ANGLICAN ELECTORAL METHODS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume L, Issue 15349, 9 July 1913, Page 6

ANGLICAN ELECTORAL METHODS.

Sir, —A " Wayfarer's" attack on my letter needs a short reply. I feel sure that his brief of the constitution of the Anglican Clinch will be useful to many at this time, but a very common knowledge of history is enough to teach a man that some of the worst abuses in State and Church have grown in spite of constitutions. Why do not our .best men stand for Parliament, since there is nothing in the Constitution to prevent them ? Because they are unwilling to be dragged into the mire. In many parishes the vicars in recent years have been unduly active in such matters as the selection of _ synodsmen and of parish nominators. True, their candidates can be opposed, and their policy can be resisted, but opposition is linked to obloquy, and no one is anxious to be ragged. *Whv do not our parish clergy attend wholly to their spiritual duties and allow the laity to manage their own affairs ? Moreover, many church laws are framed on the construction principle of a partridge's nest, there is a big back door, andt he reservations annul the privilege, apparent in the law. So it comes that the laity are less and less represented in the synod because our ritualistic clergyhave for some years been striving to secure the men oil whose support they can rely. On one point " Wayfarer" and I must agree to differ. I have, like him, no brief for either side, but no one who knows the history of the ritualistic movement could acquit ritualists of contentiousness. In England they have carried contention to the point of " resisting every court of appeal, including the Privy Council. In Auckland they are complacent at present because they are having their own way, the last two bishops were of their choosing, and many pulpits have been filled by High Church men. Bismarck was right, there are no temporal blessings that promote complacency more readily than possession. " Another Layman.