BISHOP’S BOOK CAUSES STIR IN CHURCH CIRCLES!

Greymouth Evening Star, 16 October 1947, Page 7

BISHOP’S BOOK CAUSES STIR IN CHURCH CIRCLES!

(Rec. 9.45 a.m.) LONDON, Oct. 15. “If his views were mine, I should not feel I could still hold episcopal office in the Church,” said the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Fisher, referring to the book “The Rise of Christianity,” by the Bishop of Birmingham, Dr E. W. Barnes, when presiding at the Convocation of Canterbury. Dr Fisher described the book as “so inadequate to the Church’s doctrine as to be both implicitly and explicitly inconsistent with it.” He added that Bishop Barnes had discarded or omitted-much that held a c’entral place in generally-accepted Christian doctrine and belief. They knew the bias of the bishop’s mind which was very evident in the book, and he was sure nobody desired’that there should be any official action in the matter, but the fact that a bishop should .publish such a book could not but disturb and shock them.

The Bishop of Birmingham heard the Archbishop’s remarks from his usual seat opposite the Archbishop.

What Bishop Denied

The union executive previously sent a letter to members of the Lower House of the Convocations of Canterbury and York, asserting that Dr Barnes’s book denied the possibility of miracles, rejected the Catholic doctrine of the incarnation although Dr Barnes stated in the preface that he worshipped Jesus as Divine, dismissed the virgin birth as a “crude semi-pagan story,” denied the physical Resurrection of Christ and did not- mention the doctrine of atonement or the Holy Trinity. After the Archbishop’s speech, Dr Barnes attempted to reply, but the Archbishop said: “I don’t think it is propel' in full synod that the presi-

dent’s address should be subject to a discussion.”

The Bishop of Birmingham, in the Upper House of the Convocation of Canterbury this afternoon, replying to the Archbishop of Canterbury, said that if the Archbishop was convinced of the necessity for public repudiation of certain of his conclusions, this could not have been done with greater kindness. He added that he believed his conclusions were true and compatible with his position as a bishop. Dr Barnes said: “There have been many conflicts in the last two. centuries between religion and science. The latter in every case won the battle and Christianity gained a purifying by defeat. Religion, like a man, must from time to time "Shed its old garments. As a church we must come to terms with science and scholarship and make, perhaps, dangerous advances in so doing, or we face disaster. What I wrote was most Carefully thought out.

New Outlook

“The belief in miracles has gone from the scientific world. The church and too many of its theologians have refused’ to accept the new outlook. There have been silence and delay which are proving disastrous.” The Archbishop said the statement was a personal one, which did not call for any observations. The Upper House proceeded to the next business. The subject will be raised again tomorrow when the Lower Court of Convocation debates a motion thanking the Archbishop of Canterbury for his expression of views on Dr Barnes’s book. The Bishop of Birmingham told Reuter’s correspondent after leaving the Convocation: “There is no question of my resigning my bishopric. I am not resigning.”