Every Sunday at 8 A.M. there is Communion, Prayer (choral), with sermon, at 11; second celebration at 12 30. Evening prayer (choral) and sermon at 7 P.M. Thursday, at 8. A.M., Communion. 11 A.M., morning prayer.
Saints’ days: Two celebrations and daily prayer, at 8 A.M. and 5 P.M.
There are several small charities, a day-school, and Sunday-school, both in their infancy.
THE Roman Catholic Oratory stands within an enclosure of high brick walls and gates, above which its plain brick, warehouse-looking south gable is visible, and if it were not that the said gable is surmounted by a plain Latin cross, there is nothing to indicate an ecclesiastical structure. The interior (in effect reminding one of a large music-hall) is Italian in its style of the simplest kind, painted and gilded. The nave or body of the church is very long, roofed in one span, and covered with a plain panelled ceiling. The northern end is occupied by the high altar, richly decorated with artificial flowers and burdened with candles. The altar stands considerably elevated and enclosed by dwarf balustrades, and flanked by rather ornate benches or sedilia. The nave floor is entirely occupied by mean wooden benches, intersected by a centre and two side passages, the latter giving entrance and exit also to numerous recesses or bays, which serve as chapels, in which are erected altars to saints; and also to a number of confessionals, by which last we infer that the practice of confession is carried on to a great extent by Oratorians. As to the saints, those represented at the Oratory have their altars all duly supplied with pictures, candles, and flowers, and have their particular admirers and devotees. A large platform kind of pulpit is on the west side, in which the preacher is accommodated with a chair. The font is very plain, close to the main entrance doors in the bay called the Baptistry.