CHURCH CONGRESS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLVII, Issue 220, 15 August 1927, Page 7

CHURCH CONGRESS.

QUESTION OF SACRAMENTS

ONE COMMUNION TABLE

WESLEYAN PLEA,

Received August 15, 9.25 a.m. LAUSANNE, Aug. 14

The Faith and Order Conference considered the question of the sacraments.

Doctor Ashworth, of the Baptist Church of America, declared that the blessing from the sacraments was derived rather in the faith in which they were received than from the official status of the administrator.

Doctor Maldwyn Hughes, English Wesleyan minister, pleaded that all tho churches should gather round one communion table to meet their Lord, “without asking how He comes, only knowing of His presence.” Doctor J. V. Bartlet, Professor of Church History in the Mandfield College, Oxford, commented that it was around two sacraments with the New Testament authority for —baptism and the Lord’s Supper—that most of tho differences between the churches turned. REUNION QUESTION. The conference has had a most difficult task in considering the committees’ reports. Tho Bishop of Bombay (Dr. Palmer) said that Calvin made a most amazing mistake' in trying to reform the cliurcli on tlie pattern of the apostolic age

minus the apostles. The church was not a democracy but a monarchy, of which Christ-was King. Dr. Scherer, of tho American Lutheran Church, declared that before the reunion of the Protestant and Catholic Churches a constitutional episcopate might bo possible through a growth of unity independent of outward forms. But he feared that the theory of apostolic succession would lead to the acknowledgment of the Pope’s supremacy. Critics anticipate that tho delicate question of the number of sacraments to be observed will prove a stumbling block to the desire for unity. One touching incident is recorded. A Norwegian delegate, Reverend Hertzeberg, who was dying, realised that he could not live through the night, and handed over his address to a friend. The friend read it after his death, all the members of the conference standing with bowed heads. —A. and N.Z. cable.