CHURCH UNION.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1956, 13 January 1914, Page 7

CHURCH UNION.

PROPOSED WORLD CONFERENCE. By Telegraph—Press Association—CopyriuM London, January 11. A deputation from the American nonEpiscopal churches has arrived here. The object is to persuade English Free Churchmen to support the "faith and order" movement with a view to the promotion of a world conference in favour of religious unity. The Archbishop of Canterbury (Dr. Davidson) has already authorised a committee of the Church of England to confer with the deputation.

At the recent general convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church of the United States, the commission appointed to bring about a world conference on Christian unity submitted its report, which stated that it has been successful in establishing relations with other agencies within the Epscopal Church working for world-wide Christian unity, and it has also enlisted the cooperation of both Catholic :ir,d Protestant bodies. A deputation consisting of the Bishop of Chicngo, the Bishop of Southern Ohio, the Bishop of Vermont. and the ftev. Dr. Manning, was sent by the commission to Great Britain and Ireland, where they obtained the cooperation of tho Church of England, the Episcopal Church of Scotland, and the Church of Ireland, in the movement for a conference of Christian communions. Cardinals, archbishops, bishops, and priests of the Eoilian Catholic Church in various parts of the world have expressed themselves as keenly interested in the proposal of the commission for a world conference, and the American Cardinals, Farley and Gibbons, have added their praise of the movement. The plans for the world conference on, "Questions Touching Faith and Order" aro to be arraneed in a jireliminary conference of committees appointed by the different denominations. The reoort says:_ "Whether unity can Ix> brought about in the present generation may be doubtful, for tho attitude of largo bodies of men is changed by a riow leavening process, rather than by sudden maeical methods. But wo are convinced that the movement towards a Pennine unity of Christian Faith and Order has actually hefrun, and that visible factors are niakjng for this glorious consummation. Our part seems to be not to force things, and rot to formulate schemes for reunion, but to help on this growth of mutual friendliness and of mutual understanding."