CHURCH UNION.

Shannon News, 31 March 1922, Page 4

CHURCH UNION.

Important Progress Made.

AGREEMENT ON THE EPISCOPACY

Sydney, March 30. The conference of Church delegates continued the discussion on whether the Episcopacy should be forced on all churches in the event of a union, or whether a modus operandi he found between Episcopacy and Presbyterianism. A motion was carried that, in view of all the circumstances, it is expedient that the policy of the re-united Catholic Church be episcopal, provided that the appointment of Bishops be shared in by the ministry and laity, that in all administrative actions the Bishop be responsible to a representative assembly, synod or conference, that the acceptance of the Episcopacy does not necessarily., imply that ministerial authority cannot otherwise he obtained, or that the Episcopacy is the only channel of Divine grace. A motion was also carried welcoming the assurance implied in the Lambeth appeal that each group would be free to retain its own characteristic method of worship and service so long as it is not inconsistent with the fellowship of the whole.

The Anglican, Presbyterian, Congregational and Churches ate. taking.,part, in the conference. Apart from the much-vexed question : of the origin of episcopacy, the system represents a special conception of the Church. In the fully developed'episcopal system the bishop sums up in his person the collective powers of the church in his diocese; and m view of those who believe in the apostolic succession these powers are .conferred by the laying on of hands of bishops who themselves received consecration from bishops, and so on in unbroken line from the apostles. There are, however, those who deny this doctrine, and yet believe that episcopacy is the best form of government for the Church. That position was taken up by Dr. Hatch in his book on episcopacy. In many branches of the Anglican Church' (in Scotland, e.g., and in some of the colonial Churches]", while episcopacy is ‘looked upon as the essence of a Church, the actual government of the Church is in ’effect democratic, and is largely carried out by the Councils on which sit both clergy and laity.