ANGLICAN CHURCHES. 



35 



meeting referring with satisfaction to the 

 tendency of ecclesiastical litigation "to con- 

 vince the members of the Church that legal 

 coercion is not a fit instrument for the attain- 

 ment of spiritual ends, and that the advantages 

 of an establishment can not be enjoyed with- 

 out sacrificing the peace and freedom of the 

 Church," and expressing the hope, in the pros- 

 pect of the coming general election, " that the 

 frirmls of religious equality will not fail to 

 press upon the electoral bodies the expediency 

 of putting an end to state interference with 

 religion, and also that in England, no less than 

 in Scotland, there will be a firm determination 

 to secure the early abolition of the Scottish 

 establishment." 



The Church Congress met at Swansea, Octo- 

 ber 7th. The Bishop of St. David's, the dio- 

 cese in which the meeting was held, presided. 

 In his opening address ho counseled the avoid- 

 ance of the danger of making the Congress the 

 battle-ground of different classes of thought in 

 the Church. The subjects discussed on the first 

 day's session were : The missionary work of the 

 Church among the Jews and in India ; " The 

 Causes of and Remedy for Dissent " ; " Home 

 Reunion " ; " Higher and Intermediate Educa- 

 tion in Wales"; "How can the Church best 

 gain and retain its Influence over the Young? " 

 and " Church Work among the Seafaring Popu- 

 lation." The Bishop of Winchester, President 

 of the Home Reunion Society, opened the dis- 

 cussion on the causes for dissent and its remedy. 

 He traced the history of nonconformity, and 

 sketched the principles on which it should be 

 met. The chief of the remedies which he pro- 

 posed were : that the Church should not be 

 looked upon as a sect, but as a world- wide 

 society, meant to include in it all who accept 

 Christ as their King; that party spirit and 

 partisan language should be avoided; that 

 mixing of religion with politics should be 

 shunned ; that lay work should be increased 

 and lay counsel sought ; that a lower order of 

 clergy be enlisted as a permanent diaconate ; 

 that what are called irregular devotional ser- 

 vices should be encouraged, or at least fully 

 tolerated, and that more missionary and evan- 

 gelizing labor should be secured, both at home 

 and abroad. The programme of discussions 

 was continued during the succeeding days with 

 papers and addresses on the subjects of "The 

 Maintenance of Voluntary Schools, and the 

 best Means of promoting Religious Education 

 in them and in Board Schools"; "Diocesan 

 Synods and Conferences " ; " Church Temper- 

 ance work"; "Parish Organization," with 

 reference to rich and poor town parishes, and 

 compact and scattered country parishes ; " The 

 Church in Wales " ; " Ecclesiastical Courts and 

 Final Court of Appeal"; "Religious Benefits 

 from recent Scientific Research." On the sub- 

 ject of religious education in the schools, the 

 opening paper, by Canon Melville, advocated a 

 religious basis in instruction, and mentioned 

 an increase in the number of schools which 



had adopted the Lord's Prayer, the Ten Com- 

 mandments, and the Apostles' Creed as bases 

 of such instruction. In relation to Ecclesiasti- 

 cal Courts, Dr. Phillimore proposed a reform 

 in the organization of the Courts, under which 

 the Church should be given a voice in the ap- 

 pointment of its bishops and archbishops; 

 these officers should sit as judges canonically 

 with the assistance of their clergy, with their 

 chancellors as assessors, and with representa- 

 tives of the laity to concur ; the appeal to be 

 to the synod of the province presided over by 

 the Metropolitan, and, if further appeal be re- 

 quired, to the synod of the whole Anglican 

 Communion. Such a reform, he thought, need 

 not be incompatible with establishment. The 

 discussion of the subject of the Church in 

 Wales bore reference to the difficulties of bi- 

 lingual parishes and the special education and 

 training of the clergy. The Dean of Bangor 

 showed that, out of a million people speaking 

 the Welsh language, eight hundred thousand 

 are attached more or less closely to the Con- 

 gregational, Baptist, Wesleyan, Presbyterian, 

 and other chapels. He maintained that the 

 Church had lost its hold on the Welsh people 

 through the indifference it had shown to them ; 

 and that, if it would recover them, it must have 

 more earnest and devoted men capable of 

 speaking to them in their own tongue. 



Questions concerning the means of securing 

 more friendly relations with nonconformists 

 were considered at the meetings of several of 

 the diocesan synods in October. At the Dio- 

 cesan Conference of Manchester, a resolution 

 was adopted expressing a desire to promote a 

 friendly recognition of dissenters who would 

 meet Churchmen on the ground of a common 

 Christianity, and an earnest wish to cultivate 

 friendly relations with them and to cooperate 

 with them on any possible platforms of Chris- 

 tian work ; further, that " in the opinion of 

 this Conference it is desirable that the Convoca- 

 tion of this province (York) should consider 

 the question of the comprehension of noncon- 

 formists with a view to devising the best means 

 of terminating our dissensions and establishing 

 essential unity, and working harmony between 

 all sections of earnest Christian people in the 

 land." The Synod of Peterborough resolved 

 " that in full recognition of the sin and scandal 

 of divisions among Christians, and in humble 

 consciousness that they have been fomented and 

 encouraged by many shortcomings on the part 

 of the English Church, this Conference would 

 hail with the utmost satisfaction any proposals 

 toward home reunion without compromising 

 scriptural truth and apostolic order ; and that, 

 while unable to perceive that the time has 

 arrived for formal communications between 

 the authorities of the Church and delegates 

 from nonconformists, it is of opinion that spe- 

 cial attention should be directed to a possible 

 concordat with Wesleyan Methodists." 



The Representative Body of the Irish Epis- 

 copal Church had at the beginning of 1879 a 



