NEW PRAYER BOOK

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 122, 25 May 1928, Page 3

NEW PRAYER BOOK

NEW ZEALAND CHURCH. SAFEGUARDING, PROPERTIES (From "The Post's" Representative.) ':■ :: ■'•'■ LONDON, .lStli-'March. - . On ■• 25th- November last there ap« pearecl in the "Guardian^? a letter from the pen of Archdeacon Curzon-Siggcrs explaining the attitude of the Church in New Zealand 'to the 'new/ Prayer Book. The New Zealand correspondent of the "Guardian" comments oathis letter in the issue of 24th February.'' - ■...',.'.■ ■ "We have been aware of opposition in' Dunedin. to the Bill now under, consideration by the Church in New Zealand," he "says, ''designed to' safeguard our church properties should: a new Prayer Book, or an altered Prayer Book, be brought into, use here. • It-is not easy to see why any opposition should be felt, for all the New' Zealand Church is seeking is freedom to decide what formularies ■it shall usey without any risk of that happening which hap-; pened in Scotland. It does not appear that the Governor-General is. bound to act on a letter from ono bishop just ia, the way the writer of it may wish. "It is evident that Archdeacon CurzonSiggers, : together .with the commission of his diocesan synod, is opposed' to the idea that the New Zealand Church should follow the example of, the churches in Canada and South Africa,, and niake its '.own book. Such /in idea is held in some quarters, but it is no new one, and certainly not directly connected with what has been going on in England these twenty years, past. He would have the Deposited Book, which, since his letter was ■written, has met in England with a temporary and melancholy set-back. With all this lam in agreement.; I, too, should be very sorry if our Church hero wore to make its own book; I, too, should welcome whole-heartedly the Deposited Book if only we could have it. But there are" people ..here, more in number ' than thos« fdr whom , th» archdeacon speaks, who" feel, that the Dunedin project of authorising a new book without any recourse to Parliament in the matter of the properties is very risky. To succeed in such . a project would bo a splendid thing. TAKE NO BISKS. ' "It is easy to interpret an Act. of Parliament or of General: Synod as we might wish, and to find in the Act itself pleiity' to justify our interpretation, but-the truth is that the constitution.of the Church in New Zealand , assumes conditions —a united Church of England and Ireland—which no longer exist. That may or may not set us' free of the constitution altogether, but it would hardly bo safe to. assume that, and to act as if.no written constitution existed. I" think the constitution, at' the time it was drawn up, meant what it said. The Archdeacon quotes part of clause 1, but that clause continues, 'the said Church shall have no power .to.make an alteration in the Authorised Version of the Holy Scriptures, or in the above-mentioned formularies of the Church.' It is hard to understand, in face of this, his re,niar.k,. tjiat 'nothing is said about .accepting; p.ry,using the Book of Common Prayer.' We may; by no means assume, with- the Archdeacon; that those who think,* we aro. tied to the Prayer Book are under a misunderstanding. Nothing short of an Act of Parliament can determine the matter. In the meantime we may; take no risks. '.••.■■■ "I suppose the position taken and explained by Archdeacon Curzon-Sig-gers has been profoundly: affected by the rejection, a week or two after his letter appeared in printj'of the Deposited Book; but if, .in spite of all, our bishops could unanimously bid us go and prosper with that book, I think the Archdeacon and I, and many; others, would be very happy. The New Zealand General Synod meets next April, when no doubt we shall hear; more. "■ . ' ; ' .