BISHOP JENNER'S PROTEST.

Westport Times, Volume III, Issue 503, 13 May 1869, Page 3

BISHOP JENNER'S PROTEST.

Bishop .Tenner has written to the Rev Mr. Edwards, of Dunedin, the following letter : —My Dear Mr Edwards, —My claim remains exactly as it did before the assemblage of the Synod. Eor ail that has been said or done, I maintain that the Church in New Zealand is no less bound than she was before, formally to assign to me spiritual jurisdiction over the Diocese for which I was concecrated; and that to evade this obligation is quite as discreditable now as it would have been a year, or two years ago. And if it be contended, as iudeed it has been, that the obligation has been abrogated by any acts of mine, I claim and demand that these acts be specified and described with all possible accuracy, so that it may be known without possibility of mistake, what I have done, or taught, or said, which by the law of the Church, in England or New Zealand, can be visited with penal consequences. It is this tbat I challenge my accusers, not for the first time, to prove; and if they will only undertake the proof, I, for my part, will pledge myself to throw no obstacles in their way. They have refused more than one fair offer—will they refuse this ? lam willing in order to facilitate the course that I propose for their adoption, to plead guilty to allmost all the charges that have been, and to others that might be, brought against me. Eor example, I will even admit the accuracy of Mr Toung's highly coloured report of whathe saw and heard at St Matthias's, Stoke Newington, and of his interview with the late Archbishop of Canter bury. I will not impugn the authenticity of the " fancy report " of a certain confirmation address of mine, or of my Whitwell sermon. I will acknowledge that I have over and over again given direct encouragement and sympathy to men who are called " ultraritualists." I will confess, moreover, that on many occasions, before and after my consecration, I officiated in churches where the plainest rules of the Church are habitually ignored; where, e.g., "no declaration "is ever made of holy days and of festive days to be observed ; where no services are ever held except on Sundays ; where the bread and wine for holy communion are never placed on the holy table by the priest at the time specified by the Eubric ; where the offertory sentences and the prayer for the whole state of Christ's Church Militant are never read, unless there is a communion; where holy baptism is never administered at the time appointed, and where a vestment unknown to the Church law is always worn by the preacher. Against any charge of countenancing irregularities such as these, I will solemnly pledge myself to offer no defence. And if it be held by whatever tribunal may be selected —and this I leave to my accusers —that I have herein been guilty of offences against Church-law and order, such as would render meliable|toeeclesiastical censure, I undertake, without appealing, to surrender all claims to the See of Dunedin. If my opponents have any sense of honor or of justice remaining, they will surely not reject such a proposal as this. If they do, here is another ; I will consent to a reference of the whole case to any three Bishops of the Church of England, leaving the selection to the opposition, and I will pledge myself to abide by their decision.