THE NEW PRAYER BOOK.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 20113, 26 November 1928, Page 12

THE NEW PRAYER BOOK.

Sir, —The interest shown by the Presbyterian General Assembly in the new Prayer Book is very gratifying to Anglican churchmen"; but it is a great pity that the assembly's pronouncement on the question is so superficial and oqe-sided. Wo have a right to expect in such a pronouncement breadth, depth, and balance. But these qualities are not there. It is deplorable that the assembly should commit itself to the statements that the new Prayer Book is the outcome of "the insidious efforts of Romanisers" and an "insidious and determined sacramcntarian propaganda." As a matter of plain fact, the adoption of the new book is strongly opposed by the Anglo-Catholic extremists. The assembly's report asserts that the revised book is characterised by a "Romanising tone, especially in relation to the reservation of the Sacrament and the assimilation of the Holy Communion fo the Roman Mass." But it is a most significant fact that the chief reasons for tho opposition of the advanced AngloCatholics are the strictness of the provisions regarding reservation and the fact that the new Communion service differ* more widely than the old one from the Roman Mass. It is more in accordance with tho Greek liturgy. The new service is in close agreement with tho liturgies of the Episcopal Church of Scotland, the Protestant Episcopal Church of America, and the Church of South Africa. Does tho Presbyterian Assembly really believe that the English bishops are engaged in a conspiracy to Romanise tho Church of England ? Referring to this aspect of tho question the Bichop of Durham (Dr, llenson) states that when tho new Prayer Book is "fiercely denounced as the work of traitors ... it is sufficient to point to tho compilers of tho book and to ask whether their office, their character, their personal record, and their various qualifications do not mako such language as grotesque as it is indecent." Norman Burton.