NEW PRAYER BOOK

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 19195, 29 December 1927, Page 7

NEW PRAYER BOOK

ATTACK BY THE HOME SECRETARY. APPEAL TO PARLIAMENTARY COiMMITTEE. (fROM OUft OWN CORRESPONDENT.) LONDON, November 16. Sir . William Joynson-Hicks, the Home Secretary, who has all along been a persistent critic of the new Prayer Book, has drawn up a lengthy memorandum for submission to the Ecclesiastical Committee of laruament, and in this he offers reasons "why the Deposited Book should not receive the authority of Parliament. Here are some of his charges : Notwithstanding yery strong episcopal and other official pressure exerted to induce them to do so, not more than one-half of those eligible to vote (at diocesan conferences and elsewhere) have voted in its favour. No effective safeguard is provided in the measure against the misuse or the extensive powers for the regulation of Divine Service conferred on the Archbishops and Bishops There is no guarantee that individual Bishops will not in the future ignore legal restrictions as they nave been accustomed to do in the past.

Bishops' Neglect. Sir William proceeds to show, according to his view, the casual and incidental manner in which the government of the Church of England is being transferred from the constitutional system we have hitherto known, to an oligarchy consisting of Bishops whose neglect of their plain duty to maintain discipline and order has brought the Church *« Us present divided and difficult position. Special • objection is_ taken to tne actual or implied sanction of: Prayers in the Communion Service which* support the doctrine of the Real Presence. The restoration (under a disarming title) of the Roman commemoration of Corpus Christi. The use of the sacrificial vestment which the Roman Catholic priest wears at the celebration of Mass. The optional use or entire omission at the minister's discretion of the prayers for the King. Jumping-off Ground. "It has been urged," adds Sir William, "that the authorisation of the new book will in regard to these matters bring order out of the existing chaos in the Church. The provision or alternative services with permission to use portions of either would appear more likely to increase than to diminish the present confusion. "There can be no finality about this revision. It will inevitably be used as a jumping-off ground for further demands from those who advocate and adopt Romanising practices.