Sir Alfred Munnings having sold a first edition of his
auto- biography, decorated with sketches by himself, at Christie's to an American purchaser, has presented the proceeds-350 guineas—to the Church of the Good Shepherd, Lower Sloane Street. Sick animals are prayed for there once a month, and Sir Alfred has explained to an interviewer that " Dr. Nicholson [the minister or incumbent] is a good soul. He prays for animals and it is marvellous to see dogs there—with their heads hanging over the pews." I am sure Dr. Nicholson is a good soul; whether he is a good Dr. is not quite so certain. I have had by me for some time a cutting describing how a new religion, " The New Pentecostal Church of Christ," was inaugurated on a Saturday afternoon in 1948 by "His Beatitude the Most Rev. Mar Georgius I, Patriarch of Glastonbury, General Moderator of the Fellowship of Christian Free Churches." The Minister of the Church of the Good Shepherd, the Rev. H. P. Nicholson became " the Very Rev." as Modera- tor of the new denomination. To add to the Ph.D. after his name the "archbishop" conferred on him an M.A. degree. After- wards he told a reporter " They are International University degrees." Readers of this column will have heard something of that kind of degree before.
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