ANGLICAN CHURCH

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 8653, 11 February 1914, Page 7

ANGLICAN CHURCH

BISHOPS MEMORIALISED. THE VIRGIN BIRTH. By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright LONDON, February 9. A number of London clergy are promoting a memorial asking the bishops to repudiate clergy who reject the Virgin Birth, and to insist on episcopal ordination as a condition for exercising the ministry and administering the sacraments. NOT JUSTIFIED. PROCEEDINGS AGAINST BISHOPS. (Received. February 10, 8-20 p.m.) LONDON. February 10. The Archbishop of Canterbury points out that the Bishop of Zanzibar, while not withdrawing his charges of heresy and schism, does not wish to press the matter if the results desired can be reached by another way, but he presses for a decision which will make clear his own position in relation to the neighbouring dioceses. The Archbishop of Canterbury is unhesitatingly of opinion that he is not justified in allowing the inquiry to take the form of proceedings against the Bishops j f Uganda and Mombassa for heresy and schism. No clear precedent for such a trial exists, and the facts afford no case for such proceedings, which, are wholly out of place in regard to bishops of a province. The Archbishop states he would not be especially qualified to give an arbitrament on a matter which markedly affects interests outside those of the Home Church.

CONSULTATIVE COMMITTEE

EXCEPTIONALLY QUALIFIED

(Received February 10, 9.45 p.m.) LONDON, February 10.

The Bishop of . Canterbury states that happily the consultative committee elected at the Lambeth Conference ,in 1908 is exceptionally qualified. The members include the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, the Bishops of Armagh, Winchester, St. Albans, Exeter and Gibraltar and the Archbishops of Rupertsland and the West Indies.

The following questions will bo submitted by the Archbishop of Canterbury:—(l) Whether the scheme of federation embodied in resolutions at Kikuya contravenes any of the principles of Church order; (2) whether the communion service is consistent with the principles accepted by the Church of England, at which many communicants not members of the Church of England or Episcopally confirmed attend.

Though all, as a basis of possible federation, agreed to the loyal acceptance of the Scriptures as the supreme rule of faith and practice, and accepted the Apostles’ Nicene Creeds as the ’general expression of the fundamental Christian belief, the Archbishop points o'at that, the late Bishop of Uganda stated that no church or society was committed to the scheme of federation which was suh-judice. The problems were riot novel, and had come before the Church regarding missionary work in China, Japan, West Africa amd elsewhere. They called imperatively for patent though definite answers.