St Anne's Church, Manchester: Adding to Scripture

I recently called at St Anne’s Church in central Manchester. It is a pleasant, airy place and a refreshing contrast to the heavy gothic typical of old churches. There I was pleased to see Bibles on the pews, but disappointed to see they contained the Apocrypha. This is a collection of Jewish writings from the inter-testamental period, that is, between Malachi and Matthew. I’ve read them, they are interesting. Some are history, others offer advice on table manners. They are not however, scripture. They were added to the canon in 1546 by the Roman Catholic Council of Trent. Luther rejected them (though he allowed they might profitably be read) for the very good reasons that no Jews ever considered them inspired, nor the early church. Furthermore, they contain erroneous doctrines such as purgatory and magic. For example,

Water will quench a flaming fire, and alms maketh atonement for sin. Ecclesiasticus 3:30

‘And the angel, answering, said to him: If thou put a little piece of its heart upon coals, the smoke thereof driveth away all kind of devils, either from man or from woman, so that they come no more to them.’ Tobit 6:8.

That we should be inserting these books into the middle of sacred scripture is repugnant.