REFORM OF THE ESTABLISHED CHURCH OF ENGLAND.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1515, 24 March 1887, Page 2

REFORM OF THE ESTABLISHED CHURCH OF ENGLAND.

A Bill for Church Reform ia being prepared for introduction Into the House of Commons, but it is not likely to be passed. It will give the Ecclesiastical Commissioners power, without the consent of the Bishops, to sell their palaces, and to give them each £200 or £300 a year to renc a house, the residue to be carried to what is termed a Bishop's Fund. The allowance to Bishops on their resignation will be one-third of the annual value of the Bishopric. The statute compelling the residence of clergymen generally will be applied to the Bishops ; and when one of them is incapacitated, the Archbishop is to appoint a coadjutor. Ordination fees are to be abolished, and the revenues from benefices are to undergo a redistribution. Future Bishops are to receive £1000 a year, with an allowance of from £250 to £500 a year for travelling expenses and from £203 to £300 a year for tho purposes of hospitality. " Houses" — whatever they may mean — are to be provided out of the Bishop's Fund, as also a Secretary's salary. No one is to be appointed Bishop who has not held a cure of eouls for at least five years ; and, lastly, residential canonaries are to be abolished, as well as all fees for baptisms, marriages, and burials.