EVANGELICAL REVOLT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19405, 13 August 1926, Page 11

EVANGELICAL REVOLT.

REVISION OF PRAYER BOOK, "A FRESH STORM" PREDICTED. A fresh storm seems to be blowing up in the Church of England over the revision of the Prayer-book, says a London correspondent of the Manchester Guardian, The English bishops, under tho chairmanship of the Archbishop of Canterbury, have held conferences at Lambeth Palace. After making their decisions the bishops will meet again in the autumn to review them," says tho writer, "after which their proposals will be considered by the Houses of Convocation. The Prayer-book in its revised form will then go to the Church Assembly, which can accept or reject but cannot alter it. If the revisions are accepted "the final decision must be taken by Parliament, If the bishops decide to pefmit reservation, as the Anglo-Catholics desire them to, and alter the Prayer-book accordingly, there will be a big battle in the Church." What is regarded as a foretaste of what may be expected was seen at a meeting held by tho Protestant Alliance, representative of tho extreme Evangelical school. It was attended by 12 people, but one of the speakers remarked that the tractarian movement which, he said, had caused all the trouble in the Church, was started at a still smaller meeting. It was stated that a quarter of a million signatures have been obtained to a petition against any change being made in the Chufch of England service as it exists, and it was claimed that the great body of the clergy Rre content with the present Prayer-book. One speaker said that many of the Evangelical clergy were prepared to follow Bishop Knox and "refuse to eat the bread of the Church of England"" if the Anglo-Catholics win the day. This speaker said that he himself did not propose that they should secede from the Church of England, and Ije advised that thev should remain in their benefices and defy the bishops, for there was no bishop who would dare to take action against them. Much was said about the need of Evangelical clergy taking combined action to oppose the suggested revision of the Prayer-book. "Apparently," the writer says, "the assistance of Nonconformists is to be sought in this movement on the ground that Nonconformists are parishioners and therefore members of the Church of England and that their own liberties would be endangered if the constitution of the Church was altered." If the attendance was small the " language was large, one speaker asserting tnat half the bishops were either fools or knaves. On a tabic in .the room there was displayed a little exhibition designed, according to the secretary of the Alliance, to show that "there is no difference between Romanism and ritualism." It consisted of statues of the Virgin, rosaries and other devotional objects used in Roman ta lie chufches and similar, objects used in Anglican churches,