MEMORABLE SCENE

Evening Post, Volume CIV, Issue 145, 16 December 1927, Page 9

MEMORABLE SCENE

REVISED PRAYER BOOK

DEBATE IN THE LORDS

UNEXPECTED MAJORITY

(A.P.A. and "Sun.")

LONDON, loth December.

The final scene in the House of Lords' debate on the Prayer Book will long be memorable. The House was thronged in every corner, and the atmosphere was one of tense expectancy. It is many years'since such an assembly of peers has been seen, while the public galleries could hold scarcely one-third of those seeking.admission. Mr. Baidwin and a few of his colleagues were prominent among the privileged persons assembled on the steps of the Throne. It was a great moment for the aged Archbishop of Canterbury when the surprising figures were announced, amid cheering, for the majority of 241 votes to bS, was far greater than the most confident supporters of the new Prayer Book had expected. The Bishops looked radiant, and the Archbishop of Canterbury s face showed a succession of emotions, devoutly happy, then a little weary from the strain, then abstracted, as if offering a silent thanksgiving. The bitterest critic could not have grudged the Archbishop that moment of elation and relief. The drama of the debate ■mounted steadily until the fine wind-mg-up speech of the Archbishop of York, whose persuasive eloquence, it is believed, influenced the result. The voting among the Bishops was 20 for and 2 against the motion. MAKING EEXJNION IMPOSSIBLE.

Lord CushendunJ opposing the measure, said that he thought the proposals more far-reaching than were ever present m the minds of the electors of the Church Assembly, while the numbers of the laity who voted at the Diocesan Conferences were negligible. Alternative services would lead to bitter strife in every parish, especially when a new incumbent was being appointed. The Bishop of London/had said the new book restored-the canon which has been broken' up at the Beforniation. But the- canon was then deliberately.broken up in order to emphasise tho Protestant interpretation of the Sacramdut. Surely the restoration of the pre-Ee-formation service restored what the Reformation had repudiated. The Remand for tho new book was almost entirely clerical. Lord Cushenduri thought it would produce an anti-cleri-cal movement and result in tho Church rapidly ceasing to be the expression of faith' of the nation as a whole. It was bound to increase tbe danger of disestablishment and make the reunion of tho churches impossible.

Viscount Cave considered that though Parliament was empowered to overrule the Church Assembly, surely when the latter, after all the steps required by law had been taken, had reached a conclusion' by an overwhelming majority, they must have a. most overwhelming caseinade out against it before the House could reject its decision. Viscount Cave thought too much had been made of the differences between the two books and too little of their essential agreement. To him the effect of the revision was like a fresh breeze blowing through old pages, relieving them of incongruities, and substituting words of fresh appeal more congruous to the present time.

The" Bishop of Norwich said they were asked to add. new forms of wor-. ship 'which might be more Greek or Roman, but certainly, not more English. He believed the decision would dig a deeper trench between the national and other churches in England. The discussions at the Diocesan Conferences were most inadequate. The vast majority of church people hadthe book thrust upon them with no idea of its contents. The Bishop declared: "I believe you are being asked to erect a strong and firm temple of discord, to re-erect the temple of Baal. I ask you not to dissipate the influence of the national Church by making the book optional and alternative on crucial points." ./NOTEWORTHY UNITY. The Archbishop of York, in winding up the debate, said the unity of the Bishops in the matter had been most noteworthy. A church assembly had never been more representative than the present. Only two Free Churches opposed the measure. Three conspicuous Nonconformists, Dr. CarnegieSimpson, Dr. Garyie, and Dr. Sc.ottLidgett, approved it. Certainly they did not regard it as a blow to closer union. The present Prayer Book remained unchanged as to the standard of the Church's teaching, to which the clergy would have to declare their assent. No Bishop or parochial council could compel any clergyman to use the revised book. The main object of the new book was not the better discipline of the clergy, but improved provision for the worship of God. The people were concerned, not about vestments and such like but whether they could see in the church a greater sense of the peace, unity, and goodwill which they were exhorted to bring into their own industrial life. "If you reject the book, you send back the church to waste its energies. You will divert it from the main stream of national life into a backwater noisy with' internal strife. If the Lords and Commons, by decisive majorities, approve the measure, you will have done something to free the church for its high task, and strengthen the ties binding thd nation to the Christian faith."

The motion was carried by 241 votes to SB. Tho minority included the Bishops of Norwich and Worcester, the Dukes of Argyll and Buccleuch, the Marquess of Lincolnshire, Lords Halsbury, Arnold, Banbury, Carson, Cushendun, Meath, Winnaird, Galway, Strathspey, and' Sydneham.