Page:Notes of Meetings of the Clergy of the Archdeaconry of Worcester March 1857.djvu/10

 The Ordination of persons of inferior education to that now required.

A Subdiaconate.

Tradesmen, and other persons in business, to be admissible to the Order of Deacon and Subdeacon, without forsaking their worldly calling.

A longer continuance in the Order of Deacons.

No Clergyman to be admitted to any Incumbency until he has been five years in Holy Orders.

Lay influence to be called into much more exercise.

Lay agency, by Scripture Readers.

The Services of Ladies to be more generally sought.

Brotherhoods and Sisterhoods, under proper control, and acting as helpers to the Clergy in large Parishes.

Guilds.

Associations of young Men in Parishes, for specific active service.

Laymen to be induced to undertake the work which does not specially belong to the Ministerial Office.

Laymen to be licensed and encouraged to teach, or preach, in rooms, or in the open air.

Communicants to be organized, as an agency for drawing the people to Church.

Parish Clerks, better qualified than is usual now, to be helpers to the Pastor.

A Society of Sponsors to be formed from amongst the Communicants in each Parish, and to be ready to fulfil that office when required to do so.

Sponsorship to be either revised, or abolished, as being at present a frequent obstacle to the baptism of children in populous parishes.

Middle Schools to be generally established.

Church Discipline to be improved.

Prayers to be provided for the people to use in private, supplicating the much wider diffusion of true religion and virtue.

Letters commendatory (such as are now given to Emigrants) to be given lo those who migrate from the country into populous places. Such letters to be addressed to the Clergy of the Districts in which the bearers are about to reside.