ANTI-RITUALISTS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXI, Issue 462, 26 June 1909, Page 4

ANTI-RITUALISTS.

AN AUCKLAND MANIFESTO.

Auckland, June 24,

A manifesto has been prepared by the Council of the newlyelected Laymen’s League. By way of introduction, the manifesto says:

“The existence of the League is the outcome on the one hand of dissatisfaction with the government of the Church, and with the conduct of Divine service ; on the other hand, ol disgust and alarm on the part of many of the most loyal sons of the Church •at the open attempts now being made by many of the superior and inferior clergy in England, and in some of the colonies to restore doctrines and practices of which our national Church was purged at the time ol the Reformation, because they much blinded the people, and obscured the glory of God.” Some aspects of the present position in England are referred to as follows:

“We have been recently told, on high authority, that at the present time in England, no one cares a snap of the fingers about the subject of ritual. Now, while we know this statement to be absolutely inaccurate, as regards the Old Country, we are painfully aware that, in our own land, the subject does not receive the attention it should, owing to want ol knowledge of the real significance of some ritualistic practices.”

The manifesto proceeds to investigate the views of those who use the eucharistic vestments, and those who want to do so, and argues that they stand for “doctrines that the papacy has accepted, defined, and authorised.’’ These same doctrines, it is contended, have been branded by the Church of England as “blasphemous fables,’’ and “pernicious impostures.” The manifesto asks : “How can \ve retain these words, and at the same time accept the invitation so complacently tendered us by five of our bishops to look upon, as innocent and fanciful, vestments which symbolise doctrines so sternly denounced by the thirty-first article?” After dealing at length with the constitutional position of the Church in New Zealand, and with alleged “attempts to alter fundamentals,” the manifesto refers to the powers said to have been assumed by the episcopate. In this connection, special reference is made to the “Order of the Good Shepherd” in Auckland, which is characterised as an institution that “goes on under an unlawful constitution containing what many members of the Church believe to be ufichristian and unnatural rules for the control of women-”

Summarising the views of the council, the manifesto says ; V‘There is, in England, a widespread movement, generally deemed and called a conspiracy, to Romanise the national Church. The germ of this pestilent thing has reached our land. There are clergy among us, few, we are glad to think, who know well what it means, and yet are prepared, when they deem the time ripe, to go the full length of reunion with Rome, on Rome’s terms. Others, not so far advanced, are found striving to lead their people in the attempt to discover forced meanings in the sacraments and ceremonies of the Church, which do violence to the plain terms of her articles, and to the clearly expressed intentions of the compilers of the Prayer Book. A third section, made up mainly of young men, who know little, and seem to care less, about the principles that lie at the roots of churchmanship, follow the newest ecclesiastical fashion in doctrine, and in ritual, so long as it carries the approval ot their superiors,”