Word: rectorates
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
When he was four, his playthings were banished to the attic "so that he should learn that there were more serious things in life than toys." At the age of five, when he developed such "sinful propensities" as a love of lollipops, his rector uncle was called in to flog his bare bottom with a riding crop. Because he became understandably fond of a pet cat, it was taken from him and hanged...
...Angry Council. There were no more genial Sunday teas on the lawn beneath the big trees of the rectory. Indeed, the rector put up a barbed-wire fence around his house. When he tried to sell not only the organ but the church's prized 13th century chalice-to get money for a parish sports program-the parish council refused to approve it. And Nick Bunt, the church warden, a testy-tempered farmer, shouted a plain warning: "If you touch that organ, I'll down...
Nick Bunt and the angry council asked the Bishop of Truro to remove Densham. Under the Church of England's constitution; however, the bishop was powerless, for the rector had committed no crime, and he was conducting the services acceptably. Stuck with their rector, the flock retaliated by refusing to go to church. Some went to other Anglican churches; others drifted off to Warleggon's Methodist chapel. After 1935, not a soul among Warleggon's parishioners entered the church for Sunday services again...
...self-imposed isolation, the rector's convictions grew into eccentricities. The rectory grounds became a small wilderness, the rectory itself rundown and rat-ridden. The rector refused to see anyone without four days notice-in writing. His only steady contact with the parish was Burt Mefton, a handyman who brought him his groceries. The rector lived on oatmeal, apples and bread. He sent his tea and candy rations to needy parishioners...
...Black Carriages. Week in & week out, though, the rector held services. Each Sunday he unlocked the church doors, robed himself and preached two services to the bare 13th century walls. He sang the hymns himself, and composed his sermons with care. Occasionally curious visitors would drop in to hear him. To supplement their attendance, he placed cards in the first six pews bearing the names of his predecessors-Warleggon rectors since the days of the Normans. "I am not sure I do not prefer my congregation of ghosts," he would say. "They cannot object to any innovation I make...