BISHOPS DIVIDED

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 19771, 19 February 1927, Page 7

BISHOPS DIVIDED

ON NEW PRAYER BOOK SEVERAL DISSENTIENTS ALTERNATIVE SERVICES CONDEMNED. [By Telegraph—Per Press Assn.—Copyright.] Received Feb. 18. 8.30 p.m. LONDON, Feb. 18. The “Daily News” says it is now recognised that the Anglican Church is faced by a great clash. The Bishops’ agreement is not so complete as at first appeared, when the Archbishop of Canterbury indicated that there was only one opponent. The Bishops of Norwich and Birmingham have already dissented and now the Bishop of Worcester suggests that he and others are not subscribers to certain matters. The Bishop of Exeter, writing to the Diocesan Gazette, declares that he experienced increasing depression during the Bishops’ meeting. “What seemed to me a great disaster seemed to most others a negligible risk,” he said. “The suggestion that alternative services appeal to different parties is especially disastrous, and opposed to the purest ideals of Christianity. We forget the only consideration worthy of entertainment, which is whether our worship is pleasing to the Saviour. Nevertheless the final decision must be accepted, because disobedience cannot be encouraged/* <3 WHI IT BRING PEACE? GLOOMY DEAN THINKS NOT CLERGY DEFY THE BISHOPS LONDON, Feb. 17. While Dean Inge expresses the opinion that the new Prayer Book should be accepted, he doubts if it will bring peace. “The spirit of lawlessness will not be easily eradicated,” he says. “Scores of clergymen are prepared to defy the bishops’ discipline, which does not exist in London. Things will be as before/ with the advanced Churches competing one with another to keep ahead of their rivals. If the bishops could tell the clergy to obey or resign they would have public support.” The next stage of the prayer book is its submission to the Convocation on February 22. Meanwhile the support- ! ing bishops are necessarily silent, as J their views are embodied in the revised prayer book which is circulating in the whole country. The Bishops of Norwich and Birmingham have published opposing views, but the majority of the clergy and laity awaiting the debates at the Convocation. CABLED COMMENTS BISIMP OF LONDON’S CHARGES SYDNEY, Feb. 18. j The Bishop of London, at a luncheon j given in his honour by the Institute ' of Journalists, complained of what he j tenn.’d misrepresentation regarding the • revised Prayer Book recently. | He said that 3-1 bishops out of 36 ! had agreed to the change, but the only ' two items cabled to Australia w r ere from the speeches of the two who had i opposed the revision.