THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 1888.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9164, 20 September 1888, Page 4

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 1888.

» In a previous article we have pointed to some remarkable features characterising the great Pan-Anglican Conference, which has just been held at Lambeth. But there has been nothing else in the whole proceedings that so distinctly marks a new epoch in the career of the Anglican Episcopal '■ Church as the deliverance made respecting the relations with other Christian denominations. It is not for us to enter on the discussion of whether there has been any basis either in the principles or polity, the position or the history of the Anglican Church, for that ecclesiastical hauteur which it has commonly assumed towards other Christian bodies. Its position as the ancient National Church of the greatest Protestant nation of Christendom, and \ its consequent aristocratic relations ; its assumption of an Apostolical Succession of holy orders, supposed to be unbroken by the rupture from Borne ; its possession commonly of an educated and cultured clergy ; and various other things have combined to produce an ecclesiastical esprit de corps which, if not very Christian, has been very human ; while that instinctive conservatism which inspires every great union of men to think that within itself it possesses virtues unshared by others who are not of it, has welded together these various sentiments into a conviction of ecclesiastical superiority which is shared, and sometimes amusingly, by the humblest and feeblest clergyman. Wo say the feeling is very human, but it is one of the signs of the times, and an augury of high things for the progress of Christianity, when we see at this great meeting of the greatest leaders of the Episcopal Church of the Anglo-Saxon race, a pronounced manifestation of fraternal feeling towards Christians of other denominations, and a frank and generous recognition of their good objects and good works, which remind us more than anything that has occurred in modern ecclesiastical history of the spirit that was intended to be cultivated among the followers of the fishermen of Galilee.

Says the Archbishop of Canterbury, speaking in the Encyclical in the name cf the hierarchy of the Anglican Church, "We gladly and thankfully recognise the real religious work which is carried on by Christian bodies not of our communion. We cannot close our eyes to the visible blessing which has been vouchsafed to their labours for Christ's sake. Let us not be misunderstood on this point. We are not insensible to the strong ties, the rooted convictions, which attach them to their present position. These we respect, as we wish that on our side our own principles and feelings may be respected. Competent observers, indeed, assert that not in England only, but in all parts of the Christian world, there is a real yearning for unity—that men's hearts are moved more than heretofore towards Christian fellowship. The Conference has shown in its discussions as well as its resolutions that it is deeply penetrated with this feeling. May the spirit of love move on the troubled waters of religious differences !" Well may the leading journal of the Empire say, "No such liberal pronouncement, no such heartfelt sigh for religious unity, has ever proceeded from any body of episcopal representatives in this coun+ry." And we have not the least hesitation in adding, that such a spirit of true Christianity and of common sense is largely owing not only to the admixture of colonial representatives at the Lambeth Conference, but to the generally leavening influence of colonial life on the mass of English ecclesiastical conservatism. The principles which the Archbishop of Canterbury has here formulated have been cherished for many a long year in these colonies by the best and the ablest of English Churchmen, who, exactly in proportion to their worth, have not only generously recognised, but cheerfully cooperated as with brethren, with the ministers of other religious denominations with a common end in view; and the only exception to this spirit of co-oper-ation has been.—all over these colonies — in the case of clergymen who, having nothing in themselves, and being conscious of their intellectual poverty, hug to their breasts their connection with the Church, as giving them position, dignity, and strength which they could not command by their personality. This, so far, has been the principal cause in keeping the Church of England in these colonies from wholly throwing itself into co-operation with the ministers of religion of other denominations ; and it may be hoped that now, when the highest dignitary of the Anglican Church, speaking in the language of all the dignitaries of that communion, lias given utterance to sentiments so generous so just, so sensible, and so Christian, all the smaller fry will henceforth take the cue, and act in the spirit of the Lambeth Conference, as being henceforward so eminently and entirely respectable.

For this is the instruction issued from this highest source of dignity and authority:—" This Conference earnestly requests the constituted authorities of the various branches of our communion, acting, so far as may be, in concert with one another, to make it known that they hold themselves in readiness to enter into brotherly conference (such as that which has already been proposed by the Church in the United States of America) with the representatives of other Christian communions in the English-speaking races, in order to consider what steps can be taken either towards corporate reunion, or towards such relations as may prepare the way for fuller organic unity hereafter." It is probable, indeed, that this is too farreaching in its aspirations, and it may be questioned whether, in the interests of either the Church of England or of Christianity " corporate reunion" or " organic unity " of the many sections of Protestant Christianity is desirable

The Bishop of Sydney, with his colonial instincts, and inspired by the spirit of the Conference, proposed even "to recognise the ministerial chara<jter of persons ordained in non-episcopal communions." This, of course, would be putting too great a strain on Anglican conservatism at the present stage of fraternal co-operation, but that it should have been even mooted in such an assemblage of prelates, and that resolutions in such a spirit should have been carried, is indicative of the notable fact that the authorities of the Anglican Church have signalised an advance in Christian liberality unprecedented in the history of episcopacy. Absolute absorption and incorporation of the various sections of Protestant Christianity would probably not be desirable even if it were practicable in the present condition of the world ; and it is probable that independent but mutual co-operation would best suit the requiremeats of the infinite diversity of human life ; but we do not hesitate to say that in this noble and generous deliverance of the Lambeth Conference, and in the effects which it will have both within the Church and on the denominations without, the Church of England has made a great stride in advance towards that position which it should, and probably will, occupy as the acknowledged and honoured leader of all the Protestant Chirches of Christendom.