REVISED PRAYER BOOK

Shannon News, 1 July 1927, Page 1

REVISED PRAYER BOOK

Bishop Ingram Criticised “MEN WHO ARE NOT LOYAL” LONDON. May IS. Sir William Joynnson-Hicks, who presided at the annual meeting of the National Church League, referred to the Revised Prayer Book, which, he said, was admittedly a compromise between the Evangelical Church and the extreme Anglo-Catholics, and, as a compromise, could please neither. In the course of a reference to the Bishop of London, Sir William was saying that those who knew the bishop as a personal friend welcomed him back from his world tour, when his remarks were interrupted by certain derisive comments from members of the audience. _ , “But I must say this.” the speaker proceeded, “that the bishop has filled the diocese of London with men who are not loyal to the Church’s faith. Let him alter that practice.” At this point a woman was heard to shout, “Throw him out of the Church—-the best thing we can do for him” —(hear, hear) —to v’hich Sir William replied: “I want no hard words said against His Lordship, but I want him and his eo-blshops to realise that we have rights as great as they; that oui faith is as loyal as theirs, and we look to them, our fathers in God, to see ; to it that this practice is discontinued, and that mety arc not promoted to the higher positions in the Church unless they are prepared to be the real doctrine and faith of the Church of England.” “One Side or the. Other.”

“Wo wore born and abide in a Church with fixed doctrines, settled for us at the time of the Reformation,” Sir William went on. “There may be an attempt-at forcible imposition of another set of ■ doctrines in' the Churcrh but there can be no compromise as ! to whether these doctrines are right or wrong.” He said he ,had asked the Archbishop of Canterbury whether an assurance would be given by the bishops that the present revision of the Prayer Book would be ‘final. No such assurance had been forthcoming. All the ing-up was to be oh one side, a**d that was not the side of the AngloCatholics. “Let the bishops come down fairly and squarely on one side of the fence or the other,” Sir William urged. “If they can corns down definitely and say to the Church of England at large that tho Reformation was a mistake, we shall know where we are and I will go out into the wilderness.” -

Views Of Bishop Of Norwich.

The Revised Prayer Book was also criticised by the Bishop of Norwich in a sermon at a -National Church League anniversary service in London. “Now, he said, “the cry is raised, ‘Trust the expert,’ ‘Follow’ the direction of the. doctrinal specialist as he sits in his study,’ ‘Take your lead from the priest as he stands before the altar.’ This morning I am urging that the humble and devout Christian, the unprofessional Churchman, the man in the pew, is fully entitled to have liis owm opinion and to express it. By an instinct of ‘sanctified comfnon sense’ simple people -often go to tho, heart of a matter.

“We cannot, I urge, di\«st ourselves of our own responsibility in regard to the way in W'hich we bow to authority; that is not an English way of life or of freedom or of worship. We dare not stand aside in silence, if, after carefully weighing the matter, we reach the conclusion that they are wrong; we dare not w r ash our hands of our own duty. I know’ the temptation to do so is very great. It has pressed heavily upon me myself. But I have a larger loyalty than to follow colleagues. The new Prayer Book I fear, tends to exaggerate the inward.”