"AN OPEN MIND."

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 289, 7 December 1933, Page 10

"AN OPEN MIND."

ARCHBISHOP MOWLL.

AUSTRALIAN PROBLEMS.

BEADY FOB NEW WORK

(From Our Own Correspondent.)

SYDNEY, December 2.

Archbishop Mowll having accepted the "call" to the primacy of New South Wales, and having resigned from his diocese of Western China, is now in London, and he is expected to sail for Sydney about the middle of January. This week the London representative of the "Sun" called upon him and elicited from him a general statement of his views. The Archbishop says that he is going to Australia "with an open mind"; that he has been for 10 years 'remote from the burning discussions of the Western world," and that, therefore, he possesses "no fixed views" on any of the controversial questions of the day. He is going to Australia, therefore, "not as a teacher, but as a learner," and he conceives it to be his first duty "to become a good Australian and assimilate the Australian oufclook." The Archbishop recalls with great pleasure the warm welcome that he received here in 1931, and he is looking forward with eager anticipation to the work that lies before him.

All this is very gratifying, but it would be a great mistake to imagine that the Archbishop expects everything out here to be a matter of plain sailing. A man of acknowledged intellectual

capacity and of wide experience, lie realises already that sooner or later he will be involved in controversies and compelled to take sides, and he told his interviewer that when he has adjusted himself sufficiently to the new point of view he will not hesitate to speak hi? mind freely." Always an Evangelical. In this connection, by far the most significant portion of the Archbishop's message was this sentence: "I have always been an Evangelical, and always will be," for it is not to be supposed that he does not know that in Sydney, as in so many other British communties to-day the Church is rent by comfiiet between the Evangelicals and the AngloCatholics. A week ago an Evangelical rally was held at the Chapter House of St. Andrew's Cathedral, and during the. evening a strong attack was made upon the Anglo-Catholic bishops and priests and upon the Oxford movement, of which the centenary has been celebrated during the past week at Wagga. Mr. H. L. Tress, who took the chair, laid great emphasis upon the efforts of the Anglo-Catholics to repudiate the evangelical tradition so long maintained in Sydney and to undermine the established order of things here. The Rev. 'L. Gabbott went even further, declaring that "the ultimate object of the Oxford movement is reunion with the Roman Catholic Church." He asserted that many Anglican priests to-day "think more about Roman Catholic practice than about their Bible," anc\ that "in many of the AngloCatholic churches morning prayer is pushed into the background, and the Mass has taken its place." Is Unity Threatened? Mr. Gabbott quoted from comments made recently by Canon How, of Liverpool, who was offered, and refused, the sco of Brisbane, pointing out that though Canon How is a, high churchman he maintains that the Anglo-Catholics

have developed' into a sect of schismatics, and that, they arrep threatening the Church unity.

The speakers at.this meeting used some vigorous language in condemnation, of "Jesuitical.', casuistry'' and "mental reservations," and other alleged features of Anglo-Catholicism; and the general impression produced by this discussion is that there are many forces already showing here against the harmony and peace of the Church. Ot course I do not presume to offer, an opinion on the rights and wrongs of the case; but it will be interesting to hear what Archbishop Mowll has .to., say about these matters, when be has "assimilated the Australian viewpoint, and the time comes for him to speak.