CROSSING THE RUBICON

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 235, 23 December 1927, Page 1

CROSSING THE RUBICON

Dean Inge on Prayer Book

RECALLS THE RACK AND STAKE

By Cable.—Press Association. — Copyright. Received 10.30 a.m. LONDON, Thursday. "AS soon as the reservation of the sacred elements is legalised, the Church of England ceases to be Protestant. The rubicon is crossed, and the Reformation is repudiated. Four hundred years ago our ancestors went to the rack and stake for Protestantism.”

TT'HTJS Dean W. R. Inge, who, in the “Evening Standard,” says the bishops have brought defeat upon themselves. If they had stuck to the first undertaking, not to disturb the doctrinal balance of the Church of England, and confine themselves to removing archaisms and stumblingblocks to the moral and intellectual conscience of to-day, they might have had more difficulty in steering the measure through the Church Assembly, but the Prayer Book would have met no ’opposition in Parliament. The bishops, however, conceived

the curious notion that they might discourage burglary by legalising petty larceny. The bishops will meet on January 1, to discuss what changes to submit to the Church Assembly in February, as designed to remove the misapprehensions ot the House of Commons, and more clearly and explicitly to outline the Book’s intentions and limitations. SECRET NEGOTIATIONS The “Daily Express” understands that Church leaders have been engaged in unofficial secret negotiations with Sir W. Joynson-Hicks, and his Parliamentary supporters, with the object of reaching an agreement satisfactory to the Commons. This is stated to be an explanation of the delay in the issue of a Church pronouncement. The negotiations have been carried on by a sub-committee consisting of the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, and the Bishop of London, who will report on Thursday. The bishops will then consider whether the terms of the negotiations are acceptable. If they are approved, steps will be taken to revise the measure to the extent necessary to secure a Parliamntary majority. Anglo-Catholics who have learned of the negotiations are disturbed over what they describe as the “secret diplomacy policy of Lambeth Palace ” —A. and N.Z.-Sun.