ANGLICAN CHURCHES. 



discontinue what the law of the Church of Eng- 

 land does not permit. ... In conclusion, we 

 think it our duty to press not only on the clergy 

 who have appeared before us, but also on all 

 the clergy alike, to submit to episcopal authority 

 in all such matters as these. All alike have con- 

 sented to the Book of Common Prayer, and the 

 Book of Common Prayer requires all persons, not 

 only if they doubt, but if they find that others 

 disagree with them concerning the meaning of 

 the directions contained in the book, to resort 

 to the bishop of the diocese, who may, if he 

 thinks fit, send the question to the archbishop 

 for his decision. In order to give the fullest op- 

 portunity to any who diversely take any ques- 

 tion of this kind to give reasons for their opin- 

 ion, we have susuended our decision until we had 

 heard the matter fully and learnedly argued 

 before us, and we have now given our opinion as 

 the Prayer Book requires us to do. We entreat 

 the clergy, for the sake of the peace of the 

 Church, which we all so much desire, to accept 

 our decision thus conscientiously given in the 

 name of our common Master, the Supreme Head of 

 the Church, the Lord whose commission we bear." 



The bishops generally communicated the sub- 

 stance of the opinion of the archbishops to the 

 clergy of their several dioceses, and advised those 

 who used the practices aimed at in it to discon- 

 tinue them. Among the bishops supposed to be 

 in sympathy with the ritualists, the Bishop of 

 Rochester, while he did not conceal his sympa- 

 thy, pointed out in his epistle that " the only 

 right and loyal course for the clergy and the 

 congregations concerned is to obey, and to be 

 forward to obey, the grave and deliberate ruling 

 by the highest authorities in our Church, and 

 the admonition or wish by which that ruling 

 is accompanied. A considerable number of the 

 ritualistic clergy made modifications in their 

 services, indicating a respect for the letter of the 

 advice given them by their bishops. A few re- 

 fused to obey. 



According to a statement made in the Record 

 newspaper, there were at the time the opinion 

 of the archbishops was pronounced 289 churches 

 in English and Welsh dioceses where incense was 

 used, and therefore vitally affected by the de- 

 cision. 



An expression made by Lord Halifax, president 

 of the English Church Union, after the decision 

 was made, deprecating it as " the greatest mis- 

 fortune that has fallen on the Church since the 

 rise of the Oxford movement," provoked much 

 comment. Advice given by him to laymen to obey 

 their immediate clergy whatever their decision 

 may be was interpreted as meaning that clergy- 

 men who refused to obey their bishops should be 

 supported in doing so. This led to the withdrawal 

 of several members from the Church Union, 

 among them Dean S. Reynolds Hale, of Rochester, 

 a very popular and influential clergyman. 



The Church Congress. The thirty-ninth an- 

 nual meeting of the Church Congress was held 

 in London this being the first time in its his- 

 tory that the body has assembled in the me- 

 tropolis beginning Oct. 10. The civic welcome 

 was given in St. Paul's Cathedral, with a sermon 

 by the Archbishop of Canterbury on The Failure 

 to achieve the Unity of the Church. Other ser- . 

 mons were preached at Westminster Abbey by 

 the Dean of Christ Church on The Kingdom of 

 Christ, and in St. Mary Abbotts, Kensington, by 

 the Bishop of Peterborough, on The Presence of 

 Christ with his People. The presidential address 

 was delivered at Albert Hall by the Bishop of 

 London, and had for its subject the question, 



How can the Church best do its Work for the 

 World? The first topic for stated discussion was 

 The Church in London in this Century : Its Prog- 

 ress and its Needs, as bearing upon which the 

 Archdeacon of London gave a review of the his- 

 tory and characteristics of The Diocese of Lon- 

 don: The West and the City, and the Bishop of 

 Stepney spoke of the Church in East London. 

 The subject of The Church and the Laity: The 

 Place and Work of the Laity in (a) Church 

 Services and Parochial Organization, (&) the Gen- 

 eral Government of the Church, was spoken on 

 by Mr. G. W. E. Russell and Mr. T. Cheney 

 Garfitt on the first head, and the Dean of Nor- 

 wich and Canon Gore on the second. The sub- 

 ject of The Church and her Services was dis- 

 cussed under the heads of The Principles of Ritual, 

 The Question of maintaining a Type of Anglicar 

 Service, and the Limits of Possible Variations. 

 In this discussion, after a paper on The Prin- 

 ciples of Ritual, by the Rev. Principal Robertson, 

 of King's College, London, Lord Halifax, Presi- 

 of the English Church Union, and cue of the fore- 

 most representatives of the ritualistic party, made 

 a presentation of their case as that of conscien- 

 tious worshipers, asking for a generous and hearty 

 indulgence in efforts to enrich the service of God 

 with an appropriate ritual derived from the early 

 Middle Ages (approximately the thirteenth cen- 

 tury), when the art of ritual culminated and 

 before it degenerated into overelaboration. He 

 was followed, after a paper by the Venerable B. 

 Cheetham, Archbishop of Gloucester, by an ad- 

 dress on the opposite side by Prebendary Webb- 

 Peploe, Secretary of the National Protestant 

 Church Association, an equally prominent repre- 

 sentative of the antiritualists, who took the 

 position that whatever was foreign or repugnant 

 to the national instincts should, so far as pos- 

 sible, be avoided, and that whatsoever accorded 

 with or developed those instincts might be en- 

 couraged by those in authority, provided always 

 that limits of charity, decorum, and general util- 

 ity be observed; and applied this principle to the 

 various aspects of the ritualistic question. On 

 the subject of The Church and the Divisions of 

 English, Christianity (a) the History of Non- 

 conformity in this Century and its Influence on 

 the Life and Work of the Church, and (&) the 

 Possibilities of a Better Understanding in the 

 Future, papers were read or addresses made by 

 Prebendary Wace, Canon Overton, the Rev. W. 

 H. Hutton, the Dean of Canterbury, the Arch- 

 deacon of London, the Dean of Ripon, the Rev. 

 C. L. Engstrom, and the president. 



Other subjects discussed were: The Evangeliza- 

 tion .of the World, Within the Empire and Be- 

 yond the Empire, The Church and Modern Soci- 

 ety (including Speculation and Gambling, Cer- 

 tain Needful and Needless Sunday Employments, 

 and Sunday Amusements), The Working Women 

 in the Church, Purity and Temperance, Impover- 

 ishment of the Clergy and its Remedies, The 

 Church and Education, The Church in Wales, 

 Experimental Religion: Its Doctrinal Character 

 and Foundation (a) as set forth in Holy Scrip- 

 ture and (&) as expressed in the Book of Com- 

 mon Prayer; and The Church and Social Ques- 

 tions (a) Relations of Economic Knowledge to 

 Christian Charity, (6) Conciliation to Labor Dis- 

 putes, (c) Old-age Pensions, and (d) Housing of 

 the Poor. An evening mass meeting of men was 

 addressed by the Archbishop of Canterbury. 

 The closing service of the conference was held in 

 St. Paul's Cathedral, Oct. 13, when a sermon was 

 preached by the Bishop of London. After the 

 formal closing of the congress proper, affiliated 



