BISHOP BARNES.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20355, 12 March 1928, Page 10

BISHOP BARNES.

DEAN INGE’S APPRECIATION. Dean Inge writes iff the Empire Review for January on the position of the Bishop of Birmingham (Dr Barnes). He says that the bishops are not in deadly earnest on th e subject of church discipline, in spite of their protestations. Their one desire is to avoid a split- Many of the bishops received their dioceses as evangelicals, but several have allowed themselves to be associated with the Anglo-Catholic party. They have shown themselves so amenable to pressure that the extremists are enabled to concentrate on recalcitrants, and they are endeavouring to drive Dr Barnes from his See “ with such a storm of misrepresentation and invective as has not been let loose on a clergyman since the days of Bishop Colenso.” the original object of the revision of the Prayer Book, Dean Inge states, was that of correcting obsolete vows and expressions, and of removing a few things that offended the intellect or conscience of our time. The Anglo-Catholic party saw in the revision an opportunity for tinning it to their own advantage. The bishops themselves adopted the strange policy when faced with the breakdown of discipline of “ conciliating the law-breakers by legalising some of their practices.” bishop Barnes is one of the few Anglican churchmen who is also a scientist. He is courageous in the extreme, and during the war he did not hesitate to express views which gave temporary offence to some of his congregation. When as Canon of Westminster he was made Bishop of Birmingham during the Labour regime, he found the See the centre of Anglo-Catholicism in England. Dr Barnes was temperamentally incapable of temporising on questions of doctrine, and in a very short time he had what Dean Inge calls *“ the clique of extreme and combative sacerdotalists ” in open At his consecration Dr Barnes had promised to drive away strange doctrines from his diocese. He found the doctrines of tranouhstantiation, and his challenge to iMed to open warfare. The Dean quotes an extract from the Modern Churchman to the effect that in June, 1924, Bishop Gore, with some 3000 Anglican clergymen, presented a declaration of faith to the Patriarch of Alexandra, in which the signatories affirmed that they held as a genuine doctrine of the Anglican Church “ that by consecration the bread and wine are changed and become the true Body and Blood of Christ, and that Christ thus present is to be adored.” “ The issue,” Dean Inge says, “is clearly defined. Is the Sacrament a mass or a communion? Yet in the face of this declaration and of a heap of equally uncontrovertible evidence, the Primate shuts his eyes and assures bis - dear Bishop ’ that ‘ nobody wants to drive him to Rome.’ ” In defending the use of ritual and symbolism, Dean Inge says that a few people can find God in th e depths of their own souls. There are others whose spiritual faculties are quickened by suggestion, and they interpret their experiences in a manner which, when taken out of its context, would be grossly superstitious, but which should not be treated unsympathetically within its context. Roman Catholicism makes a genuinely religious appeal, and it can only be countered by an equally potnt appeal, which Protestantism for the most part fails to make. There is in the church a large body of earnest men preparing for a new evangelical revival, and in this work Liberals and evangelicals are co-operating. These men are not afraid of a moderate degree of ritual and symbolism, “ nor.” Dean Inge adds, “ is there any reason why they should be.” The dean sums up the situation by prophesying that Bishop Barnes will not be driven from his See and that the tempest will soon abate. It is unlikely, however, that his cause will outwardly triumph. “ The weakness of Protestantism as a fighting machine is that the church and clergy are hot absolutely essential to a Protestant; he will live and die for the faith, but not for his church,” says Dean Inge.