ANGLICAN CHURCHES. 



s 



as the steady, able, and persistent work of the 



iberation Society that had brought the question 

 the position in which it stood to-day. The so- 



iety had kept the free-church principles to the 

 'ront, and by its collection and diffusion of accurate 

 nformation had supplied speakers with the means 

 of educating public opinion. He thought the move- 

 ment would gain by a sympathetic co-operation of 

 the Liberation Society, with its long experience, 

 and the new Nonconformist Political Council, with 

 its youthful enthusiasm. A resolution was adopted 

 affirming the belief that no effective remedy for the 

 evils complained of would be found in either the 

 action of the bishops of the Established Church, 

 the renewal of ecclesiastical prosecutions, or new 

 parliamentary enactments. The state, having 

 proved itself unable to exercise adequate control 

 over the Established clergy or successfully to regu- 

 late the Established Church's affairs, should with- 

 draw from the Church national authority and en- 

 dowments, and, concurrently therewith, permit its 

 members to possess the same rights of self-govern- 

 ment as are enjoyed by non-established religious 

 communities. In the opinion of the Council the 

 time had arrived when the question of disestablish- 

 ment should be urgently pressed upon the leaders 

 of the Liberal party, and also upon the constituen- 

 cies, in view of the next general election. Another 

 resolution called for new and vigorous efforts to 

 remove the grievance caused by the absence of 

 public unsectarian schools under popular control 

 in thousands of English parishes, and urging 

 especially the necessity of increased facilities for 

 the training of teachers in undenominational 

 colleges. 



The Church and Papal Claims. In a letter 

 addressed to Cardinal Vaughan, March 12, concern- 

 ing a paper issued by him entitled " A Vindication 

 of the Bull Apostolicae Curaj," the archbishops 

 entered a denial of the claims made in the paper of 

 supremacy of power and authority in the Pope, 

 affirming that such claims had been deliberately 

 and consistently rejected not only by the Church 

 of England, but also by the great churches of the 

 East, and declining to allow that those bodies 

 "have given any evidence of that chaos which you 

 suppose to be inevitable where the papal claims are 

 not accepted." The letter called attention to the 

 fact that the author of the i( Vindication " had in- 

 troduced the doctrine of transubstantiation as prac- 

 tically constituting " the one sure test of the valid- 

 ity of holy orders," while the Pope had made no 

 direct reference to that subject. " Had his Holi- 

 ness " they say, " followed the line of argument 

 which you have now adopted, our answer must have 



,ken a different form. But we could not answer 

 what he did not say. ... It is, for us, simply im- 

 possible to believe it to be the will of the Lord that 

 admission to the ministry of the Church of Christ 

 should depend upon the acceptance of a metaphys- 

 ical definition, expressed in terms of mediaeval 

 philosophy, of the mysterious gift bestowed in the 

 holy eucharist ; above all, when we remember that 

 such a definition was unknown to the Church In the 

 early ages of its history and only publicly affirmed 

 by the Church of Rome in the thirteenth century." 

 The archbishops concluded their letter with the 

 expression of the belief that among the hindrances 

 to the fulfillment of the unity of the Church " there 

 are few more powerful than the claims of suprem- 

 acy and infallibility alleged on behalf of the Pope 

 of Rome and the novel dogmas which have been 

 accepted from time to time by the Roman Church." 



Convocations. At the meeting of the Convoca- 

 tion of Canterbury, Feb. 15, the reply of the Queen 

 to the address presented by the Convocation to her 

 Majesty on the occasion of her diamond jubilee 



was read. The archbishop represented in the 

 upper house that the working of the voluntary 

 schools act of the last session had been very satis- 

 factory, and the operation of the associations of 

 schools had been exceedingly favorable all over the 

 country. The creation of the federations of schools 

 had had the effect intended. The archbishop and 

 the Archbishop of York had agreed that the hold- 

 ing of joint sessions of the two convocations from 

 time to time would be good for the Church. Reso- 

 lutions appended to the report of the committee 

 of the upper house on parochial councils and 

 discussed in the lower house sought to impress 

 upon the parochial clergy " the importance of 

 securing the confidence and co-operation of lay 

 Churchmen in the manner which in each parish 

 may be best adapted to its wants." and suggest 

 that one mode by which this may be accomplished 

 would be by the formation of parochial Church 

 councils, the initiative in forming these councils 

 and the power of dissolving them to rest in the in- 

 cumbent, subject to the approval of the bishop ; the 

 councils to consist of the incumbent, who should 

 be chairman, the assistant clergy licensed by the 

 bishop, the churchwardens, sidesmen duly appointed 

 and admitted, and elected councilors, all to be 

 communicants of the Church of England. The 

 duties of the council should be to take the princi- 

 pal share in the raising of funds and administrative 

 finance, and to assist the incumbent in the initia- 

 tion and development in the parish of all depart- 

 ments of parochial Church work, and to advise him 

 on matters in which he thinks it expedient to con- 

 sult them. The House of Laymen directed the ap- 

 pointment of a committee to consider and report 

 how " the freedom for self-regulation " referred to 

 in a resolution passed by the house on May 13, 1897, 

 should be exercised, and what steps should be taken 

 with a view to obtain such freedom. The resolution 

 of May 18 referred to in this action contemplated 

 the institution of a reformed convocation " with 

 the assistance in matters other than the definition 

 and interpretation of the faith and doctrine of the 

 Church of a representative body or bodies of the 

 faithful laity." 



The Houses of Convocation met again May 11. 

 A petition was presented in both houses from Mr. 

 John Kensit. publisher, 18 Paternoster Row, Lon- 

 don, drawing the attention of the houses to the facts 

 " that in a large number of the dioceses of the 

 province, and especially in the metropolitan area 

 services other than those in the Book of Common 

 Prayer are in constant use, in most cases without 

 lawful authority ; that these services are largely 

 those in use in the Church of Rome, and taken from 

 the Roman Missal and other books belonging to 

 that Church. I have been blamed for making 

 public protest against these practices, and I desire 

 to state that these protests are most painful to my- 

 self, and will most gladly be discontinued if those 

 having authority will exercise the same and cause 

 these illegal se'rvices to be discontinued." The 

 archbishop, while criticising Mr. Kensit's proceed- 

 ings in making the public protests, called attention 

 to the importance of the subject and advised action 

 upon it, saying that he had himself been intending 

 to bring the matter before Convocation. 



The lower house requested the archbishop to 

 direct the appoiiitment of a joint committee of both 

 houses to consider and report on the position of the 

 laity in the early Church and under the constitu- 

 tion of the Church of England, with reference to 

 legislation on matters ecclesiastical, with power to 

 confer with a committee of the Convocation of 

 York appointed for the same purpose. It also sug- 

 gested the appointment of a committee to confer 

 with the Church Committee of the House of Com- 



