BISHOP DEFIED BY CLERGYMEN.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18787, 17 June 1929, Page 8

BISHOP DEFIED BY CLERGYMEN.

“ GRAVE SCANDAL MAY TOO EASILY RESULT.” (Special to the “ Star.”) LONDON, April 26. The conflict between Dr E. W. Barnes, the Bishop of Birmingham, and the Anglo-Catholic clergy of his diocese has been resumed, and a notice which he has just issued to every incumbent warning them against employing clergy who are not on the list of those entitled to officiate in the diocese is regarded as the first move in the renewed struggle. The struggle, which concerns the determination of the Anglo-Catholic clergy, in defiance of the bishop, to reserve the Sacrament in their churches, first began shortly after Dr Barnes was elevated to the bishopric of Birmingham. After the first heated exchanges, during which the bishop refused •to institute any clergy who declined to undertake not to reserve the Sacrament, the situation settled down into one described by the Rev G. D. Rosenthal, vicar of St Agatha’s and leader of the Anglo-Catholic movement ii Birmingham, as “ trench warfare.” The position on the one hand was that Bishop Barnes firmly refused to institute any Anglo-Catholic clergy into vacant livings. On the other hand, the Anglo-Catholic clergy cut themselves off entirely from all connection with the bishop or the diocesan organisation. The rich Anglo-Catholic churches refused to contribute to the diocesan fund, and the poor Anglo-Catholic churches refused to draw on it. Instead, the Anglo-Catholics established a fund of their own, and with this fund they have been able to support all the Anglo-Catholic clergy in Birmingham for the last four years, and they state that they are able to continue doing so as long as it is necessary. For all practical purposes the AngloCatholics have, in short, succeeded in establishing an independent ecclesiastical state within the diocese of their chief opponent. Now, however, it is apparent that against his thirteen rebellious Anglo-Catholic clergy the Bishop of Birmingham is at last moving again. The notice which he has issued regarding the employment of clergy from outside the diocese is regarded as a ban on Anglo-Catholics. It reads: — “ The attention of the bishop has been drawn to the fact that some incumbents of the diocese have recently employed unsatisfactory clergy for occasional work. The bishop wishes it to be distinctly understood that no clergyman living in the neighbourhood of Birmingham who is not on the list of those having permission to officiate in the diocese is to be employed even for a single Sunday. “ Grave scandal may only too easily result from neglect of this rule. If incumbents receive offers of help from clergy at a distance with regard to whom nothing is known, inquiries made by telephone at Bishop’s Croft will normally lead to definite information.” This first shot in the renewed war between the bishop and the AngloCatholic clergy of his diocese was answered to-day by the Rev G. D. Rosenthal, who, preadhing at his own church, St Agatha's, delivered a sermon under the provocative title of, “Should Bishops be Obeyed?” He said that owing to the scandalous method by which bishops were appointed as nominees of the Prime Minister, they considered themselves in the position of judges and magistrates with a first task of securing conformity to the laws of the land. He continued: “If Reservation is against the laws of the land, we are prepared to go to prison, but it is not. “ We will obey a bishop in a mitre —the real symbol of his authority—but we will not obey him when he exchanges the mitre for a policeman’s helmet. “ The difficulty is that there is no appeal from the bishop except to the Privy Council. "We cannot allow individual bishops to exercise Papal powers.”