OBSTACLES TO CHURCH UNION

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 199, 17 May 1919, Page 6

OBSTACLES TO CHURCH UNION

. DR. ORCHARD'S PHILOSOPHY. The Rev. Dr. Orchard, speaking on "Obstacles to Christian ll.nion" recently,, said that, humanly speaking, they Were insuperable. 'The .chief was. the general unconcern of Christian people. • One of the concrete difficulties was. tho Church of Rome. It would bo easy to leavb liome out, but ho did not propose to do that. It would be as fatal to have, a union of tho Churches with Rome out as to hnvo a League of Nations with Germany out. (Applause.) •

AYitli regard to the question of reordination, he knew some of his stiff-ncvkccV Nonconformist friends, und he could not imagine them bowing their heads to that yet. A bishop must not be a-prelate, Gaiu Dr. Orchard. Tho higher up a man wont in .the Church the less he should receive, so as to be quite euro he did not go up for oilier reasons.. "By ;dl moans, ho said, "let. us liavo the. laying on of hands by the bishop, but I should like to sea the servant girl and tho bus driver come out of tho congregation and lay on hands as well. Lay ordination could not do' anyone any harm."

it was quite possible, he continued, that wo should have a Government soon that would not only disestablish the Church, but disendow it.i'Tnere'is money wanted, you know," he added. "We may even have to give up our buildings. Tho Queen Anne Bounty Churches- will then lio turned into mortuaries, am) some ot tho Nonconformist churches into kinemas an-1 public baths, which is obviously, what they were intended for; (Laughter.)

"Some people are aghast uud say, 'What idolatry' when they see a man praying in front of a painted image. They seom to think that he bolieves the imago is real, but tho fact is that he prays in front of it, just aa you pray in front of what, after fill, you worship—your bed. (Laughter.) Another ma/i shouts fit-God ■until you nearly -jump l'rom your seat. We cannot breathe one another's atmospheres. It would be well for us to mix up a little. Every Church ought to recogniso a freedom to adopt the forms of worship found of spiritual value to any other." Church' union on the basis of the true autlioritv of love and the true obedience of loyalty, he added, was • tho most pressing question before the modern world, afid society was falling to pioces from lack of it. If the Churches could not bo united, it was of no nse talking about uniting nations, classes, or anyone.