CHANGES IN THE CHURCH.

Putaruru Press, Volume VII, Issue 287, 9 May 1929, Page 2

CHANGES IN THE CHURCH.

“I cannot dcfiht that thoughtful men will come to see that in "view of the immense changes which have passed over the life both of the nation and of the Church, the relation of the Church and State which reflected the conditions of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries cannot remain unchanged; and also that some effective principle of authority within the Church itself must be accepted if freedom is not to become license and the reality of fellowship within one body is to be maintained. Public worship must be conducted week by week, and we cannot wait for a settlement of 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 cevta'nly not healthy for any society to live in a state of lawlessness; and it is especially unhealthy for the Chueh. For the claim of the law is a moral claim, and it is morally unwholesome to evade it. We have spent much labour in an effort to store the effective reign of law in the Church; that effort has not succeeded; and we are bound by every ccpisidexation of hon-

our as well as of expediency to find the way back to full legality. What that way may be no one now can prophesy. It may be by Disestablish-* ment, and if that is indeed the only way to combine spiritual freedom with the authority of law, then I am sure we ought to accept it.”—The Archbishop ctf Canterbury, Mr Lang.