ANGLICAN CHURCHES. 



orations held in India. The Rev. R. Caldwell, 

 D. D., LL. D., and the Rev. E. Sargent, D. D., 

 both South Indian missionaries of more than 

 thirty-five years' standing, were named as the 

 coadjutor bishops designate. The names of 

 their respective sees have not yet been finally 

 determined. The stipends of the new bishops 

 were to be cared for by the Church Missionary 

 Society and the Society for the Propagation of 

 the Gospel, and the Christian Knowledge So- 

 ciety had expressed a willingness to help sup- 

 port them. 



The Public Worship Regulation Act of 1874 

 began to take effect as a law on the 1st of 

 July, 1875, agreeably to its own terms. The 

 new orders for carrying out the act were 

 signed by the Queen on the 28th of June, and 

 were laid before Parliament for its approval. 



The Church Congress. The fifteenth annual 

 Church Congress met at Stoke-upon-Trent 

 October 5th. The Bishop of Lichfield presided. 

 The opening sermon was preached by the Bish- 

 Op of Rochester, - on the "Manifestation of the 

 Spirit." The Bishop of Lichfield, presiding, 

 made the opening address. He read a letter 

 of sympathy and fellowship from the President 

 of the House of Bishops of the Protestant 

 Episcopal Church in the United States. He 

 stated that there were present at the Congress 

 the Bishop of Tennessee, Dr. Potter, Secretary 

 of the American House of Bishops, and several 

 other clergy of the American Protestant Epis- 

 copal Church; the Archbishop of Armagh, 

 representing the Irish Church ; the Bishops of 

 Edinburgh and Argyle, representing the Scotch 

 Church; the Bishops of Ontario, Melbourne, 

 and Nassau, representing the Colonial Church ; 

 so that he might say that all the branches of 

 the Anglican Church were represented. He 

 then proceeded to the consideration of the sub- 

 ject, "The Church of England and the Church- 

 es in Communion with her how they may be 

 drawn more closely together." He claimed 

 for the preceding Church Congress a consid- 

 erable agency in promoting intercourse be- 

 tween the English, American, and Colonial 

 Churches, and reviewed the results of the 

 Conferences held at Cologne in 1872, and at 

 Bonn in 1874 and 1875, as tending to bring 

 the Old Catholic and Eastern Churches into a 

 nearer fellowship with each other and with 

 the Anglican Churches. The discussion of 

 this subject was followed up by the Bishop of 

 Edinburgh, the Bishop of Melbourne, the Rev. 

 Lord Plunkett, the Bishop of Tennessee, and 

 the Rev. Dr. Potter, of Grace Church, New 

 York. Other subjects discussed were: "Mis- 

 sions and Missionary Bishoprics; " "The Coun- 

 teraction of Drunkenness; " "Woman's Work 

 in the Church ; " " The Popular Arguments for 

 Unbelief, and how to meet them;" "Lay 

 Agency ; " " Personal Holiness as influencing 

 Conduct in the Family, Society, and Trade ; " 

 "The Church and Elementary Education;" 

 " Free Churches ; " " Funeral Reform ; " " Dis- 

 coveries in Bible Lands ; " " Pastoral Work." 



The Irish Church'. The second session of 

 the second synod of the Irish Church met in 

 Dublin, April 6th. The occasion was signalized 

 by the presentation to the Church, by Mr. 

 Henry Roe, of a new hall, which he had built 

 for the use of the synod. The report of the 

 representative body was presented. It showed 

 that the Church had now invested in securities 

 sums amounting to 5,835,920, and yielding a 

 yearly income of 257,462. The voluntary 

 contributions almost equaled this income, hav- 

 ing, during the preceding year, amounted to 

 257,021. The legal costs of the representative 

 body during the four years since the act dises- 

 tablishing this Church came into operation had 

 been 1,496. They had paid to compounders 

 a total amount of 1,169,650, and had thereby 

 extinguished annuities to the amount of 172,- 

 764. The balances left in the hands of the 

 Church by compounders amounted to 1,108,- 

 955. The total assets of the Irish Church from 

 every source, on December 31, 1874, amounted 

 to 7,062,693 19s 4d. 



The synod was occupied during most of the 

 session in the consideration of the bills for the 

 revision of the Prayer-Book, which had been 

 prepared by the committee appointed at the 

 last session, and were intended to embody the 

 substance of the resolutions recommending 

 modifications, which were passed at that ses- 

 sion. A new preface was adopted. It con- 

 tains a disclaimer of any intention to change 

 the tenor or structure of the book, but states 

 that it was sought only to make its meaning 

 more clear, and to remove expressions liable 

 to mistake or perversion. In making the 

 changes, no censure was implied upon the for- 

 mer book. It explains that the adoration of 

 the elements is guarded against in the com- 

 munion service by a rubric, asserting that the 

 kneeling is designed merely to be significant 

 of a humble and grateful acknowledgment of 

 the benefits. Touching the baptismal service, 

 it says : " It is not known to all that, of a 

 long time past, controversies have prevailed 

 in the Church concerning the precise nature 

 and extent of baptismal grace, and the time 

 and manner of its operation ; and these services 

 have been diversely expounded by different 

 parties in the Church, who, nevertheless, have 

 never on either side been censured by public 

 authority as unfaithful members of it. And 

 we now hereby declare that though, on a re- 

 view of the Prayer-Book, this Church has not 

 deemed it expedient to change these services 

 in respect of expressions which some have de- 

 sired to alter, but which have been used in 

 connection with this sacrament by the univer- 

 sal Church, from the earliest times, yet it is 

 not our meaning, in thus retaining those ex- 

 pressions, to limit or abridge, on the one side 

 or the other, that liberty of expounding them 

 which has been hitherto allowed by the gen- 

 eral practice of this Church, and, upon occa- 

 sion, by solemn decision of the Court of Final 

 Appeal in Ecclesiastical Causes in England; 



