ANGLICAN CHURCH.

Press, Volume LXII, Issue 18670, 20 April 1926, Page 7

ANGLICAN CHURCH.

AUSTRALIAN CONSTITUTION,

(feoii oub own coreispondbnt.)

SYDNEY, April 7.

Interest in the General Convention of the Anglican Church of Australia in Sydney towards the end of the year —it will be epoch-marking, for it will, practically mould the constitution of the Church of England in Australia into the form which, it will preserve probably for many years—is indicated by the controversy which has been aroused in the open columns of the Press by the draft Bill of the new constitution for the church, which has been circulated among the diocesan synods. The controversy indicates clearly that church people are carefully studying the BiU, and not without justification apparently, for the cc'nstitution of the Anglican Church throughout the Commonwealth will, in effect, be thrown into the melting pot, and it is not of course quite certain precisely what, will come out of it, for church legislation, like that affecting the State, has not always the results which were hoped for when it finds its place on the Statute Book. The Bill, judging from clauses of it which have been published, is a long and complex document, and introduces into the constitution of the church changes which will inevitably arouse still keener controversy and probably no little opposition when the assembly meets. ■ Incidentally it affects not only members of the Anglican Church, but members of other Christian bodies, for, according to ono prominent churchman' who has made a statesmanlike analysis of the Bill, many aspects of the movement towards reunion are bound to bo modified seriously by some of the proposed amendments, if they are carried into law. The Convention will be one of fho biggest tests of church statesmanship in the history of Australia. The Bill in one of its vital clauses provides againßt any "cutting of the painter." The Church of England in Australia, it sets out, will not by its own act or will, sever communion with the Church of England in England, "nor with other national regional or provincial churches maintaining communion with that Church." j *