RELIGIOUS ACTIVITY.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1437, 11 May 1912, Page 9

RELIGIOUS ACTIVITY.

CUTTING THE PAINTER, BISHOP FRODSHAM'S DESIKE. Tlie statement made in England by Bishop I'roc'ishaw, of North Queensland, referred to in a recent cable message "that thei'D was throughout Australia a growing consciousness that tue Church, must be delivered from legal connection wild tilts Church in England," referred j to a subject frequently discussed in Angii- j can synods, 'rho Bishop appeals to bo tho lending spirit in the inurement for separation, ami in his annual address to Die synod at Norlh Queensland in IUIO he said:—"lt is not only an inconvenient tiling, but a ridiculous and humiliating thing, that wo should voluntarily hamper our young and growing Church with a. method of organisation which is growing' more and'more impracticable a:id intolerable even in England. ... It is not that wo desiro anything but loyal co-operation anil communion with the Church in England, but we desiro above all things freedom from compulsory obedience to English quasi-civil courts." The Church in Australia, in its constitution, acknowledges itself bound by the articles, liturgies, and formularies of the Church in England, but apart from the authority of the l'rnyer Boo!: is practically self-gov-erning. At the last general .synod a report .was received from the committee appointed to prepare a full statement of the legal position of the several provincial end district synods in Australia. This has been submitted to tile Archbishop of Canterbury and legal authorities in Eng. land for an oppression of opinion thereon, and it is. likely that this opinion will conic before the next New South Wales synod in August. Bishop Frodsham'3 wish, according to local churchmen, is to "cut the painter" and establish the Church of Australia. This, says the Sydney "Telegraph" has hitherto boon opposed by the majority of clergy and laity in New South Wales, and it was said that not 2 per cent, would favour it,