AN HONOURABLE REUNION.

Otago Witness, Issue 3443, 9 March 1920, Page 59

AN HONOURABLE REUNION.

.The Church of Scotland to Approach the Government to Modify the Relations Between Church and State. "The Church of Scotland has been engaged for 12 yoara in looking at the subject of xeumion from ©very possible angle. It has canvassed every conceivable technical difficulty, has addressed itself temperately but zealously to the task of rendering a reunited Oftaxch. built on none of the quickBands of compromised principle a prospect of the early future, and has won the loyal assent of the people and the co-operation of those who also hope for the restoration of the national Zion. "And now, having reached an adventurous stage in this career of reconciliation, it can surely go on confidently and valiently, encouraged by the knowledge that what there ia of enthusiasm for religion in Scotland ia with it, undeterred by the fact that there is hostility to be faced if not to be feared." —The Glasgow HeraldLA special meeting of the Commission of Assembly of the Church of Scotland was held last' week in Edinburgh to receive the report of the.decision of Presbyteries in regard to the Draft Articles as a basis of an approach to the Government on the question of union with the. United Free Church. By a large majority the Commission decided to take this forward step. •'The revised figures showed that there were now 74 Presbyteries approving, 9 disapproving, and 1 neutral, the numbers in the 83 Presbyteries from which the figures had been received being—For approval, 992; disapproval, 273. —Twelve Years of History.— "Behind the momentous decision of the Church, of Scotland Commission lie twelve and a-half years of history," says the Scotsman. "In 1907 Dr Scott, under the impulsion of Dr Mair, brought forward his overture on Union in the Presbytery of Edinburgh, and in the years since then there have been, many anxious days of doubts and fears. The course of these negotiations has reflected credit on both Churches. "Now it only remains that the State should recognise the Articles as the Constitution of She Church of Scotland. When the Ghurch of Scotland reaches the Government with its proposals, not for the rupturing of the historical relations between Church and State, but for the ! modifying of them, there should be no question of the State's refusing that request. "When the Enabling Bill for the Church of Scotland is passed the question will then arise as to its being acted on. The United Free Church and the Church of Scotland will have to decide that through their Courts. . . —Disestablishment.— "Opposition to the policy of the Articles was based on two grounds,!' says the Scotsman. "The one was that this policy meant Disestablishment, and the other that the United Free Church is allowing the Church of Scotland to go, alone to Parliament. ' " ■ - . .. H "It is difficult to say what the Establishment of a Church really means; for it means one thing in England, another in Holland, and a third in Switzerland. There are as many diversities of Established Churches. But it is manifest that Establishment in Scotland means a thing unique in Christendoin. The Church of Scotland would not suffer for a day a condition of 'things such as exists across the Border, where a Baptist Prime Minister appoints the dignitaries of the Churdh, and where the Privy Council decides on the terms of admission to communion. In Scotland such an Establishment of the Church is unthinkable. In all the centuries of its history the Church of Scotland has held fast to the ideal of its spiritual freedom and jurisdiction as derived from its Founder alone. If it parted with freedom of action it was only that it might the more firmly secure its faith. / —The Freedom of the Kirk.— "The hindrances on its freedom were self-imposed, and insisted on by the Church itself. .What Establishment itself meant was the recognition of the Divine by the State through the National Church;" the provision for the religious needs of the nation through a territorial ministry; the securing of the Church's freedom of action by 'the statutory recognition of its spiritual jurisdiction. In the policy adumbrated in the Draft Articles these essential things remain. The thing that goes i*. the restriction on freedom. If Establishment con. Bists in negotiations, then the Church of Scotland in securing freedom is disestablished. If Establishment consists in making secure the freedom, in enabling the Church to secure the nation to the fullest, in rendering national homage .to God through a National Church, then these abide. It is a poor conception of our ancestors .to think that Establishment for them meant only bondage. • In parting with the last shreds-of bondage the Church of Scotland sacrifices nothing and gains much. It gains the site on which to build the Church of the future —national and free. —No Terms With the State.— "As 'to the charge that the United Free Church is not to go to Parliament with the Church of Scotland, it is sufficient to say that the United Free Church from the first declared that it would not go to Parliament. That attitude may be regretted, but it is honest. It is without doubt the duty of the Church that is recognised by the State to go to the State for the readjustment of its concordat with the State. The United Free Church has no terms with the State that it wants revised. All through these negotiations the United Free Church has occupied a clear and dignified position. It has withdrawn from no promise. The Church of Scotland goes to Parlament with the hearty ahd moral support of the United Free Church'. It is all that could be gaked in the circumstances."

—To Go Forward. — Dr Wallace Williamson, in moving the resolution that "The Commission, having reecived the report of the returns from Presbyteries, authorise the Committee' to approach the Government in regard to the legislation necessary with a view to union, and direct the Committee to report the result of their negotiations with the Government to the next General Assembly," said : „ "What was the duty of the Commission? It was to empower the Committee to get into touch with the Government, that they might seek that necessary consent for them to go a step further. It was plain, also, on grounds of loyal consistency to the Church's policy. The policy of the Church of Scotland, as a national 'Church, had always been the policy of conciliation and reunion. No other policy was possible for a National Church. A sect might say : We do not want to unite with any other body of Christians. That was a sectarian attitude, not a national Church attitude. "If the people had difficulties a national Church must meet them. If they had grievances it must meet them. It was along these lines that the Church of Scotland in modern times had consistently walked. It was their duty, on the ground of a higher spiritual compulsion, and for the higher good of the people of Scotland to go forward for the unifying —the great need of our times—of the spiritual forces of the Church of Scotland against the forces of evil in the land. The opportunity which the Church had at this hour was unique and splendid, and its duty was clear. "These five years of war had emphasised the duty and the necessity of unity of command, the necessity of the great Church in Scotland coming forward as a united body in the name of Christ to meet the needs of the people of Scotland. In the name of patriotism and in the name of religion that Commission was called, to go forward."