CHURCH DISPUTE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 220, 17 September 1938, Page 6

CHURCH DISPUTE.

DIOCESE OF SYDNEY.

CLERGY AND ARCHBISHOP.

GROUP SEEKS CONFERENCE,

SVI)\KY, September 12,

A dispute on administration between Archbishop Mowll and a group of 50 clerjjy of the diocese of .Sydney has been revealed by the publication of a memorial and copies of letters which have pa.-sed between tlie jiarties.

I lie jirciup met in conference last I-eliriiarv, and later the chairman. I anon A. H. (iarnsey. sent a memorial t<- the Archlii-hop asking for an interview. Ihe reason j-iven for this action by the group was that "debates and elections in Synod, decisions of committee*, appointments to posts of importance, ami other phases of diocesan life, appeared to them to indicate a definite trend toward the cmLailment of freedom and the narrowing down of that generous compreheTisi\eness which they held to be one of the glories of Anglican Christianity."

J lie Archbishop refused several requests for an interview. To each of the clergy concerned he sent a long questionnaire on diocesan matters, to which he a«keil them .to reply individually. They replied as a united body to certain question*, and made a further request for an interview.

The Archbishop stated in the "Sydney Diocesan Magazine" that he was ready ftt all times, as their bishop, to confer with any of his clergy in the matters which affected them personally, and which were concerned either with their individual or parochial difficulties. But in this case/' he added, "a section of the clergy, acting in a body, without any direct constitutional status, invited me to discuss with them, among other things, my general administration of the affairs of the diocese. I would, of course, have declined outright to do this, but in view of the unusual nature of the request, I addressed a questionnaire to each signatory to the memorial to obtain precise and definite information regarding the matters referred to in it. The menioralists were reluctant to supply individually the precise information asked for. based on their actual knowledge as individuals, and preferred to return a collective reply, and this to some only of my questions. In these circumstances it would' be improper for me to accord a hearing to men who prefer complaints which have not been properly attested. I cannot appear by the slightest action to countenance vague and indefinite charges against men in our midst, who, so far as my knowledge carries me, are loyally seeking to carry out the highest principles of the Church of England, and, indeed, of our Common Christianity." Dr. Mow 11 has left for England and will not return to Sydney until February. Archbishop Mowll gassed through Auckland on Monday of' last week as a passenger on the Aorangi for Vancouver en route to England. /