REVISED PRAYER BOOK

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 102, 27 October 1925, Page 16

REVISED PRAYER BOOK

POSITION OF NEW ZEALAND

THE RIGHT TO FREEDOM.

Referring to the possibility of revision ( of the Prayer Book, Archbishop Avenll stated in his charge to the Auckland Diocesan Synod that as things "were the Church in New Zealand could accept only a revision approved by the bishops in England, the Church Assembly, and Parliament, and which received the Royal assent. What that book would be was beyond the wit of man to imagine, in view of the many discordant voices clamouring to be heard. It was a fact sometimes overlooked that should an alternative Prayer Book be agreed upon and published it would not necessarily supersede the present Prayer Book, and it would be lawful for any church to remain in statu quo as far as it was concerned.

"We need a revised Prayer Book. It does not follow, however, that the present English revision, or any future revision, will be acceptable to us or quite suitable for us. The development of our spiritual Jife may be such that the medium far giving expression to that life may require something different from what may be suitable to England.

UNSATISFACTORY ALTERNATIVE.

"Without having.any wish or intention to have a New Zealand revision of the Prayer Book, we, do want freedom to choose for ourselves and to adopt, if we think fit, a revision of the Prayer Book such as exists in Canada and South Africa and elsewhere. The Lambeth Conference in 1920 unhesitatingly repudiated the idea of every portion of the great Anglican communion being bound by the formularies of the English Prayer Book, and desired to give ample scope and liberty for self-realisation and expression. Unless we can obtain the

liberty which wo seek, in all probability we shall refuse to adopt the revised English Prayer Book and be compelled to continue the use of a Prayer Book which in many respects is insufficient for our present, requirements. "To my mind, it will be disastrous to the unity and peace of the Anglican Church if- alternative offices for tho Holy Communion are adopted and legalised, for it will tend to destroy still further the parochial system in our towns and encourage the growth and development of the party spirit which we are most anxious to avoid. The one and the same service for all is perhaps the strongest link which binds the members of the Anglican communion in one fellowship. "In view'of the fact that the Church of this , province will be called upon sooner or later to face the question of accepting or refusing the revised Prayer .Book of the Church qf England, it is well that we should "prepare ourselves carefully for the important task and try to realise the fundamental truths, namo-

ly, that uniformity is not essential to unity,,.that'we may be united in esseni tials without having rigid uniformity in ' regard to details land non-essentials, and tliat the presence or absence of cere-, monial cannot in itself change the ultimate value of divine truth. ' . ■' EIGHTS OF THE PROVINCE. "In view of the fact that there is an undoubted movement on the part of a section of the Anglican Church to regard the Church of England in' the light of- two provinces of the Western Church merely, to ignore her status as an independent part of the Holy Catholic Church, with power t,o decree rites and ceremonies and authority in controversies of faith, to question the right of '(the Church of England to reform herself without the authority of the whole Western Church, and to impose upon her the teaching and ceremonies of the modern Roman Catholic Church, with the exception of the supremacy of the Pope, whether that teaching be Catholic and primitive and scriptural, or merely medieval or modern, it behoves all members of the Anglican Church to study afresh the position of the Church of England as an independent entity in the unity of the Catholic Church, reformed upon the basis of scriptural and primitive truth, and in bondage or gubmission to no other part oi the Church Catholic. • . "The struggle of the Ecclesia Anglicana for her rightful freedom and independence, and her successful endeavour to throw off the oppression of foreign bondage at the Eeformation and _ still retain all the marks of true catholicity,

are matters for justifiable pride and thankfulness rather than for a grudging acceptance or denial. Just as we believe- that the Church of England, as an integral and historic part of the Holy Catholic Church, has a perfect right to reform herself and revise her own Prayer Book so long as she does not contravene any doctrine' which is scriptural and really Catholic, so purely we believe that the Church of tho Province of New Zealand has identically .the same right, even though she may not consider that it is expedient at the present timo and under present circumstances to use that right."