WARNING GIVEN TO CHURCH

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25208, 12 June 1947, Page 7

WARNING GIVEN TO CHURCH

RELATIONSHIP WITH STATE ARCHBISHOP OF YORK SEEKS J CHANGE (Rec. 10 p.m.) LONDON, June 11. A warning to the Church against subjection by the State, even to the point of disestablishment, is given by the Archbishop of York (Dr. C. F. Garbett), in a new book. He declares that it is not certain if Parliament will ever agree on legislation which will remove its veto on the proposed changes in the Prayer Book, nor does there seem much hope that it will agree to revision of the Church Courts. “The State increasingly exercises control over every department of the community’s life,” he adds. “It is unlikely that the Church will escape from this movement. State control over the Church is more likely to be

intensified than eased. It would be possible through appointments of bishops and deans and through the patronage of many benefices for the State to control the Church for its own purposes. It would be no longer the laity expressing in the Commons their views. It would be Parliament, detached from and uninterested in religion, manipulating the Church for political ends. “A Church so controlled would be unable (J develop freely its spiritual life, organise its worship, express its faith, and bear its witness against political injustice and social wrong. “The Church should frankly face the dangers of its position. Parliament at the moment has no desire to exercise control over the Church or gratuitously interfere in its concerns, but within a few years a neutral attitude may be changed into hostility, and the Church will then find it is useless to ask for reform or greater freedom. “It should not acquiesce any longer in a relationship with the State which might suddenly prove to be inconsistent in A practice, as well as in principle, with religious freedom.” Montgomery’s Tour-—The Chief of the Imperial General Staff (FieldMarshal Lord Montgomery) will arrive in New Delhi on June 23, on his way to Australia and New Zealand, and will stay two days. Field-Marshal Montgomery. after visiting Australia and New Zealand, will go to Japan for a few days as the guest of General McArthur.—New Delhi, June 10.