14 



ANGLICAN" CHURCHES. 



grants in augmentation of the income of needy 

 benefices; the acceptance and administration of 

 special funds for the clergy, whether by way of per- 

 manent endowment or in any other manner, accord- 

 ing to the wishes of the donor: and co-operation 

 with other institutions having similar objects. The 

 governing body of the fund will be a board of 

 laymen, consisting of 3 members elected by each 

 diocese. Subject to the control of this board, the 

 fund will be managed by an executive committee 

 of 42 laymen, of whom 6 will be nominated by each 

 of the 2 archbishops, and the remaining 80 will be 

 elected by the board, 10 in each year, to hold office 

 for three years. 



Declarations against Unlawful Marriages. 

 At a meeting of the English Church Union, held 

 Dec. 19, 1895, the Duke of Newcastle presiding, it 

 was resolved, on motion of Canon Knox Little, 

 " that a petition, to be signed by members of the 

 Union and other Church people, be presented to the 

 bishops of the provinces of Canterbury and York, 

 praying them to take immediate and effectual steps 

 to put a stop to the scandal resulting from the 

 blessing of the Church being given by individual 

 clergymen to the marriage of divorced persons con- 

 trary" to the law of the Church of England, to the 

 contempt of all ecclesiastical discipline, and to the 

 grievous injury of Christian morality." Resolutions 

 have been passed in the two Convocations condemn- 

 ing such marriages and disapproving the sanction 

 of them by clergymen. 



The Australian Anglican Synod has passed a 

 resolution disapproving of the use of the Church 

 service and Church buildings for the marriage of 

 divorced persons, except for the party wronged in 

 a case of adultery. 



The Home Reunion Society. The report of 

 the Home Reunion Society, presented at its annual 

 meeting, June 25, stated that at the beginning of 

 the year the council had decided to organize two 

 conferences one with the Church of Scotland and 

 one with the Wesleyans. Several courteous letters 

 were exchanged, but circumstances pointed to the 

 necessity of postponing the conferences to a more 

 suitable time. The address of the Rev. Mr. Shake- 

 speare, Baptist, at the Norwich Church Congress in 

 1895, had resulted in an interchange of courtesies 

 between the nonconformist ministers and a clerical 

 society in that city. The impossibilities of union 

 seemed as great as ever, but the very fact of such 

 a meeting being held in such a spirit must have a 

 healing effect. 



The Liberation Society. The annual meeting 

 of t he Society for the Liberation of Religion from 

 the Patronage and Control of the State was held in 

 London in May. The report dwelt upon the ad- 

 vance that had been made for Welsh disestablish- 

 ment since 1892, commended as a whole the bill 

 before Parliament, while criticising some of its de- 

 tails, and advised the friends of Scottish disestab- 

 lishment to adopt means to quicken the action of 

 the Government and to counteract the strenuous 

 efforts that would be made at the next election to 

 defeat candidates in favor of disestablishment. 

 Other measures of "piecemeal disestablishment" 

 were touched upon, and in the educational work of 

 the campaign the friends of the society were urged 

 to seize the present golden opportunity for new 

 efforts to instruct the public mind and appeal to 

 the public conscience. The report maintained that 

 profound dissatisfaction e\isted within the Kstab- 

 lished Church at the growth of sacerdotalism wit hi n 

 its pair, as well as at, the impossibility of obtaining 

 from Parliament reforms required to secure the lib- 

 erty which is ''as breath and life " to a progressive 

 Church. Beside.- enforcing the expressions of the 

 report on these subjects, the resolutions passed at 



the annual meeting of the society urged determined 

 resistance to all attempts to sectarianize the board 

 schools, and called upon the advocates of religious 

 equality to take steps for such educational work in 

 the constituencies, in view of the next general elec- 

 tion, as would secure the return of a House of Com- 

 mons pledged to the policy of disestablishment. 



Church Defense and Church Reform. Two 

 methods have been adopted by the friends of the 

 Church of England to meet the attacks that are 

 made upon the Establishment, and to commend the 

 Church to the continued regard of the people to 

 whom the Liberationists address their arguments 

 Church defense and Church reform. The methods 

 of the Church Defense Societies are sanctioned by 

 the bishops, and branches have been formed in the 

 parishes. Their purpose is to organize committee,, 

 in every diocese, archdeaconry, rural deanery, and 

 parish for the purpose of disseminating informa- 

 tion about the history and work of the Church, and 

 its claims to the endowments which it possesses. The 

 chief means employed for accomplishing this ob- 

 ject are lectures and the distribution of literature 

 and leaflets. 



It is, however, recognized even by the warmest, 

 friends of the Church that there are certain fea- 

 tures in its organization and its relations to the 

 Government and the people that need to be modi- 

 fied. The pursuit of this object has resulted in the 

 movement for Church reform and the formation of 

 the Church Reform League, an association non- 

 political in character, and intended to embrace 

 Churchmen of all schools, which was organized in 

 November, 1895. This body issued a pamphlet in 

 August, 1896, which opens with the observation 

 that no one is entirely satisfied with the condition 

 of the Church as it is, and that the league appeals 

 to Churchmen with the view of uniting as many as 

 possible in formulating a wide and reasonable 

 scheme of reforms and arousing public interest in 

 them. It is maintained in the pamphlet that a 

 change is needed in the election of bishops, and 

 that it is time to do away with the income limit of 

 8,000 per annum that seriously thwarts the found- 

 ing of new sees. The work of the Church, it says, 

 calls for a large episcopate; it in no way demands 

 a rich episcopate. It also declares that " our houses 

 of laymen should be the crown of an organized rep- 

 resentation that begins with the parish." After re- 

 citingthe terms of the first clause of Magna Charta, 

 " that the English Church be free and have its rights 

 whole and its liberties unimpaired," the address sets 

 forth the principles of the reform to be advocated 

 by the league under the following heads : 



"/. Self-government of tfie Church: That, sav- 

 ing the supremacy of the Crown according to law, 

 and, in respect to legislation, subject to the veto of 

 Parliament, the Church have freedom for self-gov- 

 ernment, by means of reformed Houses of Convo- 

 cation (which shall be thoroughly representative, 

 with power for the Canterbury and York Con vo- 

 cations to sit together if desired), together with a 

 representative body or bodies of the laity. 77. /V 

 sifion of the Laity : That the laity have the princi- 

 pal share in the administration of finance, and, 

 within the fixed limits of Church order, a real con- 

 trol in the appointing of their pastors, and in all 

 matters of ecclesiastical organization and adminis- 

 tration a concurrent voice with the clergy. That 

 the communicants of every parish have a recognized 

 power to prevent the arbitrary alteration of lawful 

 customs in ritual. N. B. This is not to be under- 

 stood as encroaching upon the province of the spir- 

 ituality in relation to matters of faith, worship, and 

 discipline. III. />/.sr//V///c : That all ministers and 

 Church officers be removable by disciplinary pro- 

 cess benefices being made tenable only during the 



