CHURCH AND STATE

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 183, 29 April 1919, Page 3

CHURCH AND STATE

'REPRESENTATIVE COUNCIL MEETING. A session of the Representative Church Council was held recently in the Church House, Westminster. It was vory largely attended, the Hoare Memorial Hall proving too small for the comfort of the members. Bishop Byle, Dean of Westminster, chairman' of the Committee on the Report of the Archbishops' Committee on Church and State, presented the report of his committee and moved that it should be received for consideration. The Bishop of HerofdVd spoke against this motion, urging that the scheme proposed vitally affected the status of the Church' of England and was founded on a false and shallow diagnosis of the present needs of the nation and the service the National Church was called to render to it. Lord Selborne spoke in reply to Dr. Henson, Mr. Athelstan Riley, supported by Major E. M. Wood, proposed an 'amendment, which was virtually an alternate scheme. Lord Parmoor having replied to Mr. Riley. The Archbishop of Canterbury spoke. He urged that the scheme dealt with matters of administration. He did not think it would do all its supporters expected of it, but {those ;who had to do with the administration of the Church affairs knew the increasing difficulties which hindered the Church's efficiency and the difficulty of securing Parliamentary assent to any proposals for reform. This was not necessarily due to opposition, but to the overwhelming claims of national and Imperial business on the House of Commons- He gavo a number of instances to show the present need of reform. He did not think any help could be secured by the appointment of a Royal Commission. The amendment was withdrawn and Bishop Ryle's motion passed without division.