ANGLICAN CHURCH

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 38, 15 February 1938, Page 4

ANGLICAN CHURCH

CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE

REPORT OF THE COMMISSION

PRINCIPAL POINTS

(From "The Post's" Representative.) LONDON, January 15.

One of the most important documents in Anglican church history was published yesterday when the report of the Commission on Christian Doctrine appointed in 1922 by the Archbishops of Canterbury and York was released. The terms of. reference of the commission as communicated to the original chairman, the late Dr. Burge, Bishop of Oxford, were to "consider the nature and grounds of Christian doctrine With a view to demonstrating the extent of existing agreement within the Church of England and with a view to investigating how far it is possible to remove or diminish, existing differences." It was set up at a time when differences between various schools of thought in the Church—Angle-Catholic, Modernist, Evangelical, and the like —had become so vehement and apparently irreconciliable that they seemed likely to provoke a division. In the circumstances it is remarkable that the commission, which consisted of churchmen of all degrees , of thought, have been able to draw up a unanimous statement. This unanimity should not be overstressed, however, as at many important points the repbrt states "there is a; divergence of opinion about" or "we cannot agree on. .. ." Newspaper comment agrees that one of the most important results of the commission's work is that after discussions .extending over 15 years a document could be produced- showing a strong feeling of fellowship and bearing out_ the words of the chairman, the Archbishop of York, that members ended as "a company of friends." FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES. This, it is pointed out, is the surest sign that the report will, remove all fears of a split in the Church, because opposing groups have in recent years been moving, though" perhaps rather, more slowly, jn the same direction of greater understanding. Beyond this point estimates of the value of the report vary. The .."Daily Telegraph and Morning Post" says that it is an impressive proof of unity, and that because of its lack of ambiguity, it is of greater moment than anything of the sort within living memory. It even considers that the report may play a very large-part in endeavours towards reunion with the Evangelical Free Churches. On the other hand, Times" does not think that the report will have much practical result beyond, perhaps, bringing about a changed attitude towards the beliefs of others. An inquirer might expect to learn torn it what interpretations of various doubtful points are now generally accepted by Anglican theologians," it states. "The document will show him, however, that they agreed chiefly to differ. Whether the Virgin Birth'of our Lord is fact or myth, whether or'not-/His tomb was empty on Easter ■ Day, whether the Gospel miracles should be taken as history or imagery, are among the questrons which the commission, owing to the conflict of opinion among STmembers, found itself unable to is concerned only with fundamental principles of doctrine and not with their expression in outwara SSnTS worships or administrative problems involved. It.is not an authoritative statement of the Church of England. If will now be presented to the Bishops for consideration. BIBLE NOT INFALLIBLE. The report consists of an introduction by Dr. Temple, Archbishop of York who became chairman on the death of Dr. Burgo, in 1925, and three main sections dealing with God and redemption, the Church and sacraments, and eschatology respectively. toTt°fs agreed that God can work miracles if He pleases, but members £c dSfded as to whether such events occur Many feel it more congruous wTth the wisdom and majesty of God tot toe laws of Nature should serve ffis purpose without any need for exCeThe n process of human generation is not in itedf sinful nor is sin conveyed ? 0 the offspring because of any sinfulness in the process. This is not a necessary part of the doctrine of ongfnaTSnYut part of a profound y unsatisfactory view of sex and sexual THE VIRGIN BIRTH. The members of the Commission agree on the Godhead of Jesus Christ, but while they agree also in recognising that belief in our Lords birth from a Virgin has been'in the history of the Church intimately associated with its faith in the Incarnation of the Son of God, some of them hold that a full belief in the historical Incarnation "is more consistent with the supposition that our Lord's birth took place under the normal conditions of human generation." On this point the Archbishop of York states: "In view of my own responsibility in the Church, I think it right to affirm that I wholeheartedly acceptas historical facts the birth of our Lord from a Virgin Mother and the Resurrection of His physical body from death and the tomb." _ Regarding the Resurrection the report says: "It ought to be affirmed that Jesus was veritably alive and victorious; that He showed Himself alive from the dead, to the Disciples; and that the fact of His rising, however explained, is to be understood to have been an event as real and concrete as the crucifixion itself." ) REJECTION OF PAPACY. The Church of England was right in taking the stand which it,took in the sixteenth century in denying the Papal supremacy and is still bound to resist the claims of the contemporary Papacy Sacramental confession is open to all but obligatory to none. It is heard, under the seal of absolute secrecy. An agreed statement on absolution, and confession is one of the^ notable features of the report. The Commission rejects the litera)istic belief in a future resurrection of the actual: physical frame which is laid in the tomb, but affirms that in the life of the world to come the soul, or spirit, will still have its appropriate organ of expression and activity, which is one with the body' of. the earthly life in- the sense that it bears the same relation to the same spiritual entity.