CONSTITUTION OF CHURCH OF ENGLAND.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 4119, 3 June 1874, Page 3

CONSTITUTION OF CHURCH OF ENGLAND.

The following is a copy of the Bill for amending the constitution of the Church in New Zealand, prepared by a Select Committee of the General Synod, and, on the motion of the Hon. H. Sewell, read a second time in the Synod last evening : A Statute for making certain necessary alterations in the formal organisation of the Church. 1. Whereas, the Church Constitution was framed upon the assumption that certain fundamental relations existed between the Church in the Colony and the parent Church and State, and, in particular, upon the assumption that the Queen’s prerogative, as Supreme Governor of the Church, extended to the Colony ; and that the Church in the Colony had a legal existence in the eye of the law, as an integral part of the United Church of England and Ireland ; but it has since been established as well by decisions of courts of law in England, and particularly by the judgment of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in the case of the Bishop of Capetown and Bishop C'olenso, as by Acts of State, particularly by the fact of the Crown refusing to nominate a Bishop to a Colonial See in any Colony possessing a representative Legislature, that such relations did not and do not now, in fact, exist. And whereas when the Church Constitution was framed the Churches of England and Ireland were united by law under the act of Union ; and the Church in the Colony was deemed to be an integral part or branch of such United Church ; and is so designated in the Constitution. But such union has since been dissolved by Act of the Imperial Legislature, so that the United Church of England and Ireland no longer exists. And whereas, by reason of such changes of circumstances it is necessary that corresponding changes should he made in certain formal parts of the organisation of the Church in the Colony, and in such parts of its formularies as relate thereto. And whereas, having regard to the plain intention of the framers of the Constitution, as evidenced by its terras, to provide, in possible emergencies, for such necessary alterations as are now proposed ; and having regard to the inherent right of the Church in the Colony, as declared by the 34th Article ; anil to the authority of the Synod, as the Legislature thereof ; your committee is of opinion that it is competent to the Synod to make the proposed alterations, in accordance with the true spirit, meaning, and intentions of the Constitution, and without infringing the fundamental terms and conditions thereof. Be it therefore resolved by the Bishops, Clergy, and Laity, of the Church, which is in the Constitution described as the Branch of the United Church of England and Ireland as follows : 1. Those parts of the service for the consecration of Bishops which relate to the Queen’s mandate shall be omitted and discontinued. 2. Those parts of the services for the consecration of Bishops and for the ordering of Priests and Deacons which refer especially to the Parent Church and State may he omitted and changed so as to adapt them to the circumstances of the Colony. 3. The following explanatory words shall be appended to the 21at of the 39 Articles, vis. : “ It is not to lie inferred from this article that the Church in the Colony is hindered from meeting in Council without the authority of the Civil power.” 4. The following explanatory words shall ho appended to the 37th of the 39 Articles : It is not to he inferred from this article that the Civil power has authority in this Colony, to determine questions of a purely spiritual kind or to hinder the Church in the Colony from finally determining such questions hy its own authority, or by Tribunals constituted under its authority. 5. In future in all cases in which it may lie necessary to refer- to the Church in the Colony (which is in the Constitution designated as a Branch of the United Church of England and Ireland), it shall he sufficient if it be referred to or designated as the Church of the Province of New Zealand commonly called the Church of England.