PRAYER CONTROVERSY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21544, 16 January 1932, Page 11

PRAYER CONTROVERSY

ENGLISH CHURCH DISPUTE LONDON, January 7, A striking contribution to the controversy over the intercessory prayer authorised by the Archbishops of Canterbury and York is made by Dr Archibald Fleming, pastor of St. Columba’s, Church of Scotland, who. writes: “It is craven and hypocritical to confess shortcomings of which we honestly are unconscious.” Although disclaiming intention to intervene in a domestic matter of the Anglican Church, Dr Fleming declares: “ Many citizens of the Empire are not prepared to avow that we recently were militaristic, self-seeking and aggressive —on the contrary we reduced the forces defending our shores, and the food routes from the dominions to an extent which some might describe as foolhardy. “ Moreover we paid our debts when debts to us were unpaid. We shouldered many burdens not for the weak but for the ungrateful. We thank God for enabling us to set an example to the world even though it is little followed. Surely we have sins enough, national and personal. without resorting to studied phrases of unreal abasement and conventional pietism.”