“BE BRITISH”

New Zealand Times, Volume LII, Issue 12201, 28 July 1925, Page 4

“BE BRITISH”

AN ANGLICAN’S ADVICE “CHURCH OF ENGLAND NOT DEAD” VITALITY AND HARMONY “I thought that the Church Congress held in Melbourne at the beginning of May gave a very decided impression of vitality and a good deal more harmony than an outsider might have expected,” said the - Very Rev. it. A. Burroughs, Dean of Bristol, in an interview with a Press representative. The dean attended the congress, and has Spent six weeks in different parts of Australia and New Zealand since. “It was supposed to be a holiday, hut iVcouldn’t,recognise it as such,” he said' laughingly.

“I have a very strong conviction of the importance of the Anglican communion in -the evolution of the Eng-lish-speaking peoples, 1 so long as the Church of England is content with the' genuinely English—should I say British?—tradition. I believe it is . providing the scheme of religion which the English-speaking races will find, at once the most congenial and effect tive. I might quote a little story which I hold the congress,” continued the dean. “I told it when they were discussing the question of Prayer Book revision. I quoted the words of a representative of a certain extreme section of the Home Church which is not content with the Anglican tradition. He remarked to a clergyman, ‘What’s wrong about you is that you are too confoundedly English,’ and I ventured to say, in summing up my appeal to the Australian Churohi that they should he as ‘confoundedly,’ yet as Ohristianly British, as they could. I feel sure that the same appeal would meet with a response in New Zealand where, I gather, the attachment to tie Homeland is a great deal strpnger- than it* is in Australis/.

RELIGIOUS EDUCATION >

The Rev. Mr Burroughs went on to speak of. the question of religious edu-’ cation. “In view-of the i. it tendencies, ef civilisation, and, one might say,.-in. view of the history of New Zealand. .! am amazed to find in this country that contradiction in terms . ‘secular education’ so strongly entrenched. It was aloss of spiritual ideals and moral sense; that precipitated the great disaster of' the war. To go on instilling into the rising generation a view of life which: ■suggests that' God aud the spiritual world are optional extras to be provided by the religious denominations, yet irrelevant for the State,' is surely To, ask for a repetition of the same ter-i rible catastrophe on a higher scale.” The dean hoped that by tne reopening of the onoe thorny question, of religious education, a strong attempt would be made to secure a' more general adoption of agreed religious . teachings common to all schools. 'He was con- ■ vinced that publib' opinion would;, ,*b.e‘ on the side of those anxifius to introduce religious instruction, if " it- Were taken up' in the right' way. • ‘‘The Church of-England is by no means dead ; on tho contraryo gheis very much alive,” said Rev. Mr Burroughs. Discussing the party divisions in the Church, he. gave ah -opinioa.' from .the Low .Chjwcbf —viewpoint, stating that there could be -no doubt that, a .section of .<sne Anglo-Catholic party v wpa .not content with the very wide latitude allowed in the Anglican but ..was.-d#-: finitely out to secure the -full . Latin cultus. It was recognised,, he-said, that there was a -happy medium between the position held by the; extremists lot the Anglo-Catholio party, and. that held by the extreme ..Evangelicals,. Betwoeq these two, with a wide latitude mytbei matter of'ritual, be thought, the. averf age Englishman found a religion which suited him well. The trouble with some of the Anglo-Catholics was that they endeavoured, to force their views on others, heedless cf consequenoes. Should a priest of this party go to a one-church town or village, he would introduce the whole system over the heads of the congregation, without preparatory teaching, and the consequence was that he emptied it. ■ It was different in places where there were more than one church, since within a short time_ it wbuld Usually he found that the vicar would have gathered round him an enthusiastic, and frequently a large, congregation, gathered from various districts, “Some, people find that a sensational service is a help to them, and the church recognises this, and she does not want to lose them so long as they.do not want to depart from Anglican tradition.”

ANGLO-CATHOLIC PARTY / . In reply to a question, the dean said that “the small but noioy section” among, the Anglo-Catholic party, numbered .'some thousands, hut he would not .commit, himself in the matter of mentioning any particular congregation, such as 'the famous church of St. Alban, Hoi born, AH Saint’s, Margaret street, and others, where there is full;’. Catholic ceremonial' and practice, with overflowing congregations. He mentioned a big Anglican publishing company which was alleged to he of the “Rlomanising” type. Questioned as to whether the eliurch as a whole was prepared to sit by and see thousands of Anglicans go" over to the Church of Rome, the dean said that it was felt that if they would bo happier there they could go. “The Church of England does not say that the Church of . Rome is not a Christian' body, and therefore,’ if they felt disposed to go, the church would not say that they were. without; the pale, of grace. That is. the position,” he said. In conclusion, Mr Burroughs said the recent cablegram reporting Dean Inge’s sermon in Westminster Abbey gave a very gloomy impression of church life in England to-day. He wished to correct That impression, for the position was bright ,and the church was very much alive. , ,