26 



ANGLICAN CHURCHES. 



ings of the Ritualistic party were held during 

 the session, at which it was decided to present 

 a petition to the Convocations of Canterbury 

 and York in favor of such action as should in- 

 sure the "retention of such ornaments of the 

 Church and of the ministers thereof as were 

 prescribed by and used under the Prayer-book 

 of 1549." At similar meetings of the Evangeli- 

 cal party, resolutions were adopted pledging 

 resistance to all attempts at a revision of the 

 rubrics in " an anti-Protestant" direction, and 

 more particularly to all proposals to legalize 

 vestments and the Eastward position. The 

 Congress was regarded as a very successful 

 one. The attendance was so large as to make 

 necessary a division into two sections. The 

 various schools of opinion in the Church were 

 well represented in most of the discussions. 



A Church Congress was held at Edinburgh 

 May 18th, 19th, and 20th. The programme 

 embraced papers and discussions upon the fol- 

 lowing topics : " The Past and Present Condi- 

 tion of the Episcopal Church in Scotland;" 

 " The Evangelizing Work of the Church ; " 

 "Foreign Missionary "Work," on which subject 

 a paper was assigned to Bishop Callaway, of 

 Independent Kaffraria; "Church Finance," 

 papers by Messrs. W. Mitchell and Lordson 

 "Walker; "Diocesan, Parochial, and Con- 

 gregational Organization," papers and ad- 

 dresses by the Rev. J. Erskine Clarke, of Bat- 

 tersea, Canon Humble, of Perth, Dr. Mack- 

 ness, of Broughton Ferry, and the Rev. F. 

 Sandford, of Edinburgh ; "'Christianity in Rela- 

 tion to Modern Unbelief," papers and ad- 

 dresses by Provost Cazenove, of Cumbral, 

 Provost Powell, of Inverness, Prebendary 

 Clark, of Taunton, Dr. McCann, of Glasgow, 

 and the Rev. Gedart Jackson, of Leith ; " The 

 Training and Supply of Clergy," discourse 

 by Canon Barry, of King's College, London, 

 Prof. Lorimer, of Edinburgh University, and 

 the Rev. J. Oowper, of Aberdeen ; " On Quick- 

 ening and Strengthening Spiritual Life in the 

 Church," the Rev. W. D. Maclagan,of New- 

 ington ; " The Relation of the Church to Edu- 

 cation," discussed by the Rev. W. Percy 

 Robinson, of Trinity College, Glenahnond, 

 the Rev. Julius Lloyd, of Greenock, the Rev. 



F. Teesdale, of Inverness Grammar-School, and 

 Mr. G. Auldjo Jameson, of "Edinburgh; "The 

 Ecclesiastical Architecture of Scotland," Sir G. 



G. Scott; "The Cathedral Organization of 

 Scotland," Rev. Mackenzie E. C. Walcott, 

 Precentor and Prebendary of Chichester. 



The Exeter Reredos Case. The questions of 

 the lawfulness of images in churches and of 

 the power of the bishop over the cathedral 

 were partly involved in a case known as the 

 " Exeter Reredos Case," which engaged the 

 attention of the . ecclesiastical courts in the 

 summer of 1874. The Dean and Chapter of 

 Exeter Cathedral, in repairing the cathedral 

 building, had determined to erect a reredos, 

 containing figures sculptured in alto-rilievo and 

 arranged in groups to represent the Ascension, 



the Transfiguration, and the Descent of the Holy 

 Ghost. The spot where it was intended to set 

 it up had been occupied by tablets containing 

 the ten commandments. The bishop opposed 

 the erection, but, his authority to forbid it 

 having been disputed, proceedings were insti- 

 tuted before Mr. Justice Keating to test the 

 legal points. It was held on behalf of the 

 bishop that the work was illegal from the be- 

 ginning, having been commenced without his 

 faculty, and that the images were forbidden 

 by the rubrics. The dean and chapter pleaded 

 that in matters of cathedral decoration their 

 authority was quite independent of that of the 

 bishop ; that the images, being in relief, and 

 not statues, were not of the class forbidden in 

 the rubrics; and that, by being arranged in 

 groups to represent events, they were not liable 

 to the objection attached to single images. Jus- 

 tice Keating affirmed the power of the bishop 

 in the premises, and sustained his decision that 

 the images were unlawful. The bishop pro- 

 nounced a judgment in accordance with the 

 opinion of Justice Keating. An appeal waa 

 taken by the dean and chapter to the Court 

 of Arches, by whom a decision was given in 

 August, reversing those of Justice Keating and 

 the bishop. 



In order to meet a supposed emergency re- 

 quiring the provision of facilities for enlarging 

 the episcopate in India, the Judicial Commit- 

 tee of the Privy Council, at the suggestion of 

 the Christian Knowledge Society, early in the 

 year recommended the passage of an enabling 

 act empowering the bishops in India to re- 

 arrange their existing dioceses, to constitute 

 new dioceses, and to consecrate additional bish- 

 ops. They suggested the appointment of coad- 

 jutor bishops for the missions of Southern In- 

 dia, as a temporary expedient, and even went 

 so far as to suggest the amount of income that 

 should be allotted to each bishop. 



The report of the joint committee on the new 

 canons and constitutions was presented to the 

 convocations of Canterbury and York during 

 the year. It proposed a reduction of the one 

 hundred and forty-one canons of 1003 to ninety 

 canons. 



A society has been formed in England, of 

 which the Bishop of Winchester has been 

 chosen president, with the object of bringing 

 about the union with the Anglican Church of 

 Nonconformist bodies that hold the funda- 

 mental tenets of Christian faith, such as the 

 doctrine of the Trinity, the Incarnation, and 

 the Atonement. The society purposes to avoid 

 carefully compromising in any way the creeds 

 and the constitution of the Church. It in- 

 tends, however, to advocate freedom of action 

 in matters of secondary importance. Its plan 

 of work is : 1. To diffuse, by means of lectures, 

 public meetings, and other instrumentalities, a 

 better knowledge of the history, principles, 

 and formulas of the Established Church ; 2. 

 To promote kindly feelings between Church- 

 men and Nonconformists by means of friendly 



