CHURCH REFORM.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 16263, 13 July 1918, Page 10

CHURCH REFORM.

PAROCHIAL REORGANISATION

(IHOM OT7B OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

LONDON, May 28

The Rev, H. 8. Woollcombe was one of the committee set up by the Archbishops of Canterbury and York to consider the administrative system of the Church of England, viz.: —

: 1. What matters in the existing administrative . system of the Church, including patronage and endowments, seem to them to hinder the spiritual work of the Church? 2. How can the reform or the removal of such hindrances be most effectively promoted? Tiie committee's recommendations deal with questions of administrative machinery of far-reaching importance, affecting the Church's parochial, capitular, ana .diocesan organisations. In discussing the parochial system the committee declares that the most obvious abuse is the sale of advowsons. "That it should be possible to . buy for money the right to appoint a man to Se cure of souls in a parish is a gross icandal." If an advowson is for sale it diould be obtained by some proper Church authority such as the Arch-, bishops, Bishops, Deans, and Chapters, or Diocesan Trusts or Boards of Finance. A Patronage Board should be established in each diocese, not fewer than two-thirds of the members to be laity. It is further suggested that tho Bishop and the parishioners should have a voice in the appointment of incumbents. Institution to a benefice should be for a terfti of years—say, ten years, 4-t the end of that period it would require renewal, on the understanding, that the Church makes itself responsible for the life and work of the men ordained to its, ministry.

The minimum stipend for an incumbent" should be £400 per annum,, and for the . unbeneficed clergy. who have been five-years in orders £200. A con's ider able union of benefices must be >ffccted, endowments redistributed, and (increased contributions from the laity secured on. an organised, system. The powers of ,the Ecclesiastical, Commissioners should be, extended with regard to the redistribution of endowments on schemes prepared by diocesan boards. The parsonage house should not make too largo demands on the benefice, and the administration of globe and tithe should be transferred to a central or diocesan authority. A general redemption'of tithe is desirable. The committee go so far as to recommend: — That the ownership of all tithe, land, and houses belonging to the Church — parochial, capitular, and episcopal — should be vested in the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, and that in every dioccso there should be a representative board of management acting under the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, and that should be competent to submit schemes of rearrangement to the Commission. In the opinion of this committee pew rents are "a serious scandal," and it is in the highest degree desirable that they should be abolished, while a compulsory pension scheme is- urged, and tho principle of a compulsory ago for retirement of all clergy (including bishops) should be or before in case oi mental and bodily deficiency. In dealing with cathedrals, it is recommended "that the relation of the Bishop to the cathedral should be more intimate that a set of model statutes for all cathedrals shonjd be framed, defining the powers of Bishop, Dean, residentiaries, and other members of cathedral staffs, and that the Crown patronage as to canons should be more equally distributed between the cathedrals." The appointment and work of the

Bishops is considered in some detail, and it is urged that the Representative Church Council should elect an Advisory Council of Bishops, clergy, and laity to advise the Prime Minister on the appointment of Bishops. When a vacancy in a bishopric occurs two representatives of the diocese, one clerical and one lay, should be appointed by the diocese to. sit upon the Advisory Council, the Council itself resting with the Crown. The excessive area and population of the largor dioceses overburdens tho Bishop, weakens diocesan vitality, and prevents close contact between tho Bishop and the parishes. As a rulo diocoses snould not contain more than 300 parishes. The retention of the suffragan system is not desirable. When possible tho standard of episcopal income should follow that.which has been allotted to new dioceses, while an effort should be made to distinguish between the official and private income of a Bishop. Moreover, the wholo question of episcopal residences should be carefully All these suggested recommendations involve great financial changes, and would require in nearly every case, legislation before they can be carried into effect. It is necessary that the Church should -gain some freedom of legislation^through its own representative assemblies. Taking tho proposals as a whole, it is apparent that they tend towards such a scheme of Church government as that outlined in the report of the Archbishops' Committee on Church and State.

This committee, with the Bishop of Southwell as chairman, wns ono of five committees arising out of thf National Mission of Repentance and Hopo.

ALWAYS PRESCRIBING-. Loaaby is the only chemist in N.Z. who devotee all his to prescribing. Now patients are surprised to see my waiting room full of patients all waiting to • "ASK LOASBY ABOUT IT." This haa gone on for yeara and years. If 1 1 was" not successful in treating all minor troubles I would not be kept busv all day doing nothing e!ae but proscribing. Patients would not continue to mako me their prescribing chemist unleee my treatment did them good. , I treat all kinds of minor aliments—just those casen that aro not bad enough for tho doctor yet makes the patient dissatisfied with his health. If you are not quite well come rirrht oway and "Aak Loaaby About It." A. M. LOASBY (with W. F. McArthur), The Only Prescribing Chemist, 679 Colombo street, Christchurch. L6S7S-1