UNION OF CHURCHES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20867, 8 May 1931, Page 12

UNION OF CHURCHES.

ARCHBISHOP'S APPEAL. " MOVEMENT CANNOT FAIL." ! PREPARED TO FORSAKE OFFICE. ! WORK AS A HUMBLE MEMBER. An address in >lhe interests of tho cause iof llio union of the separated Christian I churches was delivered last evening by the j Primate, Archbishop Averiil. before a | largely-attended meeting of the Council of I Christian Congregations in St. David's | Presbyterian Church, j In declaring his conviction that lite | unify of the churches was inevitable. His | Grace said:— ! " 1 am peifectly prepared to morow . to cease to be an Anglican and to become a humble member of the real ■ Ifolv Catholic Church, It has been one of the absorbing passions of my I life to bring Christians together, j The matter is in our hands; we can use our wills to help or to hinder. I sincerely believe the movement toward unity is of God and therefore cannot fail." His Grace based his belief that the movement was acquiring an .impetus as yet scarcely appreciated on tho significance of the increasing spirit of co--1 operation among practically all tho Chrisi iian churches. lie indicated particularly the formation and the successful operation j of the South India United Church, which, • he said, combined Anglican, Wesleyan, | Presbyterian and Lutheran influences and j representation of tho United States. Ger- | many and Switzerland. Need in the Mission Field. "I believe that what is happening in 1 South India will eventually solve all our j difficulties," said His Grace. "It is tho j mission field which is crying out for unity. | Wo want to make impact on the heathen | world as ono body. It must be so. A ! united Church must come. We must j lament the continuance of disunion." ! It was emphasised by the Primate that i the unity of Christendom did not mean ' the absorption of distinctive churches. There was no question of that, and, similarly, the idea of a federation should be discounted. A federation would not go down to God's depths. It was a question of comprehension, each church contributI ing its visualisation of the truth to a I common fund. The speaker said he took it as an axiom ■ that God willed ur.itv. The representai tives of all tho churches of England had | arrived at that truth. Again, it was uni- ! versally agreed that tho Lord had prayed ! for organic unity. There was already | spiritual unity, but organic unity was I needed to fulfil the purpose of the move- ! ment, which he regarded as the most imI portant happening in tho world to-day. Agreements at Conferences. His Grace traced the agreements reached j within recent years at a number of highly- | important conferences. Of great signifi- | cance, ho said, was tho declaration at the | Stockholm conference of 1925 that the events of tho Great War and since had compelled tho Christian churches to realise humbly that the world was too strong for a divided Church. Further, the Bishop of Gloucester, in his book on unity, had pronounced that it was more important for I tho world to bo Christian than that any : particular division should strive for its • own ends. ! It had 'been tacitly agreed at the conj ference at Lausanne in 1927 that God willed unity. At that conference it had been found that a divided Christendom could be acknowledged as a source of weakness by tho Western world, but, to non-Christian peoples, it had the direst effect on the work uf furthering the Holy teachings. . " There is no place for .superficialities in the world of to-day," continued the Primate. "I f he whole Christian woild realises, whatever may have been the justifications for disunion in tho past, that it is the bounden duty of the Church to achieve unity and to be a true witness of the word of Christ. There was ono Christ; there can he only one Church."

Deference to Individuals. In enumerating the points in tho momentous appeal issued from tho Lambeth conference of 1920 on behalf of unity, His Grace said the necessity for mutual deference to individual consciences had been stressed. Another important point had been made perfectly clear. That, was that any particular Church, in admitting the cause of unity, was in no way repudiating its past ministry. Instead, it would be publicly seeking a wider service for God. Then again, any great movement such -us the unity of tho churches must involve sacrifices on the part of all. The point on which the movement depended, it. had been agreed, was the acceptance of the Holy Scriptures, the Nicotic creed, the sacraments of the Baptism and the Lord's Supper, and a ministry acknowledged by every part of the United Church. One consequence of Lambeth had been the institution of a commission representative of tho Church of England and the Federal Council of the Evangelical Churches That commission had agreed upon and issued a general summary of accepted points. it. had been found that tho Church was the body of Christ, and one Church should be Christ's witness and instrument on earth. The Church should express by its unity the one life of Christ.

Earnestness ot Anglicans. The. council of tho Evangelical Churches had accepted tho findings and a great step toward agreement was made, but certain practical differences requiring settlement had been indicated. In answer, the Church of England had staled that the traditions of all tho distinctive churches should bo contributed to tho ministry of the. universal Church. Tho conferences were continued ,f"r five years and they wero stopped to allow the churches thoroughly to grasp the ideals of the cause. " The Church of England is deadly earnest in this matter," His Grace continued. "It has only one intention—to find out God's way. I agree with tho view of the Free Churches that the episcopate should bo representative and constitutional. Tho appointment of bishops should bo by the whole Church and separate from tho Slate." No such thing as uniformity was intended in the United Church, the speaker added. No man would bo asked to violate his conscience. The Lambeth conference of 1930 had shown its attitude quite significantly by giving its approval to tho Anglican participancy in the South India Church, it had agreed that that Church was not an attempt to form a new creed, but rather was forming a fellowship among the distinctive Christian churches on the basis of sound doctrine. Representatives from Persia at the conforenco had returned with the resolve to follow the development in South India. " We must overcome our dilliculties," concluded the Archbishop. "1 do not think they can keep us apart if we honestly desire to defeat them." A motion thanking the Primate for his address, moved by the Rev. G. C. Cruickshnnk, who presided, was carried by acclamation.