CHANGES IN THE CHURCH.

Hokitika Guardian, 10 April 1929, Page 8

CHANGES IN THE CHURCH.

“[ cannot doubt that thoughtful men will come to sco that in view of the immense changes which have passed over the life both of the nation and of the Church, the relation of tlm Church and State which reflected the conditions of the, sixteenth and seventeenth centuries cannot remain unchanged; also that some effective principle of authority within the Church itself must he accepted if freedom is not to become license and the reality of fellowship within one body to he maintained. Public worship must be conducted week by week, and we cannot wait for a settlement ol the relations of Church and State to regulate it, nor can we leave out of sight the carefully formulated judgment of the Church’s own constitutional, authority on that subject. But it is certainly not healthy for the Church For the claim of the law is a moral claim : and it is morally unwholesome to evade it. We have spent much lanour in an effort to store the effective reign of law in the Church ; that effort has not succeeded ;nnd we are hound bv every consideration of honour as well as of expediency to the way hack to full legality. AWiat I hat wav maybe no one now can prophesy. It may he l»v Disestablishment, and if that is indeed the only way to combine spiritual freedom wit ' the authority of law. then T.nm *'ire we ought to accept it.” The Archbishop of Canterbury 'Mr Lang.)