RELIGIOUS ACTIVITY,

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1728, 19 April 1913, Page 9

RELIGIOUS ACTIVITY,

A UNION PROPOSAL, COMMENTS BY PROFESSOR- W. P. FATERSON. Dr. W. P. Pntcrson, D.D., Professor of Divinity at Edinburgh University, writes as loliows iu "liveryman" regarding a recent book entitled "Tlio Cliurcli and. Koiigious Unity," by Father Kelly (Anglican) :- In an interesting and vivacious book, Fattier Kelly lias mooted a scheme for the reconciliation of the Noneouiorniists with tho Ckurcn of England. What lie proposes is, not federation and co-opera-tion,'but an incorporating union. And never, surely, cud mgii Cuurciunun write so candidly about Anglicanism, or so generously, about tlio Nonconformists. "Their separation," he says, "lias brought to us something like ossification and death. Their reconciliation would bo to is life from the dead," As a preliminary to bringing together Anglo-Catholics and Protestants he tries to ascertain the essential character and diiforenct). of the two systems of Christian thought. The fundamental difference, ho tuinks, is connected with the interpretation and valuation of tho sacraments. Tho Catholic believes that in the Holy Communion Christ has provided for,, us a true renewal of tho bodily presence of His spiritual humanity, in order that we, parhmmg of the humanity tnus given, may attain to the redemption niamtested in the body of His resurrection. The Protestant, in spite of better traditions, gravitates towards tho opinion that tho couimuuiou is merely a symbolical act, which recalls the idea of a Kuviour now remote from him in time or place. With the Catholic view of tho sacraments is indissolubly bound up tho provision of a priesthood which validly-administers them, and tho priesthood, in turn, is dependent for orders on the divinely-insti-tuted Episcopate. The religious vindication of this schemu is that it is the only way of taking the Incarnation seriously, or at least of staking it effective; and it hnstho, practical advantage that sacramental doctrine and practice take a grip, such as no other system does, of the common-place and (inspiritual mind of the multitude. While Catholicism thus witnesses to and applies the fact of tho Incarnation, Protestantism rather stands for the truth that there is a. Holy Spirit, who is the Lord and Giver of life, and who is. manifested in <die love of liberty. "The strength of Nonconformity- is that it has maintained and developed tho witness of the personal gifts of the Holy Spirit." It has a passion for' religious freedom..which chafes oven against wholesome restraints; it has built a congenial home for a religious aristocracy; and it has shown boundless activity in the realm of Christian, work. ■ i Is there, now, a possible synthesis of these diverse religious types?- Mr. Kelly's programnio is that the Nonconformists should accept tho sacramental system of the Catholic Church, with its corollaries of priesthood ahi.d episcopate, and that the Anglo-Catholic Church should recognise and annex the Nonconformist bodies as societies usefuly engaged in evangelistic work and in the labours of a pastoral and philanthropic ministry. There wculd indeed, be no rigid division of labour; but the official priesthood would, ou the whole, confine itself to administering the sacramental gift and explaining its significance, while the leaders of the religious societies representing tho Protestant tradition would largely take over the business of preaching and tho organisation of Christian service. .. ' - - As Mr. Kelly reminds us, all things aro possible with God. But in tho meantime, as he frankly admits, tho project does not seem,; so far as.man is'concerned, even to approach the region of practical politics, Tho points on which he' asks the Nonconformists to-'capitulate' aro precisely tho' points which Protestants regard as marking a gravo-relapse from the purity and spirituality of the Christian Gospel.. In particular, there is nothing which they are less likely to accept than the typo of sacramental doctrino which is here represented as an essential clement .of..the Gospel. They might,;,,iii> deed,-, accept tho teaching of .thei Thirtynine" Articles on tho subject—Presby-" terians at least profess something very similar in the Westminster Confession— but what Mr. Kelly insists on as Catholic is a doctrino which seems largely repudiated imthe Articles, and which is an unintelligible -something that lies halfway between tho.Roman and Calvnistic conceptions. A doctrine caunot well be imposed as essential Catholic truth which the Romanist will not have because it does not include trausubstantiatioii, and which leaves even the student iu extreme doubt as to what ho is really expected to believe. In a reunited Anglican Church room should certainly bo left ;for those'. who hgld tho highest typo of sacramental doctrine, but it is. intolerable that they should claim to be entrusted with, thekeys of the temple. . : ■-. • L' It is a further objection to the- project that it would Tequiro Nonconformist ministers to cease from administering the sacraments, unless and ,until they should admit their want, of title to tho ntinis--terial office, and sl«rald penitently seek episcopal'ordination. But the hopelessness of the suggested concordat does not imply that Father Kelly's book is useless. It is instructive as showing how and why the sacramentarian and sacerdotal.scheme may commend itself to a reasoning nnd sincere mind, And, in any case, Father Kelly renders.the servico of commending a splendid objective. He is right in sayinj, as Macauley said long ago, that the Church of England grievously blundered when she failed to make room within her pale for movements which, like Wesleyanism/ represented a new outpouring of freedom, enthusiasm, and spiritual energy. And ho has sbown to others an inspiring vision— of a Church, which, though not freo from' spot or wrinkle, would yet bo a most glorious Church, in which the faith, reverence, and clear-sightedness .of Arglicahism would be combined • with the spiritual zeal, the intellectual.' avidity, and the moral earnestness of the "'descend--ants of the Puritans.