Who Will Fill Chair of St. Augustine?

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 417, 27 July 1928, Page 9

Who Will Fill Chair of St. Augustine?

Only Previous Primate to Resign Office

DR. DAVIDSON LAUDED (Australian and X.Z. Press Association.) Times Cable. LONDON, Thursday. It is officially announced that Dr. R. T. Davidson, Archbishop of Canterbury, will retire in November. The procedure connected with the acceptance of the Primate's resignation has presented a conundrum for the experts of the court of etiquette, as no precedent exists. The only recorded instance of an Archbishop of Canterbury having resigned is that of the first archbishop, St. Augustine himself. Continuous records exist since the days of Cranmer which show that all the primates died in office. Dr. Davidson’s tenure of office is the longest since Cranmer. Publicists and newspapers of all shades of opinion pay tributes to the Primate. It is generally assumed that the Archbishop of York, Dr. Cosmo Lang, will succeed him, and the intriguing question now being discussed is who will follow Dr. Lang? The “Daily Telegraph” says Dr. Davidson’s primacy must be numbered with that of the very greatest of his 93 predecessors in the chair of St. Augustine. It is evidence of his statesmanlike qualities that a spontaneous desire arises for his creation as a lord temporal on relinquishing his seat in the Upper Chamber as a lord spiritual.

In the Church itself, Dr. Davidson has become more and more a centre of unity lie has contrived in a period of divisive tendencies to hold the -whole body of churchmen together. The Primate is entitled to a pension of £1,500 from the common fund of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, to which he, like others, contributed 3i per cent, of his church income.