ANGLICAN CHURCHES. 



no doubt quickened the national conscience 

 on the subject. Their danger would perhaps 

 be that in framing schemes of reform they 

 might not take sufficient account of the di- 

 vided state of things in the Church, and of the 

 opposition that might be experienced. The 

 report of the Convocation of Canterbury on 

 Church Reform was concurred in. The lower 

 house approved most of the clauses of the pro- 

 posed Church Patronage Bill, and requested the 

 president to appoint a committee to report on 

 the best means of securing a due observance of 

 the Book of Common Prayer without resort to 

 the ecclesiastical courts, and of a committee 

 on the details of a proposed House of Laymen. 



The Convocation of Canterbury met again 

 May 11. The upper house, considering a let- 

 ter received from the Bishop of Zululand, ask- 

 ing for guidance on the question of baptizing 

 persons living in polygamy, requested the 

 archbishop to communicate with those churches 

 in the Anglican communion in which ques- 

 tions relating to that subject had been found 

 to be of pressing importance. A report was 

 presented and considered respecting drafts of 

 bills on the method of making changes in the 

 rubrics, which had been under consideration 

 in one shape or another for about twenty years. 

 A committee which had been appointed to 

 consider the question of first fruits and tenths 

 presented a report recommending a further 

 discussion of the subject between the two 

 houses, and was reappointed. The considera- 

 tion of a draft bill for additional forms of serv- 

 ice was referred to a committee of the whole. 



The lower house considered and adopted a 

 report on proposals for church reform, which 

 was presented by its Committee on Relations 

 of Church and State. The report began with 

 a reference to what had been attempted dur- 

 ing the last fifty years or more in the direction 

 both of church reform and church extension. 

 In every department of church life many great 

 improvements had already been effected, some 

 without the aid of the civil legislature, and 

 others by the authority of statute. With re- 

 gard to such matters as the restoration ot 

 churches, the training of candidates for holy 

 orders, the arrangements for public worship, 

 the increase of services, the education of the 

 poor, the care bestowed on preparation for 

 confirmation, and the frequency of its admin- 

 istration, the exercise of patronage, and the 

 employment of lay agency, the Church had, 

 without going to Parliament, made a wonder- 

 ful advance. For some of the reforms which 

 had been brought about, the authority of Par- 

 liament had been needed. Prominent among 

 them were the erection of new bishoprics. 

 Many acts of Parliament had been passed hav- 

 ing for their object the remedy of evils from 

 which the Church suffered. Among them were 

 the Tithe Commutation Acts, the acts under 

 which the Ecclesiastical Commissioners had 

 power to aid the clergy of poor and populous 

 parishes, the Church- Building Acts, and the 



Pluralities Acts. The revival of the active 

 functions of convocation was a notable church 

 reform of recent years. The report called at- 

 tention to the following leading principles as 

 underlying all true church reform: 1. The 

 Catholic faith and Apostolic Order of the 

 Church of England are unalterable, and may 

 not be touched. 2. There is, by divine ap- 

 pointment, a distinction of office between 

 clergy and laity ; and the powers intrusted to 

 the laity may not extend to such things as be- 

 long to the office of the clergy. 3. The unit 

 of the church's episcopal system is the diocese 

 and not the parish ; therefore the parish, the 

 parish priest, and the congregation must be 

 subordinate to the diocesan authority of the 

 bishop. 4. The Church of England is national, 

 not in the sense that the whole nation, as such, 

 may deal, as it will, with the Church's doctrine 

 and discipline, but in the sense that the whole 

 nation has a claim to the administration of its 

 ordinances and the services of its clergy in ac- 

 cordance with that authorized doctrine and 

 discipline, and not otherwise. 5. To the 

 Church's synods, by constitutional right, be- 

 longs a legislative power, subject to such sanc- 

 tion of the Crown and authority of Parliament 

 as the authority of the Church and realm re- 

 quire. 6. The right of ecclesiastical patron- 

 age is to be primarily regarded as having the 

 character of a trust rather than of a property. 

 7. The property of the incumbent in the in- 

 come of his benefice is held subject to the effi- 

 cient discharge of the duties of the cure. 8. 

 The Church of England, as part of the church of 

 Christ, exists primarily for spiritual purposes. 



The report further described the present sys- 

 tem of church courts as unsatisfactory, and 

 expressed the belief that a tribunal for hearing 

 appeals to the Crown in ecclesiastical cases 

 must be created, which should do justice both 

 to the Church and to the civil power. One of 

 the most needful reforms was the restoration 

 of the Church's effective voice in ecclesiastical 

 legislation. The long abeyance of the convo- 

 cations had accustomed the public mind to 

 legislation by Parliament alone, and a claim of 

 legislative power for the Church still seemed 

 strange to many ; but such a claim was strictly 

 constitutional, and the full admission of that 

 claim had now become a practical necessity. 

 The Church should be recognized as capable of 

 adapting itself to the varying needs of the 

 time; and Parliament was less than ever quali- 

 fied, or, indeed, desirous to be the sole legisla- 

 ture for the Church. The power of self-regu- 

 lation, under proper control, must be restored 

 to the Church. There was no wish to demand 

 independence of the constitutional control of 

 Crown and Parliament; but what the Church 

 had a right to ask was, that greater facilities 

 should be afforded for giving legal effect to the 

 deliberate conclusions of the provincial synods, 

 aided, as they now would be, by the respective 

 Houses of Laymen. The restoration of due 

 legislative power to the provincial synods 



