THE ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8173, 5 July 1906, Page 5

THE ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY.

Received July 4, 9.26 p.m. LONDON, July 4. The Archbishop of Canterbury has addressed a letter to the members of Convocation and the House of Laymen, appealing for support in an endeavour to end a situation which is well-nigh intolerable. He states that it isabuudautly clear that it is neither possible nor desirable to secure observance in .the twentieth century of detailed rubrics which were prepared in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. (There are two Convocations, or Provincial Synods, of the olergy of the Churoh of England for the two Provinces of Canterbury and York. The greater importance of the Synod of Canterbury, until recent years, has led to its beiug uommonly spokoo of aa Convocation. It was silenced in 1717, aui its meetings were, with few exceptions, merely formal until 1852, from which date it has regularly met for business, generally thrice yearly for a week at a time. It consists of two Houses. In the Upper House sit tho Archbishop and Bishops of the province in their soarlet Convocation robes; in the Lower House, tho Deans, Archdeacons, and Proctors eleoted to represent the cathedral chapters and the beneficed clergy. The members of the Lower House wear the academic dress, the doctors their scarlet gowns. With every new Parliament a new Convocation is summoned by the Archbishop in obedience to a royal writ. Where the law of the Church has been settled by statute—as is the case with the rubrics and services of the Prayerbook, and many other matters—it cannot be altered without the authority of Parliament The first House of Laymen for the Province of Canterbury assembled with the Houses cf Convocation at the opening of the Parliament of 1886. Ibis composed of tan representatives from the diocesan conferences of London, nix each from Winchester, Rochester, Lichfield, Worcester, and four eaoh from the remaining dioceses of the province. To the representative body so formed the Piimate may add 10 laymen by nomination. The House is bound to avoid disoussions upon doctrine. Like Convocation, the House of Laymen is eleoted with every fresh Parliament.