CHURCH REUNION.

Auckland Star, Volume LI, Issue 194, 14 August 1920, Page 7

CHURCH REUNION.

THE LAMBETH PROPOSAL.

FELLOWSHIP OF THE WORLD.

tßy Cable.—Press Association.—Copyright) LONDON, August 13. While the Lambeth Conference considered it necessary that a reunited Church should have one Episcopal form jof government, it is inferred that it must be the Episcopate without prelatical elements. The conference passed a I resolution that the peace of the world, | no less than Christian principle, demands j admission of German and other nations l into the League of Nations at the i earliest moment. , | The conference recorded a protest j against colour prejudice among the different races of the world, which hinders intercourse and gravely imperils the peace of the world. j The conference, in approving the creation of deaconesses, left it optional ; whether the candidates cared to pledge themselves to a life of celibacy. It also affirmed that an opportunity should be given to qualified women to speak in consecrated and unconsecrated buildings. Resolutions were carried declaring that Spiritualism as a cult involved the subordination of intelligence and will to unknown forces, and to that extent it was an abdication of self-control to which God called us, that there was a direct tendency in Christian Science to. panthe- , istic doctrine, while the denial of the I reality of disease and suffering was iri reconcilable with the fundamental truths of Christian faith, and that the teachings of Theosophy were similarly irreconcilable with Christianity. The Archbishop of Canterbury (Dr. Davidson), in his encyclical on behalf of the Conference, states that the idea which dominated the conference, and one which is prevalent and potent throughout the world to-day, is the idea of fellowship. For four terrible years the loss of international fellowship has emphasised its value, but the war which broke one fellowship has created others. Nations have become associated in alliances cemented with their blood. Thus to a world craving for fellowship we present our message. The Church must itself be a pattern of fellowship. Men have begun to think of the reunion of Christendom as an imperative necessity, and in the shadow of suffering the ancient Eastern Churches are drawing nearer our own than ever before.—A. and N.Z.