PRAYER BOOK

Hokitika Guardian, 23 December 1927, Page 2

PRAYER BOOK

[.Australian & N.Z. Cablo Association.] PRAYER BOOK NEGOTIATIONS. LONDON, Dec. 22. The “ Dialy Express ” understands church leaders have been engaged in unofficial secret negotiations with Sir Joynson Hicks and his parliamentary supporters with the object of reaching an agreement satisfatcorv to the Commons. This is stated to he the explanation of the delay in the issue of a church pronouncement. Negotiations have been carried on by a sub-commit-tee consisting of Archbishops of Canterbury and York, and the Bishop ol London, who will report on 1 hursday. The Bishops will then consider whether the terms of negotiations are acceptable. If approved, stops will he taken to revise the measure to the extent necessary to secure a parliamentary majority. Anglo-Catholics who have learned of the negotiations are disturbed over what they describe as the secret diplomacy of Lambeth Palace.

A DEAN’S VIEWS. (Received this day at 0.30 a.m). i LONDON, Dec. 22. Dean Inge in the “Evening Standard” says the Bishops brought defeat upon themselves. If they had stuck to the first undertaking not to disturb the doctrinal balance of the Church of England and confine themselves to removing archaisms and stumbling blocks to the moral intellectual conscience <>L to-day, they might have had more difficulty in steering the measure through the Church Assembly, but the Prayer Hook would have met no opposition in Parliament. Tlie Bishops, however, coffeeired a curious notion that they might discourage burglary by legalising petty larcency. As soon as a reservation of the sacred elements is legalised - , the Church of England ceases to be Protestant. The rubicon is crossed and Reformation is repudiated. Four hundred years ago our ancestors ■went to rack and stake for Protestantism.