The Church in England.

Press, Volume LXV, Issue 19508, 3 January 1929, Page 8

The Church in England.

It has been obvious that the rejection of the revised Prayer Book by the British Parliament has brought Disestablishment much nearer. Whatever people may think, the Established Church "will not indefinitely permit to be controlled in doctrine by a secular body. Moreover, Parliament is more than a secular body. It is an assembly that contains elements helping the denominations different from the Establishment and sometimes very critical of it. A Freethinker or a Buddhist may turn the scale in a vital division affecting the Church. It is one thing, however, to talk of Disestablishment in theory and quite another thing to frame a measure that would give effect to such a momentous change, and the difficulties of obtaining anything like agreement on such legislation are so many and so formidable that there will be a welcome for the proposals now put forward by the Bishop of Durham. The Establishment is old and is rooted deep in English society. To uproot the fabric in quick time and without conciliating opposition might do infinite mischief. Dr. Hensley Henson realises that with Disestablishment goes " the sinister and " terrifying prospect of disendow- " ment." To separate the Church from the State in the domain of liturgical control and special privileges would be easy, but disendowment might become a quarry round which many wolves would fight. What should become of the great estates of the Church ? How much should the Church retain and how much should go to public purposes? What would be the position of the Anglo-Catholics? Might not Parliament in its present temper stipulate that they should not share? What would be the attitude of the Nonconformist Churches which have built up their organisations without any aid from the State? The passions that were loosed by the Conservative Government's Education Act of a generation ago and by the liberals' attempt to repeal it give some indication of what might happen if Disestablishment were clumsily handled. Dr. Henson proposes that statesmen should confer with leaders of the Established Church and the Free Churches in order to frame a measure acceptable to aIL By this means, he thinks, crippling confiscation of property could be avoided, and the question of the control of cathedrals could be settled in a way that would not offend devout Anglicans. This matter of the historic fanes of the Church is one that makes many Anglicans dubious about Disestablishment who otherwise are not opposed to it. They fear lest these buildings which are not only the churches of one particular denomination but national possessions, enshrining history as well as religion, should pass out of the hands of the Church and become more or less secularised. Generally ipeaking Disestablishment has lost a good deal of its terror. There is the example of Wales, where the Church is stronger now before it was disestablished. Nevertheless, the apprehensions of English Anglicans are real, and the difficulties in the way of a just and satisfymg settlement serious enough to make all parties pause and reflect. Settlement by consent is so obviously preferable to settlement by force that it is to be hoped that the appeal of the Bishop of Durham will not go unheeded.