ANGLICAN CHURCHES. 



21 





with power, in connection with them, to organ- 

 d,., i, Til 1 Murational Society." Tho nine- 

 i : miii\vrsnry of the Evangelical Knowl- 

 , was likewise held in New York in 

 .-. tin 1 annual report set forth that the 

 published hy the society amounted 

 pages. The treasurer's report an- 

 d that the receipts for the past year 

 to $40,998.32, and the expenditures 

 Mil, leaving a balance of $1,402.01. 

 Church of England continued to be 

 > agitated by the case of Dr. Colenso, 

 who, in tho latter months of the year 1865, re- 

 turn. >d to his diocese of Natal. The Bishop of 

 nvn, as Metropolitan of the Anglican 

 h in North Africa, had offered to Colenso 

 to have tho sentence of deposition, which had 

 been passed upon him by a synod of the South 

 African bishops in 1865, revised either by tho 

 Archbishop of Canterbury, or by the bishops of 

 the United Church of England and Ireland, or 

 by such bishops of the Anglican communion 

 throughout tho British empire as could be as- 

 sembled in London for the hearing of his case. 

 As Colenso refused to avail himself of this of- 

 fer, the metropolitan issued a formal sentence 

 of excommunication, reading as follows : 



la the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, We, Robert, 

 hy Divine permission, Metropolitan of the Church in 

 the province of Capetown, in accordance with the 

 decision of the bishops of the province, in synod as- 

 sembled, do hereby, it being our office and our grief 

 to do so, by the authority of Christ committed unto 

 us, pass upon John William Colenso, D. D., the sen- 

 ince of the greater excommunication, thereby sep- 

 .ating him from the communion of the Church of 

 Jhrist so long as he shall obstinately and impeni- 

 tently persist in his heresy, and claim to exercise 

 the office of a bishop within the province of Cape- 

 town. And we do hereby make known to the faithful 

 in Christ that, being thus excluded from all commu- 

 nion with the Church, he is, according to our Lord's 

 command, and in conformity with the provisions of 

 the Thirty-third of the Articles of Religion, "to be 

 taken of the whole multitude of the faithful, as a 

 heathen man and publican." (Matt, xviii. 1Y, 18.) 



Given under our hand and seal this 16th day of 

 December, in the year of our Lord 1865. 



R. CAPETOWN. 



The Metropolitan of Capetown notified the 

 Anglican bishops of Great Britain, the British 

 colonies, and the United States of this step. In 

 England some of the bishops disapproved of 

 the measure, while, as far as is known, those 

 of the British colonies and the United States 

 were unanimous in sanptioning it. From the 

 Benior bishop of the Protestant Episcopal 

 Church in the United States tho following re- 

 ply was Deceived : 



BPRLTNGTOK, VT., May 4, 1S66. 

 To the Most Reverend Robert Gray, D. D., Lord, 



Bishop of Capetown, and Metropolitan ; 



MY DKA'U LOUD BISHOP : Your official statement of 

 the greater excommunication formally pronounced by 

 you on John William Colenso, D. D., late Bishop of 

 Natal, and addressed to me as the senior bishop of 

 the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States, 

 has been received and placed on record. 



On my own part, this painful 1 and afflicting work 

 of discipline is perfectly approved, as an act of solemn 

 and imperative duty to the Church of God, and to 



her divine Head and Master, the Lord Jesus Christ. 

 And I cannot doubt that it is equally approved by all 

 my brethren, whose sympathy and confidence in the 

 firmness and fidelity of your whole course were so 

 unanimously declared in the resolution passed at 

 our last General Convention. 



With my earnest prayer that lhe Holy Spirit of 

 grace and consolation may guide and prosper all your 

 arduous labors, and mercifully overrule this strange 

 and mournful defection to the greater glory of tne 

 Redeemer, and the confirmation of His Church's ab- 

 solute faith in the sacred Scriptures as the unerring 

 Word of God, I remain, my dear Lord Bishop, with 

 high regard, your friend and brother in Christ, 



[L. s.J JOHN H. HOPKINS, 



Presiding Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal 

 Church in the United States. 



At the session of the convocation of Canter- 

 bury, which began on May 1, 1866, the Arch- 

 bishop of Canterbury announced that he had 

 received letters from the Bishop of Capetown 

 and the Dean of Maritzburg, asking in substance 

 the following questions : 1 . Whether the Church 

 of England hold communion with Dr. Colenso, 

 and the heretical church which he is seeking to 

 establish at Natal, or whether it is in commu- 

 nion with the orthodox bishops who, in synod, 

 declared him to be ipso facto excommunicated, 

 2. Whether the acceptance of a new bishop on 

 the part of the diocese of Natal, while Bishop 

 Colenso still retains the letters-patent of the 

 crown, would, in any way, sever the diocese 

 from the mother Church of England. 3. Sup- 

 posing the reply to the last question to be that 

 they would -not in any way be severed, what 

 are the proper steps for the diocese to take to 

 obtain a new bishop ? The discussion of these 

 questions showed that the bishops were any 

 thing but agreed. Tbe Bishop of Oxford wished 

 all the three questions to be answered in a 

 manly and hearty manner, while the Bishops 

 of St. Asaph, Llandaff, St. Davids, Lincoln, Ely, 

 and Peterborough, were opposed to immediate 

 action. In the session, beginning June 26th, the 

 discussion of the case was resumed. The Bishop 

 of Oxford moved to reply, in answer to the 

 first question submitted to the convocation, 

 that the Church did not hold communion with 

 Dr. Colenso. and that it did hold communion 

 with the orthodox bishops of South Africa. A 

 majority of the bishops were, however, opposed 

 to committing themselves on the first part of the 

 resolution, and by five against four votes adopt- 

 ed an amendment, declaring that they held 

 communion with the Bishop of Capetown, and 

 those bishops who with him declared Dr. Colen- 

 so to be ipso facto excommunicated. The lower 

 house gave to this amendment a unanimous 

 consent. In reply to the second question, the 

 Bishop of Oxford moved the following declara- 

 tion : "That as it has been decided, on appeal 

 to the highest judicial court in this kingdom, on 

 the one hand, that the Church in the province 

 of Natal, in communion with the United Church 

 of England and Ireland, is in the eye of the law 

 a mere voluntary association ; and, on the other 

 hand, as the letters-patent do not profess to 

 confer spiritual power, and have been declared 

 hy the court to convey no episcopal jurisdic- 



