ANGLO-CATHOLIC THREAT

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 468, 25 September 1928, Page 9

ANGLO-CATHOLIC THREAT

WILL LEAVE THE CONGRESS OBJECTION TO A MODERNIST (United Service) LONDON, Monday. Lord Halifax, leader of the AngloCatholics, and 724 clergymen have written a joint letter to the Bishop of Gloucester, Dr. A. C. Headlam, threatening to withdraw from the Church Congress and to persuade others not to attend. The writers object to Dr. H. G. A. Major, editor of the “Modern Churchman,” speaking at the congress. They declare that his views are shocking and only to be described as a “perversion of the gospels.” The “Daily News” says the objection is a new heresy hunt. It understands that Dr. Major’s address, relating to the Anglican interpretation of the doctrines of Christianity, dealt with the matter in a non-controversial way.

PRAYER BOOK PROBLEM SIGNIFICANT DECLARATION (Australian and N.Z. Press LONDON, Monday. The Bishop of Durham, Dr. Hensley Henson, in the course of a sermon yesterday, argued that the State has no right to interfere with the Church in spiritual affairs. Dr. Henson’s declaration is specially significant because 43 archbishops and bishops are to meet at Lambeth Palace on Tuesday to discuss the situation which has arisen out of the rejection of the Prayer Book measure by Parliament. The bishops are expected to appoint a committee of statesmen and churchmen to consider the readjustments

necessary to determine the relations between the Church and the State. But a more immediate problem is the question how to regularise public worship so as to prevent the Anglican Church lapsing into Congregationalism. LEGAL ACTION POSSIBLE The bishops may agree to permit variations in the service and occasional offices in the new Prayer Book, to which Parliament did not object. The difficulty is that the Anglo-Cath-olic clergy may be unwilling to surrender the practices they have been permitted to use by the various bishops for 25 years. On the other hand, the Protestant societies, backed as they believe by Parliament, may take legal action. A series of prosecutions would be a grievous calamity and would greatly hamper the Church.