The Church of England in Victoria.

Bruce Herald, Volume VI, Issue 484, 29 April 1873, Page 2

The Church of England in Victoria.

The • Leader ' of March 16 remarks : — Bishop Perry has given something like a shock to the charitable instincts of society by the announcement made in the - Church of England Messenger,' that " many of the clergy, some indeed of the most estimable of them, are suffering extreme privation, being reduced at times almost to the verye of starvation." The italics are the Bishop's own, and they leave little room for hoping tl sf, he was merely using a rhetorical figure. If the destitution be as bad as it is stated, it is ail the more distressing from the fact that it is like,' y to be worse before it is better. If the clergy are starving now, what will be their fate when the State-aid is entirely expended, and they are left dependent

upon the zeal and benevolence of their congregations?. The prospect is not such a distant one but that the preparations to meet ifc should he commenced at once. It would seem on the face of ifc an act of very doubtful prudence to appropriate LIO,OOO to the founding of a second bishopric, which might otherwise go to swell a sustentation or clergy relief fund. 11 this is to be a. prefigurement =" of the fate of her clergy under the voluntary system, ifc i 8 clear that the Church of England, if she is to preserve her power for-gbod in the 'community, must take steps to. co-operate with the other sects, who are more independent than herself. Ifc may be an object of just am-, bition with her to maintain her traditions and her individuality as a church, but the cause of religion will scarcely be served by the perpetuation of a system that-pre-sents to the gaze of the faithful the unedifying spectacle , which Bishop Perry vouches for as true of the ministers of the gospel, " reduced at times to the verge of starvation." As long as that spectacle may be witnessed, the ideal relations of the pastor- and the flock are a mere .figure of speech, and both the preacher and the congregation are scandalised.