CHURCH OF ENGLAND

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 264, 31 July 1908, Page 7

CHURCH OF ENGLAND

DISORDERS AND ILLEGALITY.J). (UY TBI.EGUArn—rRESS ASSOCIATION—coi'rEIGHT.) London, July 29. The Primo Minister, Mr. Asquith, in receiving a. non-party deputation of members of vthe House of Commons, promised to carefully consider and bring before his colleagues representations concerning ecclesiastical disorders and illegalities in tho Church of England. ' COMMISSION'S REPORT. The Royal Commission on ecclesiastical, disorders and irregularities in the Church of England in its report slated thufc it had arrived at two main conclusions:— "First, the law of public worship in the Church of England 13 too . narrow for the religious life of the present generation. It needlessly condemns much which a great section of Church people, many of her most devoted members, value; and modern thought and feeling are characterised by a care for ceremonial, a sense of dignity in worship, and an appreciation of the continuity of the Church which were not similarly felt at the time when the law took its present shape. Tho result has inevitably been that ancient rubrics have been strained in tho desire , to find in them meanings which it has been judicially held they cannot bear, while, ou the other hand, the construction placed on them in accordance with legal rules has sometimes appeared forced and unnatural. • "Secondly, the machinery for discipline has broken down. The means of enforcing the law in the Ecclesiastical Courts, ovon in mattors which touch the Church's faith and teaching, are defective, and in some respects unsuitable: It is important that the law should be reformed. that it should admit of reasonable elasticity, and j that the means qf enforcing it should be improved,'but, abovo all, it is necessary that it should bo obeyed. That a section of clorgymen should, with however good intentions, conspicuously disobey tho law and continue to do so witli impunity is not only an offence against public order, but also a scandal to religion and a causo of weakness to (lie Church of England.* It is not our duty to assign responsibility for tho past; wo have indicated our opinion that, it lios ; in large measure.- with the law itself.

"Tho .terms of our reference directing our inquiry into the alleged prevalence of breaches or neglect of the law have necessarily led us to lay stress almost exclusively upon defects mid dangers in tho work of the Church of England. A report thus limited in its scope may leave upon .tho minds of some who read it an effect widely different from that which would bo produced by. a study of the work of the Church as a whole. The complaints made tn us relate to n smell pronortion of the 14,242 churches in England and Wales, and vary greatly in their cliaractor and gravity. To nrcclude an impression 'which would, we believe, be unjust to the genera], body of tfio clergy, wo tr» plnee on record mir conviction that tho ovidenco giv»s no justification for any doubt that in tho largo majority of parishes the work nf the Church is being quietly and diligently performed by clergy who ere entirely loyal to tho principles of tho En"li«h Reformation as oppressed in the Bo"lv of Common Prayer." The princinal recommendation of tho Commission is that nractic.es referred to in tho report as being "nlain'v smuificent of teachins renugrcnt to tho Church of England, and 'certainly illegal, should bo promptly mnde to eonsi.b.u tli" exercise of tho authority belonging lo tho Bishons, and, if nccssnry', by proceedings in the Ecclesiastical Courts."