BISHOPS’ DISAGREEMENT

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 190, 12 August 1931, Page 13

BISHOPS’ DISAGREEMENT

Accusation of “ Injury to the Church.” LONDON, July 31. Writing in the “ Diocesan Magazine,” the Bishop of Gloucester (Dr A. C. Headlam) asserts that the Bishop of Birmingham (Dr Barnes) “ does incalculable injury to the Christian Church by his crude accusations of magic and superstition, which come entirely from mental confusion.” Dr Headlam’s statement is prompted by the letter sent by Dr Barnes last week to the Primate (Dr Cosmo Lang) regarding the Sacrament. Referring to Dr Barnes's phrase, “ the so-called miracle of the Mass,” Dr Headlam states:— “ That method of stating the action of the Eucharist is customary among imperfectly instructed theologists, but it does not represent the Church’s teaching and conception. “ How is it possible that the bread and wine can in any way ,be a channel of grace unless in some sense that which is conveyed is present? There is really no great difference between what Dr Barnes teaches and what he attacks; both forms of doctrine have been recognised as legitimate within the Church.” Dispute With Vicar. The correspondence between the Primate and Dr Barnes concerned the dispute over the licensing of the Rev G. D. Simmonds, a member of the extreme Anglo-Catholic section of the Church of England, as vicar of St Aidan’s, Birmingham. Because Mr Simmonds refused to promise to discontinue the reservation of the elements, Dr Barnes last year declined to license him as vicar. After the question had been taken to court, the Primate licensed Mr Simmonds. In his letter to the Primate last week Dr Barnes stated:— “ The assertion that a priest by the act of consecration, can cause Christ to come and dwell within the bread and wine, was the crucial isue in the Reformation. It is exactly analagous to the belief held by the Hindu that his priest can, by consecration, cause God to dwell within an image. The cultured Hindu protests that he does not worship the image, but God within. If the fact is granted that worship of the consecrated elements can be justified, the true Anglican doctrine of the Holy Communion surely is that the bread and wine are, so to speak, the miraculous vehicles or channels of spiritual grace. Through their use Christ comes to devout worshippers.”