UNION OF CHURCHES.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 14382, 27 November 1908, Page 7

UNION OF CHURCHES.

A : PRESBYTERIAN TRIBUTE. (From Our Ows Correspokdent.) AUCKLAND, November 26. In connection with the Anglican Church letter suggesting unity-, the Rev. W.- Gray • Dixon, of St. David's, and the 'vecoigmsed leader of the Presbyterian Church here,' said lie was more than delighted: Hot only with the. aim but with the rtiannef of the invitation issued to all Christian mibistere within the hounds of the Auckland diocoso by the Auckland Clergy Association, Tlio aim—a fuller manifestation of the unity of the one and indivisible Catholic Church—could not but commend itself to every Christian churchman of whatever name. " For myself," he proceeded,' " I confess that it touches mo where I feci deepest and hope highest, The ideal of one Holy Catholic Church is a,. passion with me. Especially in a new' lain} like this, with an ecclesiastically mixed population, does one hope for the blending of the best that is 'in each of- the ecclesiastical types represented .amongst us in a-' truly national church, alike loyal to the faith once delivered to the saints, -, and racy of. the soil. We are building up a distinctive State. We should build up at the same time a, distinctive church. If this aim seems Utopian, that cannot bo i helped. No lower aim is adequate, .however small the prospect of seeing ifc realised. I-for one recognise that I dare not abandon it. It- is too'true that the prospects of a corporate -union of our churches can'hardly be said, eveii by the most optimistic, to be at all clear. Church government rather than doctrine stands, government rather than doctrine stands in the way, and those churchcs which attach vital doctrine to their. form of' church government interpose the most gerkraa obstacle. A general incorporated- union of all the churches, the .Roman Catholio included, is obviously not within the sphere of practical church politic?, and even if we confine ,our attention to 'the historic reformed churches the' problem is far from easy., It is the open-minded-ness 6o beautifully manifest in this appeal from the Anglican clergy that moves Me to respond to it con amore.. The open-' mindedness and also_the spiritual minded., ness of the appeal is obviously''baptised: with prayer., .'.The: Catholic Church. is wider than .any. part of. it.' j I like that, and again, '.we.waat -facts, '-more facts, and still more facts concerning each other's aims and methods.' The whofeimmnec and tone of the invitation, ecraaUy/ witK its aim' iY admirable and grajtifyi^-,-and the outcome cannot but be a bettor mutual understanding among the representatives, of .the different branches of the one QiiifcV of Christ in our community, and with this, a deeper and 1 fuller sense <»f unity, increased influence for good, ftnd<soffie progress towards the earning into fact, of. thg divine dream of a reconstructed comprehensive church."-' ■