CHURCH UNION.

Auckland Star, Volume LIV, Issue 130, 2 June 1923, Page 13

CHURCH UNION.

(To tlie Bailor.) Sir—ln reference to the above subject I am told that whatever semblance of union there is at present rests on a j very precarious basis. There is a meeting of clergy and laymen under the, title of the Council of Christian Congre- | cations. This. I am told, would have been, as it should be, the Council of the Churches but for the fact that the Anglican Church refuses to meet the other churches, as churches, that is, the clergy of the Anglican Church recognise tbe Presbyterian, Methodist. and other ministers only as irregulars. So much is this the case that in the most liberal proposal which the Anglican Church has promulgated, that of the Lambetli Conference, the only | solution as far as the priesthood or the other churches is concerned is that. the clerey of other denominations must be reordiined by the Anglican Church. This is their idea of union. From their premises I conclude that j as far as the clergy of the various , churches are concerned the position is ! 1 irreconcilable, that Church union is lout of the question on the basis pro-! posed, for neither the clergy nor the laymen of the churches other than the | I Anglican will ever agree to the position " lakl down. I The clergy then are irreconcilable. ; but does that end the matter? By no means. It now comes back upon the people, who indeed are the Church, and : there is an earnest desire on their part for union, which is only temporarily; suppressed, because it was supposed that ; the clcr-v would lead the way. It is now quite clear that they will do nothing of the sort. In the political world a great Eng- j lisli politician when he came to an] impasse owing to what he wi'hed to do in the interests of the people being con- j trary to the law, spoke thus: '-There is only one thing that is greater than the law. and that is the people."' Now. if church systems prevent the unlty which the people desire, what is the remedy? It is as clear as noonday that the systems must go. and they are as easily altered as plasticene when the moulder's will asserts its power. No doubt the time is not ripe for such action by the people, as is suggested, but i-'eeiug that the people have to pay the piper, is it not reasonable that they should rajl the time? — I am, etc., FACING FACTS, j