CHURCH AND STATE

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 319, 8 July 1912, Page 5

CHURCH AND STATE

THE QUESTION OF COMMUNION. By Cable—Press Association—Copyright. Received 7, 5.5 p.m. London, July 0. At a meeting of representatives of the Church Union, Lord Halifax moved to reaffirm that Hie church should not accept the assumption of the State's right to legislate dictating the terms of admission to communion, and relics on the. loyalty of members to protect clergy vindicating the church. Sir Edward Clarke protested against the resolution, saying that if the church was going to repudiate Parliament's authority the only straight course was to divorce the church from the State. Lord Hugh Cecil denied Parliament's right to regulate admission to communion. The motion was carried in a modified form, and it now asks members to protect the church from attempts to force assumption. The Archbishop of York, in a statement for publishment in the Guardian, holds that there can be no appeal from the Ecclesiastical Court to the House of Lords.

The Bishop of Oxford states that no proposal to alter church law could be carried. The power to admit to communion belongs to the church, which has not surrendered its authority to the State. "Without fundamental treason, it was its duty to abide by principle and face the consequences.