RITUALISM IN ENGLAND.

Evening Post, Volume LV, Issue 137, 11 June 1898, Page 2

RITUALISM IN ENGLAND.

MORE FEATURES OF THE KENSIT CRUSADE. [l?It01I OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT.] , London, 7lh May. Mr. Kensit's energetic protests against the ritualistic performances at .St. Elhelburga's ami St. Culhbert's churches have had the effect of rousing Churchmen of all classes to what seems likely to be a widely-supported orimdo against ritualism iv the Church of England, which may possibly be the beginning of a movement for the disestablishment of that Church as the State Church of England. At the triennial conference of the Liberation Society Dr. Guinness Rogers alluded to Air. Kcnsil's struggle as a simple contest for law, and insisted that if a national Church existed it must be governed bj r the law of the nation. Tho law had been giving too much power lo the Bishops, and the confession that the law could not govern thn Church was an admission that the Slate Church had failed in its essential purpose. The Protestant Alliance, too, expressed sympathy with the cause of Mr. Kensit, and its President referred to the troubles of the Protestants being caused by treachery within their citadel. j A deputation from the Church Association presented last Monday to the Bishop of London .(Right Rev. Dr. Creighlon) a memorial iv support of Mr. Kensit's action at St. Ethel burgas,, which had, attached to it over 15,000 signatiVj'qs. Captain Cobhamj the Chairman of the^Association, called the Bishop's attention'- to the fact that enquiries showed that at 39 churches incense was used, at 111 water was ceremonially mixed with the wine, in 95 Polish vestments were used, at 209 lighted candles' were used when not required for illumination, and at 301 the manual ads were hidden., All these illegal practices, which had been brought to light by Mr. Kensit's action, called for determined action on the part of the Bishops. The Bishop, in a long fencing reply, showed his intention of pursuing a policy of mablerly inactivity. While Englishmen, he said, were agreed as they never , had been before on the the fundamental doctrines of tho Christian faith, it was desirable that in minor matters, such as the mode of public worship, toleration should bepraclisod. The Bishops believed that prosecutions, so far from putting down illegal practices, only gave them increased vitality: A free country settled matters by' the popular sentiment averting itself,_noii by moans of overt interference, but- by good - natured contempt. 110 had endeavoured to reconcile Churchmen of dif- j ferent opinions^ but Mr. Kensit's action only marshalled people into hostile \ camps. Nevertheless, the Bishop intended j to continue iv the same paternal, rather than judicial course^ dealing with principles rather than with details. The Church As-social ion should remember that round those trifling matters of ritual there gathered a mas* of sentiments and feelings intimately associated with the tacts of human life. The members of tin: deputation iliil not at all approve; of the easy way in which the Hishop had termed what they considered rank idolatry trifling matters of ritual, to be treated with good-natured contempt, and told him so plainly. One member went so far as to say that the Churchman was being driven to Dissenting Churches, and shortly there would be left in the Church only the idolaters, the limeservers, and the self-seeking. The «amo afternoon the Church Association held its 83rd annual meeting, and passed with much enthusiasm the following resolution, moved by one clergyman and seconded by another :—": — " That the scandalous prevalence of open idolatry, especially within the three metropolitan dioceses, has of late years assumed such proportions, and the bishops having been appealed to in vain to forbid such practices, this meeting warmly commends the action of the Council of the Church Association (1) iv supporting Mr. Kensit's appeal from tho magistrate's decision respecting his protest iv church against the worship of a crucifix ; and (2) in seeking a faculty for tho removal of the 'Tabernacle' at St. Ethelburga's, dedicated to the illegal reservation of a consecrated wafer, to which divine honours are paid as though it were Jesus Christ himself. This meeting further calls upon the loyal members of the Church of England to support the Council in their effort to stem the tide ,of idolatry now protected and sanctioned by the Bishops, and for this purpose to raise a guarantee fund of £2000 to enable the Council to defeat the efforts of tho English Church Union, which has undertaken the defence of their twin idols, the wafer and the crucifix." Mr. Kensit made a vigorous speech., in the course of -which he said Cromwell was not 4

dead, and received a most enthusiastic reception. Tho Bishop of Bath and Wells (Right Rev. Dr. Kenniou, formerly Bishop of Adelaide), in his charge to the clergy and churchwardens of his diocese also dealt with the subject of ritual, which he -.said naturally varied greatly. It might be, he said, the result of colonial .experience, with its necessity of ever getting at the root and reality of all worship, that he confessed himself more and more inclined to a wide tolerance of different modes of expressing their thoughts beforo God. But with the ritual of " aesthetic sensationalism, " the preaching of tho necessity of fasting communion, and the increasing advocacy by some of tho clergy of' the habitual use of the confessional, he had no sympathy. Mr. Keusit has, it appears become oven more of a defender of the faith than he himself Anticipated, and this question of advanced ritual has got to be faced seriously before loug by tho heads of tho English Church.