ANGLICAN CHURCHES. 



11 



loans could not be made at a lower rate than at 

 present without endangering in some degree 

 the absolute safety of the money and the cer- 

 tainty of making the annual payments that 

 were due. Resolutions were adopted by the 

 lower house, asking for such legislation as 

 would make the collection of tithe-rent charges 

 more easy; requesting the bishops to use all 

 their power to prohibit and suppress the preach- 

 ing by clergymen of the Church of England in 

 dissenting chapels a practice which was de- 

 clared not only to be contrary to the principles 

 and laws of the Church, but also to tend rath- 

 er to hinder than promote the unity of the 

 Christian people ; and deprecating the use in 

 the celebration of the holy communion of 

 wine other than the juice of the grape. A 

 canonical amendment was approved which 

 should make the hours during which mar- 

 riages may be celebrated from eight o'clock in 

 the forenoon till three o'clock in the afternoon, 

 and should contain a provision that, "in case 

 of the marriage of minors, the parents or gov- 

 ernors should signify their consent." The 

 house requested that a committee be appoint- 

 ed to consider the working of the Incumbents' 

 Resignation Act, and that the committee on 

 occasional services be reappointed. The Earl 

 of Selborne was re-elected president of the 

 House of Laymen. This house recommended 

 that a summary and inexpensive tribunal be 

 appointed with power to deal with criminous 

 clerks ; declared it desirable to repeal or great- 

 ly modify all the legislative enactments which 

 prevent a deacon from engaging in secular oc- 

 cupations; suggested that the law relating to 

 tithe-rent charges should be strengthened and 

 amended ; and expressed cordial satisfaction 

 at the scheme of the " Church House " " as a 

 means of extending and strengthening the ac- 

 tion of the Church." 



The houses of convocation met again May 

 10. The upper house approved a scheme for 

 the enlarged representation of the clergy in 

 convocation, for which the sanction of the 

 crown is to be asked. A committee report 

 was adopted adverse to the " Deacons' (Church 

 of England) Bill," then pending in the House 

 of Commons, as contemplating a departure 

 which it was not expedient to make, from the 

 long-continued practice of the Church. The 

 bill provided for the modification of the acts 

 precluding deacons from following secular oc- 

 cupations so that they need not apply to dea- 

 cons who may hereafter be ordained after 

 they are thirty years of age. The report de- 

 clared that the resolution passed by Convo- 

 cation in 1884 approving the ordination to the 

 office of deacon of men possessing other means 

 of living who are willing to serve the clergy 

 gratuitously which involved no change in 

 the law marked the extreme extent to which 

 it was at present advisable to go in the prem- 

 ises. By this resolution, deacons seeking ordi- 

 nation to the priesthood, besides being subject 

 to all the regular examinations, would first have 



to^devote their whole time for four years to 

 spiritual labor. On the subject of clergymen 

 of the Church of England preaching in the 

 houses of worship of denominations not in 

 communion with it, the Lower House requested 

 the bishops to take such steps as might be 

 in their power to suppress the innovation. The 

 upper house declared on this subject that, in 

 its opinion, " it is contrary to the principles 

 of the Catholic Church as maintained at the 

 English Reformation, that clergymen should 

 take part in the public religious services of 

 those who are not in full communion with the 

 Church of England, and it is desirable that the 

 bishops should use their authority and influ- 

 ence to induce the clergy of their respective 

 dioceses to abstain from the practice. Never- 

 theless, the house deeply sympathizes with the 

 desire to bring all Christians into sincere com- 

 munion with each other through a union with 

 the great Head of the Church, and recognizes 

 the fact that there are many ways of main- 

 taining kindly intercourse with non-conform- 

 ists, which are not open to reasonable objec- 

 tion." On the report of the committee ap- 

 pointed to deal with proposed additions to the 

 Catechism, a form of answer to the question, 

 " What is meant by the Church ? " was ap- 

 proved by the lower house, as follows: "I 

 mean the body of which Christ is the head and 

 of which I was made a member by baptism ; 

 of this body part is militant here on earth and 

 part at rest in paradise awaiting the resurrec- 

 tion." A modification of the marriage act was 

 recommended for the benefit of seafaring men 

 who are not able to fulfill the conditions of 

 residence required by the existing acts. Con- 

 cerning the case of the Rev. James Bell Cox, 

 of the diocese of Liverpool, who was suffering 

 imprisonment for contempt of court in not 

 obeying a sentence of suspension for ritualist- 

 ic practices, the lower house expressed its 

 judgment that u such imprisonment is entirely 

 inappropriate to questions of ritual observ- 

 ances, causes the greatest distress to many 

 devout members of the Church, and ought, in 

 accordance with the resolution of the Royal 

 Commission on Ecclesiastical Courts, to be 

 abolished." The upper house concurred in 

 the action, and requested the archbishop to 

 seek to obtain a conference on the subject be- 

 tween the bishops and archbishops of the two 

 provinces. The House of Laymen declared 

 itself, by resolution, in favor of the abolition 

 of imprisonment of clergymen as a means 

 of enforcing the judgments of ecclesiastical 

 courts. 



The convocation met again in July. The 

 resolution of the Convocation of York on the 

 subject of the canons of the hours of marriage 

 was adopted. Various questions were consid- 

 ered concerning the Additional Rubrics Bill, 

 the proposed amendments to the Church Cate- 

 chism, and the report of the Royal Commission 

 on Ecclesiastical Courts. A joint committee 

 of the three houses was appointed to con- 



