AN ECCLESIASTICAL CRISIS IN ENGLAND.

Inangahua Times, Volume IV, Issue 32, 22 June 1877, Page 2

AN ECCLESIASTICAL CRISIS IN ENGLAND.

la view of the recent proceeding tales under sanction of the Public Worship Regulation Act in England, the following memorial has been presented to the Most Reverend and Eight Reverend the Arch. bishops and Bishops of the Church of England :— " We, the undersigned clergy of the Church of England, being anxtooi to- ' retain the relations of Church and Stttfr . which hare so long existed la thi» country, venture to express to jottr lord* ships, as oar spiritual fathers, the great anxiety and distress which we feel at the present position of affairs. On the one side we seeeoereive measures resorted to for enforcing uniformity, such as harebeen happily unknown in this country for centuries ; and, on the other,' a deter* inination to endure any suffering rather than submit to a jurisdiction whiehff rightly or wrongly, is regarded as parent secular. Moreorer, we are much in*- .* impressed by the unsatisfactory chametedg of the authority and arguments to whiefl|l apical is made in toe controversies now distracting the Chat eh. For whilst thet/hurch of England of to-day has the same right to decree rites or ceremonies, and possess the same authority in eontrorersies of faith, as the same Church* had at any previous period in her history,, appeal is now made, not to the itvißg'votee of the Church, but to events and doeu~ ments which hare themselves always been matters of controversy. BeKeving as we do, in the presence :n the Church of her Divine Head, we are convinced that what is required is not the mere interpretation, however skifnt, of existing law, but the living voice of .the Church clearly laying down what the law shall be in the future, " With this conviction upon oar mini we beg to urge upon yoor consideration' that iv our opinion so peace can be secured for the Church, nor can her existing relations with the State be long continued, unless laws for the regulation - of Divine service, and for other spiritual matters of primary importance, are made by an authority clergy and laity would feel to be binding upon conscience, and we are equally satisfied that no authority would be considered thus binding whicb does not proceed from the synods of theChurch as well as froji Parliament. la> saying this we must add that the legislative* action of the Church is now paralysed by tne apprehension that when her Synodical Acts are submitted to Parliament in the constitutional manner,, material alterations may be made in them,, and that the final result nay be seriously variance with the intentions of the synods*, and may become law without their consent. We trust that your lordships will take^ these representations into you* serious^ coorideration, buoMq year wisdom devne^B measure* to allay the anxiety ami™ distress which is now pressing ttpofr churchmen."