CORRESPONDENCE.

Lyttelton Times, Volume I, Issue 21, 31 May 1851, Page 6

CORRESPONDENCE.

To the Editor of the Lyttelton Times. Sir, —The attention of our fellow-colonists having been recently drawn to the growing importance of all questions connected with the government of the church in the colonies, by the publication of the Minutes of Proceedings at a Meeting of the Bishops of the province of Australasia, held at Sydney in October 1850, I am induced to think that the following account of the Conventions of the American Church, (extracted from the Guardian of April 3,1850,) may he not uninteresting to some of your readers. It appears that in each of the dioceses of the American Church," there is an annual convention, at which special canons are passed for the government of that particular diocese, and .in which a variety of local business is transacted. Every parish elects on Easter Monday, one or two lay delegates to the Diocesan Convention. These laymen, together with the clergy of the diocese, and under the presidency of the bishop, constitute the Diocesan Convention." The annexed " canons of the diocese of Tennessee, as they stood in 1830," will give some idea of the mode of operation pursued in these Conventions, and of the matters which are considered to be within their sphere of action. " The first of these canons is respecting the' admission of new churches or parishes into union with the diocese. It provides that they shall accede to the doctrines, discipline, and worship of the Church, to the constitutions and canons of the General Convention, and to those of the diocese of Tennessee. It requires that every parish shall have a suitable name, and "shall appoint "a certain number "of vestrymenT and declares, that on complying with such terms, the parish may be admitted into union

with the diocese, and its delegates be admitted to the Diocesan Convention. " The second states the conditions on which a clergyman may be received into the diocese. " The third defines minutely the mode of proceeding- in the trial of a clergyman. " The fourth requires, that due notice shall be given to all the clergy and congregations in the diocese, of the suspension and degradation of any clergyman. "The fifth requires the clergyman to attend regularly the meetings of the Diocesan Convention. " The sixth makes it the duty of every clergyman to keep a register of all persons in his congregation, specifying those who have been baptized, confirmed, and received to the communion, and containing a record of the births, marriages and deaths among them, the date of baptisms, and the names of the parents and sponsors, (or witnesses in tne case of adults). The register is to be provided by the parish. Every clergyman is also to make a precise report of the state of his parish to the bishop : at the annual diocesan convention. The seventh provides for the elections of delegates to the General Convention. " The eighth requires certificates of lay delegates to the Diocesan Convention. "The ninth provides for the contingent expenses of the Diocesan Convention. " The tenth directs the mode of organizing the Diocesan Convention, and provides that it shall be opened with prayer, and that after organization, it shall attend services, and listen to a sermon by the bishop. •'The eleventh provides for missions within the'dioceses. "The twelfth provides for the changing the place of meeting when necessary. " The thirteenth, and last, provides for a book depository." • .. . ■. ' "It maybe asked," adds the writer, "how obedience to the general and diocesan canons is secured. I answer, that this is effected 'altogether, by the force of public opinion and ecclesiastical feeling within the church. The state is in no way concerned in making canons, or in enforcing them." The object in quoting these canons is to elucidate the; principles of the Diocesan Conventions in America, it is not supposed that they would all be found suitable to the Church in Canterbury, but that they form a good model to work upon, and to alter as may best suit the circumstances of this diocese in particular. And, in the colonies, the Church is so far in a position similar to that which the Church in America occupies, as it is unconnected with the state, and therefore left to itself so far as regards its own internal economy. There is in America, besides these Diocesan Conventions, a general convention,corresponding to the provincial synod and convention, of which the Australasian bishops treated in their meeting at Sydney. This General Convention consists of two houses, the upper being composed of the bishops of the Church, with the senior bishop by consecration, as president, and the lower, of clerical and lay delegates in equal number, viz., four clerical and as many lay delegates from each diocese, chosen annually by ballot at the meetings of the diocesan conventions. The province of the General Assembly is of course more extended than that of the diocesian conventions, and includes weightier matters, such as the election and consecration of bishops, the organization of new dioceses, the censure of crimes and scandals, &c, &c.

" These are the methods, by-which, under God, the American Church has : been, raised from deep depression to its present position of influence and rapid extension ;" and, as such, are surely not unworthy the attention of those \vJso wish well to the Church and colony of Canterbury, and who, in the establishment of that Church, would fain avoid those evils which have so often been productive of lamentable consequence?, in causing men to think and speak slightingly of the Church of God. And it is submitted, that this question ought to be of particular interest to us, as one with which we shall shortly have to deal, and in the treatment of which, we have advantages, which with God's blessing may enable us, in this matter, "to let our light so shine before men, that they may see our good Avorks and glorify our Father which is in heaven V not forgetting that for the use or neglect of t]iese_ advantages we shall be held responsible ; — ■-- ..rain, Sir, your obedient servant, Christclnirch, May 21, A LAYMAN.