A CRYSTALISATION

Hokitika Guardian, 5 December 1930, Page 5

A CRYSTALISATION

ARCHBISHOP AVERILL ON REUNION.

AUCKLAND, Dec. 2

“I am inclined to think that party feeling in the Church has become more crystallised, and a little bit more general than. formerly, but I should not say the intention of even the extreme man is to Romanise the Anglican Church,” said Archbishop Averill this morning. “There fire those who certainly seem to - be endeavouring to bring the Church of England as near to the Roman petition ns possible, and even try to out-Rome Rome.

“Personally, I cannot understand it. To me it is most extraordinary. The Anglican Church has a very wonderful position to fill in the world. It has been called the bridge church, and if there is to be real reunion it has got to be largely on the basis of the standard of the Church of Eingland. GREAT STRIDES. “I think .the extremists are doing a good deal >of harm in keeping back the question' of reunion, but tbits important question has made great strides forward during the last ten years. It was a decad© ago that the Lambeth Conference appealed to all Christians on the question of unity, and it was, a great surprise to the present conference to realise the tremendous ad vance that has been made in this direction. I was on the Committee of Unity, and it amazed me to find the response that lias been made. The Eastern Orthodox Church is most anxious for inter-communion with the Anglican Church, and I think it will come about before long. The same can be said of the Old Catholics who split from the Church of Rome in 1870 because they would not accent the doctrine of the infallability of the Pope laid down by the Council of Trent. They have l>een independent ever since, and have approached the Church England with a desire for inter-communion.

“It was a surprise to find that the apoeal had had such far-reaching effects. Various other . churches had shown the same spirit.” The general movement towards unitv, he added, was one of the siood things of the conference. The hishori® interviewed representatives of the Scots Church and the Federal Council of the Non-Episcopal Churches in England, and it was hoped that the result would he in the direction of drawing more closely together. “I think the advance towards unitv will be even more rapid in future,” he concluded.