TEMPLE OF SILENCE

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 152, 24 December 1929, Page 10

TEMPLE OF SILENCE

SERVICE FOR DEAF MUTES

SERMON IN SIGN WORDS

A man stood on the steps of a tiny church in Evelyn street, Deptford, oa the morning of 27th October, and as people crossed the road to enter he made .weird, rapid signs to them with' his fingers, says Mr. B. Ulyss Eogers, iv the "Daily Express."

They responded with similar semaphore signals, and went within the church. Onlookers gazed in wonder. .' Mr. Rogers continues:—" Then the man s eyes caught mine. A broad smile of welcome crossed his features. I said something to him. He watched •mv lips, and made a painful effort to reply, but no articulate word came. Theii he pointed to the open door, and his fingers began their mystic operations

Still I failed to grasp his meaning Then quite slowly he said on his fiSgers: "Coming in?" I knew enough, of his sign alphabet and replied on my fingers, very deliberately, "Thanks." I found myself in a neat little church: that would seat, perhaps, eighty people. There was no. organ, and I knew why there was no need for one. Ther»: would be no music, no singing The congregation would be all deaf and dumb. Men and women were eoinsr to praise God in infinite silence. Ears had they, but they heard not; tongues had they, but they spoke not. • My friend of the church steps ushered me through the temple of silence to a waiting hall beyond. Here the early comers had assembled. They, grouped themselves about a fire and' chatted," with bewilderingly digital dexterity. And as their arms and fingers worked like lightning their facial expressions, now grave, now eager, now sad, gave excessive dramatic vividness to their "conversation."

The vicar came, tlio Her. TV. Draper *- who has spent fifty devoted years among the silent people. He has been thirty-seven years at this church of St. Barnabas, ministering to the deaf mutes, many hopelessly poor, of Deptford, Woolwich, and Greenwich. He himself is partially deaf. i We re-entered the church. It was •Holy Communion. The minister, in cassock ajid stole, stood before the altar with its two bursing candles. Hi« lips and his hands moved. Every eye was fixed' on his face and Lis mobile lips. Almost in a whisper he was saying the First Commandment, translating with his fingers, his face, his actions, as he went. He ceased. Then, led by a woman in the front pew, fingers were busy for a space. They were making the response. "Lord have mercy, upon us, and incline cur hearts to keeti this law."

The minister's five minutes' sermon; from Philippians, "I pray that your !ove may abound yet more and more in. knowledge and in all 'judgment," was eloquent in sign language. What an actor the minister would, have made! "Knowledge"—he raised his forefinger to his brow, his face recorded "Wisdom." They knew. "Love —heart—kindliness"—he did not spell these things. His arms embraced himselt, he placed a hand on his heart his face radiated charity. They knew When he spoke of Phillippi ""now ia I rums,» his gesture created a tremendous picture of a devastated eitv The deaf and dumb went to the" chancel. There they received the Sacrament, a sign and symbol administered with signs and symbols. After the service Jlr. Draper related, something of his work. He had 650 names ana addresses of deaf mutes in. his "parish."

"I have a little-business to do yet '» « Si ll<* «luietly as he disappeared ia the hall beyond.

-r "^ A 6 result of SSO accidents, od« f" tlsh firm lost 41,135 working hours v I