviour’s feet with precious ointment, whom His disciples reproached for the waste, but to whom our Lord gave a special commendation and promise. A special opportunity was now offered to the congregation present. The principle was the same, and doubtless the praise would be the same too. Truro was the metropolis of the West; the gatherings of the County, for business and pleasure, took place here, and the principal institutions of the County, the County Infirmary, the Diocesan Training College, were established in the town. It would say little for the taste and liberality of the inhabitants if they allowed their churches to fall to decay. But they had voluntarily come forward, and not only repaired what the lightning had struck, but restored what time had decayed, adorning their church with all fitting decoration, the tessellated pavement, the graceful tracery, the rich glass, the excellent organ. Not theirs the offence of providing mean buildings for God, while they dwelt in ceiled houses. Not theirs to leave to the Minister and clerk those services which should be shared by the congregation: and here the preacher gave a just rebuke to those who cultivate their voices for display in the drawing room, but join not the congregation in singing the praise of God. He dwelt on the endearing associations which our church presents, in connection with every stage of life, from baptism to burial; and insisted on the great helps to devotion obtained from observing the directions of the church in public worship, by joining in the service, and observing the appropriate changes of posture. He concluded by impressively observing, that as the Jews were distinguished for reverence for the Temple and its services, but were condemned for rejecting the Saviour, so our outward worship will be in vain if we fail to come to the foot of the Cross in humility and penitence, and offer spiritual sacrifices.
After the service, a very large party of clergy, laity, and ladies, were hospitably entertained at the Vicarage. The evening service was held at half-past six. Prayers were read, as in the morning, by the Vicar and Curate, the Lessons, by the Rev. T.H. Britton, vicar of Newlyn, and the Rev. G. Church, incumbent of the District of Chacewater, in Kenwyn. The evening preacher was the Rev. Prebendary Tatham, rector of Boconnoc and Broadoak, who delivered an eloquent and most appropriate discourse, from Ephesians Ⅱ., 19, 20, 21st verses. “Now, therefore, ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God; and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; in whom all the building, fitly framed together, groweth into an holy temple in the Lord. After explaining the text in relation to admitting the Gentiles into covenant with Israel to form one communion, the preacher shewed the application of the metaphor of a material building as figuring the christian church, shewing how the term edification applied, both to the building up of Christ’s Church, and of the perfecting of the individual christian to be a temple for the Holy Ghost. And as in the building in which they were assembled there were materials of all kinds, some displayed and ornamental, others mean and concealed, but all filling a useful and necessary place, so every individual, however eminent and however obscure, had his place to fill in the Church, and his duties to perform.
After the Sermon, the 100th Psalm, old version, was sung, while a collection was made from seat to seat. The organ is now a fine instrument of rich and powerful tone, and the organist, Miss Dunn, played it with great ability. We could have wished however that some of the singing had been congregational in its character. Except the chants, the whole was the performance of the choir. Handel’s magnificent anthem “Worthy is the Lamb” was of course not designed for the congregation, and even the choir failed to give it the requisite precision. The hymn Veni Creator, Dryden’s version, properly in six-line stanzas, but arranged, to the confusion of the sense, in four lines, was sung to a tune which nobody we have met ever heard before; and the glorious Old Hundredth was sung in the new-fangled way which some parties are seeking to introduce, as more correct than the majestic uniform march of melody to which we are accustomed. We may add, that the general familiar custom is sanctioned by the practice at St. Paul’s Cathedral, where the service at the Anniversary of the Charity Schools of London opens with this, and of which Haydn declared, that nothing in music ever so much affected and impressed him as their singing of this Psalm. On the present occasion, the congregation, who would all have sung with heart and voice, if the tune had been given as they were accustomed to it from childhood, left it to the choir.
On Sunday there were the ordinary services of the Church by the Vicar and Curate only; the Vicar preaching in the morning, the Curate in the afternoon, with collections on each occasion. The collections on Thursday, were £48 0s. 2d., and on Sunday, £10 5s. 9d.—in all £58 5s. 11d.
We are reminded by a correspondent that the improvements in old Kenwyn Church, the East windows of stained glass, and the exchange of mean and high square pews, for uniform, low and open seats, took place during the incumbency, and under the influence of the Rev. G.J. Cornish, who was Vicar from 1828 to the end of 1849. We also stated the date of the building of St. John’s Chapel of ease a little later than the fact. It was commenced by the Rev. Dr. Coleridge, who resigned his living in 1828. We also omitted to notice the very great improvement made in this Church the year before last, by throwing out an apse, lowering the galleries, and altogether arranging it with higher regard to convenience and ecclesiastical propriety. But so much has been done in the parish in the last forty years, that in a hasty notice for a newspaper it is difficult not to overlook something.
$Id: kenwyn7.xhtml,v 1.6 2011-10-29 15:52:16 mkc Exp $