THE CRUSADE AGAINST RITUALISM.

Auckland Star, Volume XXIX, Issue 136, 10 June 1898, Page 3

THE CRUSADE AGAINST RITUALISM.

(Prom Our London Correspondent.)

LONDON', May 7

Mr Kensit'.s energetic protests against the UiiuuHstic performances at St. Kthelburya's and St. Cuthbert's, have had the effect of rousing churchmen of nil clashes to what .seems likely to be a widely supported crusade against Ritualism in ih,. Church of England, which may possibly be the beginning of a movement for the disestablishment of that Church us the State Church of Kiik'liuui. At the triennial conference <>l i!n- Liberation Society, Dr. Ouinjh'S.h IJogYTij alluded to Mr Kensil'.s Mmgrgle as n simple contest for law and innistcd that if a national church existed it must be governed by the law of the Nation. The law had been giving too much power to the bishops, and the eonfi'Bfcion that the law could not govern the Church was an admisKion that the State church had failed in its essential purpose. The Protestant Alliance, too, expressed sympathy with the cause of Mr Ken.sit, and it:-* President referred to the troubles of the l'rotesinnts being caused by treachery within their citadel. A deputation from the Church Association presented last Monday to the Binhop of Lomlou a memorial in support of Mr Kensit's action at St. Ethelburga's, which had attached to it over Jft.OOO signatures. Captain Cobhatn, the Chairman of the Association, called the Bishop's^ attention t) the fact, that enquiries showed that at r/.i churches incense was used, at 111 water was ceremonially mivd with the wine, in 9."» Polish vestments were used, at 209 lighted candles were ÜBcd, when not required for illumination, and at 301 the manual acts 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

bishop. The iJishop. in a long fencing reply. showed his intention of pursuing a policy of masterly inactivity. 'While ICnglishmen, he said, were agreed as they never had been before en the fundamental doctrines of the Christian faith, it was desirable that in minor matters such as (he mode of public worship toleration should be practised. 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, asserting itself, not by means of overt interference, but by good natured contempt. He had endeavoured to reconcile churchmen of different, opinions, but Mr Kensit's action only marshalled people into hostile camps. 'Nevertheless, the Bishop intended "to continue in tlm same paternal rather than judicial course, dealing with principles rather than with details. The Church Association should remember that round those trifling matters of ritual there gathered a. mass of sentiments and (feelings intimately associated with the facts of human life. The members of the deputation did not at all approve of the easy way in which Ihe Bishop had termed what they considered rank idolatry trifling matters of ritfUil to bo treated with goodnatured contempt and told him so pretty plainly, one. member going 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, time servers and the self-seeking. The same afternoon the Churcn Association held its 33rd annual meetina' and passed with much enthusiasm the following resolutions, moved by one clergyman and seconded by an-

other: — , . That the .scandalous prevalence of open Idolatry, especially within the three Metropolitan dioceses, Has ot 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— ; , '(1) In supporting1 Mr Kensits appeal from the magistrate's decision respecting his protest, in Church njraWt the worship of a crucifix, and °l(2) In seeking fl faculty for the 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 eilort to stein the tide of idolatry nonprotected and sanctioned by tha Bisnops, and for this purpose to raise a g-uaranteo fund of £2,000 to enable the council to defeat the efforts of: the English Church Union which has undertaken the defence of their twin idols, the wafer and the crucifix.'

Mr Kensifc made, a vigorous speech, in Hie course of which he said Cromwell was not dead and received a most enthusiastic reception. The JSishop of Bath and Wells, in his charge to tiic clergy and cluirehwavdens of this diocese, also dealt with the subject of ritual, which hu said naturally • 'varied greatly. It, might be, he said, the result oV 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 before God. But with the ritual of 'aesthetic .sensationalism' the preaching- of the necessity of fasting, communion and the increasing' advocacy ,by some of tlic clergy of the habitual use of the confessional he had no sympathy. Mr Kensit has, it appears, become even more of a defender of the faith than ho himself anticipated, and this question of advanced Ritual has got 1o be faced seriously before long by Ilie heads of the English Church.