BISHOP JENNER.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XXXI, Issue 2594, 29 April 1869, Page 3

BISHOP JENNER.

The following letter, addressed to the Rev E. G. Edwards of Dunedin, has been published in the Otago Daily Times and several other journals of that province : My Dear Mr Edwards, —My claim remains exactly as it did before the assembling of the Synod. For all that has been said or done, I maintain that the Church in New Zealand is no less bound than she was before, formally to assign to me spiritual jurisdiction over the Diocese for which I was consecrated; and that to evade this obligation is quite as discreditable now as it would have been a year, or two years, ago. And if it be contended, as indeed it has been, that the obligation has been abrogated by any acts of mine, I claim and demand tbat these acts be specified and described with all possible accuracy, so that it may be known, without possibility of mistake, what I have done, or taught, or said, which, by the law of the Church, in England or in New Zealand, can be visited with penal consequences. It is this that I challenge my accusers, not for the first time, to prove ; and if they will only undertake the proof, I, for my part, will pledge myself to throw no obstacles in their way. They have refused more than one fair offer—will they refuse this? lam willing, in order to facilitate the course that I propose for their adoption, to plead guilty to almost all the charges tbat have been, and to others that might be, brought against me. For example, I will even admit the accuracy of Mr Young’s highly coloured report of what he saw and heard at St. Matthias’s, Stoke. Newington, and of his interview with the late Archbishop of Canterbury. I will not impugn the authenticity of the ‘fancy report’ of a certain confirmation address of mine, or of my Whitwell sermon. I will acknowledge that I have over and over again given direct encouragement and sympathy to men who are called “ ultra-ritual-ists.” I will confess, moreover, that on many occasions, before and after my consecration, I have officiated in churches where the plainest rules of the Church are habitually ignored; where, e.g., “no declaration” is ever made of holy days and festive days to be observed; where no services are ever held except on Sundays; where the bread and wine for holy communion are never placed on the holy table by the priest at the time specified by the Rubric; where the offertory sentences and the prayer for the whole state of Christ’s Church Militant are never read, unless there is a communion ; where holy baptism is never administered at the time appointed ; and where a vestment unknown to the Church law is always worn by the preacher. Against any charge of countenancing irregularities such as these, I will solemnly pledge myself to offer no defence. And if it be held by whatever tribunal may be selected—and this I leave to my accusers—that I have herein been guilty of offences against Church law and order, such as would render me liable to ecclesiastical censure, I undertake, without appealing, to surrender all claim to the See of Dunedin. Jf my opponents have any sense of honour or of justice remaining they will surely not reject such a proposal as this. If they do, here is another ; I will consent to a reference of the whole case to any three Bishops of the Church of England, leaving the selection to the opposition, and I will pledge myself to abide by their decision. —I am, &c., Henry Lascelles Jenner. Blueskin Bay, April 14.