Waiapu Church Gazette. Thursday, December 1st, 1921. REUNION. THE ORIGIN OF DIVISIONS.

Waiapu Church Gazette, Volume XII, Issue 6, 1 December 1921, Page 330

Waiapu Church Gazette. Thursday, December Ist, 1921. REUNION. THE ORIGIN OF DIVISIONS.

In continuance of our article of last month, we resume the question of Reunion. > Our Lord gave to all his Apostles a common Apostleship. When they disputed amongst themselves as to who was to be the chief amongst them He took a. little child and set him m their midst and taught them that greatness consisted m humility. He crushed at their birth incipient, ideas of a papacy. Similarly He gently rebuked the. ambitions of the sons of Zebedee, when their mother begged for them a special position. Mindful of this we find no Apostle ever claiming a unique position. All sat at the first Council ■, m Jerusalem under the presidency of James, who was most probably not an Apostle but had been appointed to the charge of Jerusalem, as a Bishop, one of the -.first of the order which formed the link between the Apostles with a world-wide Commission and the Episcopacy with its settled jurisdiction, St. Paul, miraculously added to the Apostolic band, acted as, doubtless, the other Apostles were already doing; he gathered converts m every city he visited and . appointed over them elders. Some of these, as Titus and Timothy, he appointed and ordained to preside over others. Hence grew the local episcopacy. So the Church. progressed and m the second century we find it organised m dioceses. There is no. suggestion of one head Bishop over the Church or of any papacy. ' -: , • The "Historic Episcopate," the grouping of elders under local "overseers," dates back to the beginning. As Unity of Actibn by frequent councils soon became impossible, owing to the difficulties of travel and the variety of 'the needs of different districts, dioceses were grouped together

and settled matters of moment .for themselves, leaving, only fundamental matters to be submitted to the judgment of General Councils of the whole Church. In this way a variety of customs and liturgies arose. Uniformity, except m- essentials, was not Catholic' ''customs and laws prevailed everywhere ; new difficulties were met m each patriarchate by decisions based on the same grounds of Catholic faith and custom;., but varying }n different patriarchates. Christ was the Head of .ail>. oecu-; menical councils the only ultimate authority. ' . ■ v " •By degrees the -patriarch of Rome assumed a priority over the' rest. : It is interesting, but exceedingly pain- . ful, to read how, as being the bishops of the metropolis of the Empire -and associated: with the Emperor, the bishops of Rome pushed their influence and asserted their authority m the teeth of much opposition till the great schism between East and West finally eventuated m 1054 A.D. During these centuries churches had been established m various parts of the Western Empire and had grown up. - without ever dreaming of .obedience .to the papacy, but the growing influence of Rome gradually made itself felt and, one by one, under political pressure, and from -the necessary dependence of the weaker upon the stronger m times of persecution and i distress, all m varying degrees submitted to the authority imposed upon them by their elder sister. The Ee^ formation period saw the revolt of many such national churches from the - yoke which, light and easy at .first,' had,^ through the centuries become, heavier and heavier. The violent cataclysm of this ecclesiastical revolution naturally re-; suited m great unrest. ' The varying conditions m the various countries according as the Reformation was carried through with: or without poli-' tieal compulsion, assistance or opposition, and the attitude of the bishops, whether they assisted or opposed the movement, gave such different results/ to it that m some countries the episcopate was lost, m some all Catholic organisation was • destroyed, m some fanatics tpbk charge arid abolished Catholic customs and doctrines, and the sundered churches were thrown into confusion and often into heresy. Fanatics invaded England, spread their doctrines and influenced the course,; of events to such an extent that, only by the great mercy of God, was the Church of England able to preserve its episcopacy, its liturgy, its Catholic doctrine arid its connection with Catholic organisation. The extremists m England?, who had imbibed from the Continent various unCatholic ideas, succeeded m organising •' parties m the Church, ; some of whom ultimately seceded a<nd formed schism-

atic sects, whilst others remained and have maintained their ideas within the Church, m spite of the Prayer Book and official teaching, until the present day. Our account of the rise of divisions and the destruction of Unity has been necessarily very scrappy and incomplete, -but", generally, it shows how the present •^confusion has arisen. ■ Reunion of religious bodies so widely separated^ not only by the circumstanecs of their origin, but also by their present divergencies of doctrine, practice and organisation is not the simple thing that it seems to people, who do not( know the history of Schism. No one can intelligently discuss the question of. Reunion unless he has studied the origin of disunion. It is hopeless to attempt any rational discussion on this subject with people who think that our differences are merely on matters of ceremony, forms of prayer, and minor matters of organisation. Any attempt to patch- up an agreement between the various bodies, which left fundamental differences 'as they are, would only result m a short time m other disruptions which would rend the reunited Church into fragments, make confusion worse confounded and leave things m a much more hopeless condition than they are at present. Such would be the result of a mutual recognition of ministry not based upon the recognition of a common faith and with no sense of the iniquity of the sin of schism, both for those who commit it and for those who, by unspirituality and un-Christian conduct, give occasion for it.

It would be well if Churchmen would seriously study some simple Church history before jumping to conclusions and y airing opinions, on this vital question. Church histories are numerous and not. hard to obtain. Even small ones, like those m the Churchman's Penny Library, are full of valuable information, and there are no clergy who will not willingly lend to parishioners who will study them, authoritative books on the subject. '■" ' -' .