ANGLICAN CHURCH IN AUSTRALIA.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1561, 3 October 1912, Page 7

ANGLICAN CHURCH IN AUSTRALIA.

' , ' : '. THE LEGAL ;NEXUS. By Telesrapa-Press Aesoclatlon-Oopyrieht ' Melbourne, October 2, The Anglican Synod, by. a two-to-ono majority, negatived a motion, to the effect that it was undesirable permanently to maintain the legal nexus between ' the Church in Australia and the Church of England.. ..'-,..- ■"DEAD HAND OF THE ENGLISH ■.;;■■ .•-■ . STATE."; . ' ". The Bishop of North Queenslnnd, in the course: of a sermon-At St. James's Cathedral, Townsvillo, in connection, with tho triennial session of the Synod of the Province of Queensland, referred to the necessity for securinpt freedom for the Church of England in Australia. "Wfl have been tied, he said, "or we have tied ourselves, to e system of law which is every day becoming more and more inapplicable to Australian needs. "I desire freedom because I realise if the Church is to thrive in Australia we must grow up in harmony with our environment. The biological law which demands as a condition of existence that an organism must, be fitted to its environment, is ae binding'upon the divine society as it is upon the humblest cell of a living protoplasm. So long as tho Church in Ausralia is hampered in its development it cannever hope'toibe more than an exotic—it cai easily degenerate into an anachronism. Remember much 'of out ronstitution and our canon law is ultra vires;'therefore only awaits an appeal to the vlaw courts to vanish into nothingness.;';' . -.■'■• . • . ■ ■ "Secondly, "I' desire freedom because I desire to\live under law and not in chnr- . tered anarchy. At present the ChuTch camiot lawfully make proper provision for the simplest of the varied circumstances of tht* .Australian bush unless the English Parliament approves of such provision beforehand. Consequently the clergy—the laity assenting thereto—are continually altering the PrayeT Book for, themselves. I, for one, dread the practical revision of the.Prayer Book by'individual clerjjynffin far'mdve'.tlinrf-T/'dreaa , .revision by competent authority in Australia,''' anar't from England. 1 realise clearlr thai, freedom mint .-• bo sought., in .individual States,, and not iri'the Commonwealth,,but. I dp not desire to poo that .freedom exercised ; except by the whole Church in Australia. . . ''■.. ' ... \,