REJECTS ANGLICANISM.

New Zealand Tablet, 13 November 1919, Page 22

REJECTS ANGLICANISM.

I-:, ' .Not' for - years .has ■ an- incident so. stirred Protestant Episcopal Church.-circles in. the United States as 1 lie resignation of Right,.Rev. LG -L Kinsman - ,.. as Episcopal Bishop of- Delaware.,(says -the , London CalhHu' Times). In an open- letter- which he. has written to the Right. Rev.’ Daniel Sylvester- Tuttle, .of, St. Louis, .presiding Bishop' of the Episcopal Church, he-says ; “I hereby present through yon to the House of.. Bishops, the resignation of iny jurisdiction ,as -'Bishop'.of the . Diocese,,.of .Delaware. _ . ’ VvW ‘‘The view, -of the Church’s, position which I have held, -certainly - the prevailing . view .in. the House, of Bishops, •H -simply that ..the .Episcopal Church,, strong iii its ‘ appeal to--antiquity,’ stands-firmly for .the doctrine of the' Incar-nation-as contained, in., the,. Scriptures and’ the Creeds, and, by emphasis, on its sacramental character, perpetuates the life of the Catholic Church. But I have ceased to believe—and here I part company with the bishops, and contradict my convictions and teachings in past years—that the actual facts 'bear out this contention. In spite of greatest unwillingness; I have come to feel that the interpretation of -the Anglican . position .which., connects it chiefly with the Protestant • Reformation ,; is the, one- more consistent with its history- viewed, as. a whole; , and that Its dominant tendencies are : increasingly . identified, .with

those currents of .thought .and development which are making away 1 from the ! definiteness’. of the p ancierLt' faith toward . Unitarian vagueness. This would seem ’.to ! mb' !, to he due not r merely to ' local or temporary conditions,’" but to certain informing principles ' always more or less apparent .in Anglican history. ,To preserve balance an : proportion, of the - truth the Episcopal churches have aihied at comprehension by compromise. I have come to’ believe that , this habit .of compromise involves increasing "surrenders of truth,- in spite .of religious revivals aiming l at stronger, insistence on’ the ancient faith.” - ’