THE OPEN COMMUNION.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1945, 31 December 1913, Page 7

THE OPEN COMMUNION.

IN EAST AFRICAN MISSIONS.

"STRICTLY INTOLERABLE."

GREAT.: CONTROVERSY RAGING IN

LONDON.

By T«l«gra,sli—l'rers AEMeiatian-'Oon.yrtgtt

London, Doc ember 29. 1110 Bishop of Oxford (Right Rev. C. Uoro) believes that to the great- mass of High Churchmen the open Cotftrruniion proposed in the Kikuyu (East Africa) Concord is so subversive- to order and doctrines as to bo strictly intolerable. ~ ® ,e "Westminster Gazette" says that , H lO question comes up for tho Archbishop cf Canterbury's adjudication, it cart imagine no greator blow to Christianity than that itwo Bishop® should ho .condemned for doing what the world in general regards as a Christian act. FEELING RISING, (Re#. December 31, 0.20 a.m.) ' London, December 30. f The controversy over the lfifcny« Concord is increasing; the newspapers are devoting columns to the question. The '•Daily Chronicle" defines the issue to bo whether every Christian British subject beloags to the Church of England bv right of citizenship, or enters that Church through' baptism and confirmation.

Dr. Waco (Dean of Canterbury), in upholding tho Kikuyu Concord, asks that the Primate's final judgment should not bo prejudiced by the arbitrary assumption that Haly Communion with members of non-Episcopal Churches is_ forbidden on the sole ground of a lack of episcopacy. The "Spectator 11 recalls tho fact that Queen Alexandra, the l'rinto Consctft, ■and other royalties were never confirmed, yet Holy Communion was always administered.

;ilio Bishop of Oxford, Canon KnoxLittlii, Canon Mason, of Canterbury, and Lord William Cecil rely ,on the support of tiie Bislwp of Zanzibar. At a meeting of High Churchmen sis hundred signatures were secured pledging supporters to back tho Bishop < f Zanzibar's efforts to bring the Bishop;* of Uganda and Mombasa to trial.

Professor Sanday, tire Bishop of Durham, Lord Kinnaird, Dr. Tucker (lato Bishop of Uganda), the Dean of Durham aro supporting the Bishops cf Mombasa and Uganda. Tho Indian National Conference of Missionaries at Calcutta, and the China National Conference at Shanghai have expressed views similar to tho Kiluiyu Concord during the year. ;

The Kikuyu Concord proposes a. schsme of federation of non-Roman Catholic Churches in Eastern Africa, to maintain a balance of influenco against. the advantage at present held by tho Roman Cntliclic Church and Malion'uuodamsn; in the vast mission fields opened up hy tho Uganda railway. The basis of the scheme, is that all the parties accept tho Bible, tho Apostles, the Niceno Creed, and the Baptism in tie mime of the Trinity s (hat thosa not confirmed should not be repelled from Communion; that the form of Common Pray?r should be adofited on the basis of the Anglican Prayer ttsok.