REUNION OF CHURCHES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 20112, 24 November 1928, Page 13

REUNION OF CHURCHES.

A UNIQUE CONFERENCE.

FOREIGN DIGNITARIES* VIEWS.

MISSION FIELD DIFFICULTIES. [l"ltOM OUtt OWN CORRESPONDENT.] LONDON, Oct. 11' Tho Church Assembly ended its sessions at Cheltenham by hearing testimonies from Churches in other countries and from the Free Churches in England and Scotland as to the possibilities of reunion. For the first timo in history an archbishop of the Creek Orthodox Church stood with two of the foremost exponents of the German and Danish Lutheran Churches, and representatives cf five of the British Free Churches on the platform of a Church of England Congress. Archbishop Gernntnos, the Metropolitan Thyateini, was tho first of the representatives of foreign Churches to sptiak. Tho benovolence which his patriarchal figure radiated was reflected in his mesnugo. Ho spoke with gratitude and killdly appreciation ol the stand which tho Church of England has made against the persecutions ■! mis peoples and ul the Archbishop of Canterbury's life-long efforts to cement tho friendship by a union of Churches But there was a note of caution in his voico as ho said of the ultimate achievement:

" Before we reach this goal, let us buoy ourselves up with tho idea that a safo and enduring union of the two Churches can be achieved. But, to arrivo at this goal, how many obstncles must be overcome

The Danish Church. Dr. Y'aidemar Amundsen, Bishop of Hadcrslcv, Denmark, said Englishmen were often astonished when they came into Danish churches, which they knew to bo Protestant, and saw altars, candles, vest-' ments, copes, wafers, crucifixes, the sign of the Cross, etc. These things never had come into disuse. For instance, while in this country episcopal copes had oiily been restored through the Catholic revival of last century, their copes were often, old, and had always been used at ordinations and Church dedications; in Sweden bishops also woro the raitre. But all these things they had, not as necessary, but as beautiful, and adding to tlio' dignity of worship. Therefore, they never had been made a matter of dispute. With them they had no saviour of Romanism at all.

Dr Deisman, of the Evangelical Church of the old Prussian Umon» replaced the Dane. His, like the others, was a speech filled with hope. He spoke first of the Anglican Church as a mediator between Latin and Greek Catholicism, on the one side, and the Protestant Churches on the other. "We have been watching recentdevelopments in the Churcn of England with ardent interest," he said. "I look forward entirely and hopefully to the future."

The Bishop of Gloucester raid that, in all their schemes of reunion, their outlook must be a wide one. 'I hey did not want to make a pact with this Church or that. They were not ready for it. They needed rather to probe the different problems • and to build up in their minds the basis of a united Church. They wanted 1 to have the whole problem before them and to build up a real unity within Christianity.

Intercommunion in India. v llcumon questions were raised in their most acuto form by Canon Garfield Williams in his description of the scheme of intercommunion which has been prepared in South India. This provides, with a few qualifications, for the full mutual recognition of tho ministries of the three uniting Churches. Intercommunion, he claimed, was tho obvious remedy for caste Churches, racialism and class consciousness Experiments in intercommunion were inevitable., and necessary Canon Williams explained that none of the difficulties of the Christian mission field could be compared tn importance with the weakining of the witness as coming from a divided Church. "At present," he said, "there is not a non-Christian country in the world that does not gibe at us and say: 'See how these Christians hate one another.' "

With a glance of anticipation at his audience, the speaker proceeded: "You say: 'lt is not true. We do not hate one another.' All i can say is that, if I were a Moslem or a Hindu or a Confucian or a Buddhist, and heard that Christians refused to eat togethei at. their Lord's table in the sacramental meal, T should lie certain cither that they wore casteridden or that they had feuds. Ido not think there would be any alternative in the Eastern mind. In any case, be added, "their refusal thus to have their sacramental meal together could by 110 stretch of imagination actively suggest that they loved one another." Presbyterians and Wesleyans.

Lord Sands, who summed up the position as between llio Anglican and Presbyi era in Churches, found only two important differences —Episcopal ordination and Church government —but he described as foolish anyone who expected to see reunion in this century. Professor W. F. Lofthouse, principal of Handsworth Wesleyan College, explained the attitude of Wesleyan Methodism to reunion. It was, he said, traditional with Wcslevan Methodists to think of the Church of England as the Church of their origin. Methodists had always refused to call themselves Dissenters; yet they felt themselves at easo with Free Churchmen and freely accepted tho name for themselves. The true and just antecedent of intercommunion was not an administrative readjustment of orders or credentials, but tho spiritual unity which consisted in an agreement as to tho message of the Gospel.