BISHOP SPEAKS OUT.

Taranaki Daily News, 16 June 1925, Page 7

BISHOP SPEAKS OUT.

SHORTAGE OF CLERGYMEN. CHURCH AT CROSS-ROADS. WARNING TO ANGLICANS. By Telegraph.—Press Assn. —Copyright. Received June 15, 8.45 p.m. London, June 15. The Bishop of Birmingham, preaching in Westminster Abbey, in a remarkable sermon on ‘•'Catholicism and Christianity,” said the present state of the Church of England was causing grave anxiety. Anglo-Catholica usually belittled and derided the value of the Reformation doctrine, which they explicitly repudiated in the articles, in which they were openly taught that this new Catholicism was essentially reactionary. The decline in the number and quality of the candidates for the ministry was a most serious problem. With the grave shortage of clergy the parochial system was breaking down. Differences within the church were so acute that in the large cities the churches were becoming congregational and not parochial. As the quality of the clergy declined their outlook was becoming increasingly narrow. The best modern theological scholarship was ignored. An official committee put forward non-controver-sial proposals for the revision of the prayer book, but when the proposals reached the clergy the desire to give a Catholic turn to the prayer Ibook showed itself. “We stand at the cross-roads, said His Lordship. “We have seen enough recently of the situation within, the church to be gravely apprehensive.