CHURCH UNION IN SCOTLAND.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1408, 8 April 1912, Page 5

CHURCH UNION IN SCOTLAND.

* ONE OF THE OBSTACLES. ATTITUDE OF THE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND. By Telegraph-Press Association-Copyricht London, April 5. Ttio Church of Scotland, in a memcranilum of Ueiinion, soys that it recognises that one of the obstacles to union lies in the exclusive recognition of a national church, and declares that it is desirable to have a statutory disclaimer in regard to Shite recognition. The Church of Scotland, however, will only accept union if the L'nited I'reo Church and Government conserve the endowments for the United Church.

HOW UNION SHOULD BE EFFECTED. RESULT OF A RECENT INQUIRY. "The Scotsman" recently made a geaera! inquiry into the congregational and public feeling on the question of Church Union, and the result, it says, i s (ho best answer than can at tho moment bo given to a speculative question suggested by t Dr. Norman Macleod. "What is it you want?" ho proposed to say to the people; "is it a new ecclesiastical edifice, resting on a purely voluntary basis, or, it you like to put it so, on the basis of Disestablishment;or is it a reconstructed edifice, resting in the old foundations? Correspondents who are accredited and reliable, and who number more than two hundred, were invited to cothey were supplied with schedules ol questions; they were asked to answer these questions with tho most careful accuracy. The result of the inquiries is summarised as follows:— (1) That tho old bitter feeling between Church of Scotland and United Iree Church ministers and people which existed so long after tho disruption has passed away, and given place to sentiments of a more cordial nature. (2) That the people as a whole in all parts of the country are friendly to union. (3)' That there is a unanimous view in Church of Scotland circles that union should be effected, not by the agency of disestablishment, but on the basis of reconstruction and a conservation of the endowments for religious purposes; that there is in the United Free Church a body of opinion favourable to union on tho basis of reconstruction on "tho old foundations," provided "spiritual freedom" within the reconstructed Church is assured; that equally there is a body of members in tho United Free Church who maintain that union is only possible on a voluntary or disestablishment basis. (H And that a general feding prevails in both Churches—the ardent disestablishes only excluded—that the four propositions of the Church of Scotland Union Committee form a workable basis for neiotiations. The four propositions are as follow •.— (1) That the reunited Church shall be recognised by the State as national, bearing the name of tho Church of Scotland, preserving her identity with the Church of the Reformation mid the Revolution Settlement as contemplated in the Treaty of Union, and exhibiting a national testimony to the Christian faith. (2) That she shall be recognised as a Church undertaking a provision of religious ordinances and pastoral care co-extensive wTth Scotland, and adapted to tho territorial distribution of the' imputation. (3) That the Courts of the Church shall continue to be recognised by law as possessing a separate and exclusive jurisdiction in matters spiritual, (1) That the ancient endowments shall be conserved for the United Church in order that with necessary readjustments they may continue to bo used towards the support of religious ordinances under a territorial system.