ANGLICAN CHURCHES. 



11 



tradition which went to make the eucharist an 

 occasional and exceptional service, it was not to 

 be followed. Loyal English Churchmen were 

 bound not to forego celebration because there 

 might happen to be none to communicate with 

 the priest. They should rejoice at the desire for 

 a greater unity now showing itself on all sides. 

 As one step toward union the adoption of a sin- 

 gle catechism by the non-conformist bodies was 

 to be welcomed, and similar hopes were encour- 

 aged by signs among the members of the Es- 

 tablished Church of Scotland. The Church of 

 England was but two provinces of the Western 

 Church, isolated, unhappily, by circumstances 

 for which it was by no means solely responsible, 

 but whose members could not consistently re- 

 lieve themselves of the obligations which the 

 part owed to the whole. If the authorities of the 

 Church would but acknowledge that the act of 

 uniformity was dead and buried, and take on 

 their own initiative such steps as the Church 

 required, ' they would be far wiser than if they 

 waited till Parliament was willing by a definite 

 Act to sanction their action. The number of 

 enrolled associates of the union was now 12,493, 

 2,137 new members and associates having joined 

 during the past year. Of these, 77 were clergy- 

 men. Three American bishops had become mem- 

 bers. Satisfaction was expressed in the annual 

 report with the result of the Fulham Conference, 

 " which can hardly fail to remove existing mis- 

 conceptions as to the exercise of the sacrament 

 of penance and to promote the cause of peace." 



At the annual meeting of the Church Reform 

 League, June 10, the Bishop of Worcester pre- 

 sided and spoke of the manner in which he had 

 been impressed by his experiences as a bishop 

 with the importance of the movement which the 

 Jeague sought to promote. At every point, he 

 said, the same necessity of constitutionalizing 

 the Church was met. There was a clear need 

 that in the Church of England there should be 

 less arbitrary power in the hands of individuals. 

 The required change could not, however, be car- 

 ried out unless each order the bishops, the 

 beneficed clergy, and the laity realized that 

 they must concede some limitation of their pow- 

 ers. By due recognition of the authority of the 

 bishops, clergy, and laity they would be brought 

 to the ideal of episcopal government in those 

 ages of the Church to which they constantly pro- 

 fessed to recall themselves. Resolutions were 

 passed in favor of the passage of the convoca- 

 tions of the clergy bill without delay, and com- 

 mending the work of the league to the generous 

 Support of Church people throughout the country. 



The report of the Home Reunion Society, pre- 

 sented at its annual meeting, July 8, set forth 

 that the question of the intercommunion with 

 non-Episcopal bodies, advocated by Canon Hen- 

 sen, had for the time hindered direct advances 

 toward reunion, and that a further hindrance to 

 the society's work had been " the unfortunate 

 political spirit in which leading dissenters had 

 misrepresented the real attitude of Churchmen 

 in supporting the Government education bill." 

 Lord Nelson, moving the adoption of the report, 

 -expressed the hope that when the education bill 

 had passed, the animosity which had been aroused 

 in connection with it .would pass away. He 

 thought it would be a good thing if committees 

 of Churchmen and dissenters could be formed to 

 discuss the four bases of intercommunion sug- 

 gested at the last meeting of the Lambeth Con- 

 ference. The Bishop of Truro, presiding, thought 

 that when the educational controversy was over 

 and the bill had passed, non-conformists would 



feel that they had raised a flag which was with- 

 out a start' and had shown unnecessary heat. 

 One thing that came out very sharply from the 

 contest was that Churchmen had stood up boldly 

 for parents' rights to choose the religious educa- 

 tion of their children. If they threw over their 

 apostolic succession, the speaker thought, they 

 would weaken the Church of England very much 

 indeed, and make it less easy for their non-con- 

 formist friends to unite with them. What they 

 had to do was not to overthrow the apostolic 

 succession, but to make it a greater reality. The 

 council of the society was considering how it 

 could carry out the resolutions passed at the last 

 Lambeth Conference with reference to discus- 

 sions between Churchmen and dissenters. 



The Society of the Sacred Mission, of which 

 the purpose is to promote the increase of candi- 

 dates for the ministry and aid in their efficient 

 training, " offers a free and thorough education 

 and maintenance during training to all who will 

 give themselves up wholly to the service of God 

 and his Church, in holy orders or lay work, in 

 foreign missions or at home." At its annual 

 meeting in November, 1901, it had about 40 

 candidates and 12 actually accepted. 



The Liberation Society. At the annual 

 meeting of the Council of the Society for the Lib- 

 eration of Religion from the Patronage and Con- 

 trol of the State, May 7, the treasurer reported 

 that the receipts for the year had been 4,613, 

 and the expenditures 4,522. The report of the 

 secretary mentioned as evidences of an awaken- 

 ing interest in the country such facts as an in- 

 crease in the number of meetings and lectures, 

 and the preaching, at the instance of the Man- 

 chester and district branch of the society, of 

 liberation sermons by 300 non-conformist min- 

 isters in the northwestern district. The action 

 of the society with reference to the tithe rent- 

 charge and the education bill was reviewed. The 

 chairman, Principal Hutton, of Paisley, said in 

 his address that they were not proposing terms 

 with the state Church. They had been passing 

 through a crisis in which new questions had di- 

 vided them, but they knew their principles well, 

 and had still the permanent moral forces which 

 fought for them. They must hold that the abo- 

 lition of state churchism was one of the great- 

 est of political reforms, and was not to be taken 

 up or laid down at party or personal convenience. 

 Let them have done with attempts to reform 

 the establishment. Gratification was expressed 

 by resolution at the debate and division in Parlia- 

 ment of Welsh disestablishment. Another reso- 

 lution called on Free Churchmen and education- 

 ists to oppose the education bill as one which 

 would destroy direct popular control over schools 

 wholly supported by the people, and would 

 strengthen sectarianism in teaching and manage- 

 ment. 



At a breakfast given by the Liberation Soci- 

 ety, April 15, Mr. W. S. Caine, M. P., presiding, 

 the education bill was discussed by Mr. Caine, 

 the Hon. James Bryce, Mr. H. J. Wilson, M. P., 

 Mr. Ford Maddison, Mr. J. Compton Rickett, 

 M. P., Mr. Lyulph Stanley. Mr. Herbert Roberts, 

 M. P., Dr. Townsend, president of the National 

 Council of Evangelical Free Churches, and Mr. 

 Carvell Williams, all of whom condemned the 

 measure severely. 



Death of Joim Kensit. The public protests 

 during church services against presumed ritual- 

 istic excesses, instituted by John Kensit, were 

 continued by him and the " Wycliffite preachers " 

 at various times and occasions. John Alfred 

 Kensit, son of Mr. Kensit, was summoned to 



