THE GENERAL SYNOD

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 170, 18 April 1928, Page 12

THE GENERAL SYNOD

Sir,—The twenty-fourth General Anglican Synod will open on Thursday. Xhe treatment of two subjects will interest the public—first, the appointment of a bishop for the Maori. The question ot whether such bishop is to be a Maori or a’ white will excite widespread attention. A Maori clergyman thus gave the Maori wish: “When a boy is born he is denendent upon his mother; when he is a man, he rightly desires self-expression. 1 and it would be foolish for his mother to Stille this. The Maori now feels that he should express his life without the undue dominance of his mother.” Bishop ■Azariah’s visit stirred the Maoris, and the delay to grant their proper desires is doing harm. A Revised Prayer Book is called ior, and the disaster of the revision in England should lead to caution, for two opposing lines of thought cannot be expressed in one book. There are those whose aim is to revert to medievalism; the other to maintain the reformed and Protestant character of our present book. The Church of Ireland and Canada have preserved this character, and in this way preserved what is so desirable to a true Englishman. Three of our I bishops feel that New Zealand cannot do better than adopt as their own the Cauadiaq revision, for it is so well enriched and contains such excellent additional services on the same Scriptural lines that it is difficult to think that any attempt at improvement would be other than waste time and expense. One I’eaure is that of pagination, a most useful item. But there is one improvement that might be made, viz., to make definite what has puzzled so many, that is, the ornaments rubric, which is contrary to all subsequent practice. This directs that all ornaments, etc., shouk. be those of the first Prayer Book of Edward yI. That Rubric has never been observed tor the good reason that the very framers of that book had it completely destroyed and substituted the Rubric of lost, and which has ever since been the use until the rise of the wilful disobeyer in the person of the ritualist, now the Anglo-Catholic; but frequent judgments of the Privy Council have ever upheld the 1552 rubric as binding upon all the ministry. A very slight alteration would suffice—take the last sentence ot the rubric and delete the words year of the reign" and substitute the words “prayer book,” and you have the sen fence reading as follows: “In the second Prayer Book of King Edward the bixth. The rubric in that book is distinct and is what has ever been in use and what is found in the Irish Canon 4, which states that the surplice shall be plain white with sleeves, etc., permitting hoods and bands. It is very imperative that everyone who wishes to understand the Prayer Book should not only study the Canadian revision, bit also the story of that revision written by Dr. Armitage, and the story of the English Prnver Book, by Dr. Dyson Hague. Both these writers were revisers of the Canadian 1 rayer Book Bishop Lightfoot s The Christian Ministry"' should, also be studied. The more attention given to tins will enhance the value and will lead >° thankfulness that we have such a treasure in our hands.—l am, etc.. FRED. H. SPENCER. Rotorua. April 14.