On Christmas Eve a special service was held at Westminster
Abbey for the acceptance of a new pro- cessional cross, given by the Hon. Rodman -Wanamaker, of the United States. After the singing of a carol the cross was carried from • the west door of the Abbey to the Presbytery, where the Dean and the rest of the Abbey clergy received the gift. Colonel Wood, who was charged by Mr. Wanamaker to make the presenta- tion, declared that the cross was offered as a symbol of the Anglo-American Entente. Colonel Wood, after acknowledging the honour of being allowed to add to the numberless treasures already enshrined in the Abbey—that is, in the religious centre of the British Empire—declared that the donor trusted that the cross would prove an emblem of that friendship among English-speaking races which he had so much at heart. The Dean then accepted the gift, which he placed on the altar, as a pledge of brotherhood among English-speaking peoples. The cross, which is evidently a wonderful piece of workmanship, has a series of beaten gold panels on which sacred subjects are represented. The figures of the founders and patrons of the Abbey are well chosen-- St. Peter, King Sebert, Edward the Confessor, Henry HI., Henry VII. and Queen Elizabeth. It is stated that no wood was used in making the cross, which is entirely built up of precious metals, ivory, enamel and sapphires. We are glad that the Dean and Chapter of Westminster so fully recognize that the Abbey is the shrine of the I whole English-speaking race, whose unity in diversity is fully recognized within its walls.
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