CHURCH AND STATE

Press, Volume LXXI, Issue 21465, 6 May 1935, Page 19

CHURCH AND STATE

SERMON KY THE REV. CHARLES PERRY The double duty of the Christian citizen, to his Church and to the state, was discussed by the Rev. Charles Perry in a sermon at St. Michael's Church last evening. Mr Perry pointed out that, tiie Christian Church had been founded by Christ within a state, and that there were two powers ruling the life of a Christian, one divine with spiritual laws and sanctions and the other human with secular laws and sanctions. "Modern England sees the Church of England established, allied to the state; not because it- was made so by a definite act of Parliament, but simply because the Church was one before the state, and taught it the value of unity and of representative government," said Mr Perry. "There are advantages to the Church in this alliance. The Archbishop crowns the King, an Anglican chaplain says prayers in the Commons, bishops sit in the Lords; there is a religious atmosphere about political business and no unseemly inter-denominational conflict about precedence. "But the disadvantages of thfc establishment of the Church in England today are many,-" he said. "The Prime Minister appoints bishops, though of course not giving them their spiritual powers, the Church is not free in the matter of le doctrine of marriage nor free to revise her own prayer-book. Many Anglicans would prefer disestablishment. Most of them think that the first movement towards it ought to come from the state. Disendowment of churches is another question. As we know, there is no establishment of the Church or of any other religious body ia the Dominion."