3 o8 CHURCH OF ENGLAND 



special occasions, and alternative and additional forms of service, the Communion Office 

 to remain untouched. Upon another much controverted question, the Communion of 

 the Sick, Canterbury Lower House decided that it should be lawful for the priest to set 

 apart at the public Communion a sufficiency of the consecrated elements for the com- 

 munion on the same day of such sick persons as may not desire a separate celebration. 

 Canterbury Lower House decided in 1911 that while it is undesirable to alter the 

 Ornaments Rubric, provision ought to be made for a diversity of use as regards the 

 wearing of vestments at the Holy Communion. In November 1912 the Lower House 

 of both Convocations refused to modify the question put to deacons at theii ordina- 

 tion, " Do you unfeignedly believe all the Canonical Scriptures of the Old and New 

 Testaments?" In one or other of the four Houses of Convocation numerous minor 

 amendments in the Prayer-book have been approved. Many of them have been hotly 

 contested, both of the extreme wings in the Church being opposed to revision, either 

 entirely or save within very narrow limits. The High Church party has issued a " Dec- 

 laration " setting out an " irreducible minimum " of demands, which comprise the pres- 

 ervation of the Ornaments Rubric and the Athanasian Creed, and the Rubric requiring 

 that no person shall be admitted to communion who is unconfirmed or is not desirous 

 of being confirmed. Other demands are the restoration of the unbroken Canon, the 

 provision of a form for the anointing of the sick, the sanctioning of continuous reserva- 

 tion and direct prayer for the dead. The Archbishop of Canterbury has appointed a 

 committee of liturgical experts to advise on proposed alterations in the Prayer-book. 

 Canterbury Lower House in 1912 approved the retention of the existing course of the 

 Psalter, but later asked the Primate to procure an " authoritative revision of the Psalter 

 for use in Church." In Canada a Committee of General Synod has been appointed to 

 consider " Prayer-book adaptation and enrichment;" in South Africa various experi- 

 mental modifications of the Prayer-book are in use; the Churches of China and Japan 

 are also contemplating revision. 



The Scottish Revision. Meanwhile the Church in Scotland has actually revised its 

 Prayer-book. In 1910 the Episcopal Synod prepared a revised Scottish Communion 

 Office, and in the same year the Consultative Council on Church Legislation prepared 

 a schedule of permissible additions to and deviations from the Book of Common 

 Prayer. After extensive discussion the new and revised forms were finally sanctioned 

 and came into operation in a permissive form in 191 2. In the Communion Office accord- 

 ing to both the English and the Scottish rite, either of which may be used in Scotland, 

 the Commandments may be omitted, and replaced by Our Lord's brief Summary of the 

 Law. The Collects for the King may also be omitted. When there are many com- 

 municants the words of administration may be said once, the first half of the words only 

 being recited to each person. New Proper Prefaces have been provided for festivals 

 which hitherto lacked them, and for marriages and funerals. Proper Lessons are 

 prescribed for the Evensong of Festivals, and other special occasions. Considerable 

 freedom is accorded in the use of the Psalter, and there is now power, with the bishop's 

 consent, to omit the Litany altogether on the three great festivals. The concluding 

 portions may be omitted at other times, but on the other hand new suffrages have been 

 added for the King's forces, for Missions and for Parliament. A variety of additional 

 prayers for special needs have been added, together with commemorations of the dead. 

 In the Marriage Service the exhortation has been altered and abbreviated, and there are 

 alternative Lessons in the Burial Service. A committee has been appointed to consider 

 the propriety of a thorough revision of the Psalter and Lectionary. 



Reform of Church Finance. The chaotic condition of the finances of the Church of 

 England, the overlapping and waste of effort resulting from innumerable more or less 

 isolated endeavours to accomplish a given end, the existence of many Societies with 

 aims and policies of their own, led in 1909 to the appointment of the Archbishops' 

 Committee on Church Finance. After more than two years inquiry and deliberation 

 this Committee reported in 1911. The key-note of the report is the recommendation 

 that the diocese and not the parish should be the unit of Church life and that respon- 



