REFORMS IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND.

Globe, Volume XXI, Issue 1793, 19 November 1879, Page 2

REFORMS IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND.

A draft Bill which has lately received the approval of the Convocations of Canterbury and York, and is intended to provide facilities for the amendment from time to time of the rites and ceremonies of the Church of England has boon laid before the Queen by the Homo Secretary. According to the “ Standard,” the Bill begins by declaring that “ while the faith and doctrine of the_ Established Church remain unaltered, it is expedient that increased facilities should bo given tor the regulation from time to time of the rites and ceremonies of the said Church, as the changes of circumstances may seem to require,” and it proposes, therefore, to enact that the Archbishops and Bishops and clergy of the Provinces of Canterbury and York, in their Convocations (by and with the authority of the Queen’s Majesty), may from time to time prepare and lay before her Majesty in Council a scheme for making such alterations in and additions to the rubrics and directions contained in the Book of Common Prayer, and for providing such additional services and prayers to he used in public worship, as may seem to them to be required, provided that no such scheme shall be laid by the Convocation before her

Majesty in Council unles> or until the same* shall have been agreed to ty each of the two ■ Conrorfiffon# and shall be certified to her - Majissty Che Queen under Che hands and ecriesiastfeal seals of the President* of both the said l Convocations. Any scheme so prepared is to E« before Parliament for a space of forty days, after which, if no objection ir takentoit, her Majesty may make an Order in Couneil 1 giving it the force of law. Such a. measure would confer on Con vocation 1 for the treatment of rites and ceremonies power* analogous to those enjoyed by the Charity Oommiasioaßrs-in dealing with charitable eu—jdowments. And it will, doubtless, seeat to. ! ®any peoplb that, if Convocation is notcapable of exercising such powers as these,-it-was hardly worth' while that it should have ever been resuscitated. The objection that' it--;s not sufficiently representative might easily be obviated ; but the two chief objections which will probably be urge® against the moasjire are, comparatively speaking, independent of the fitness of' Convocation for undertaking the work in hand: Prom one side we shall probably hear that the Bill is baaed on an assumption of necessity for change which is contradicted by the opinions of the groat majority of Church people. On the other hand, no doubt, it will be urged with all the contemptuous arrogance of the Liberation Society that it* is idle to place new powers in the hands of Convocation,. when the Church herself must very shortly be severed from, the State. A sufficient answer to this latter abjection is that statesmen deal with existing facts rather than speculative possibilities. They have the existing Constitution to administer, and that is enough for them. Besides, threatened men live long ; and if we were to be deterred from legislation by every idle prediction of this nature we might become as stationary as the dwellers in the farthest Past. After all, the utmost that is asked on behalf of the Church is something less than a libertyrin the matter of rites and ceremonies which no section of Nonconformists would consent to forgo. The consent of the Legislature, whether as a formality or as a substantial reality, is the necessary price paid in consideration of what is known as the benefit of Establishment, and Disestablishment would enlarge rather than curtail the license demanded.