High Church Anglicans and the Coronation Service.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXX, Issue 32, 7 August 1902, Page 2

High Church Anglicans and the Coronation Service.

One cannot help respecting the earnestness and zeal which usually characterise the clergy of the High Church persuasion, but we confess that our admiration is tempered by a feeling of chronic wonder at the tenacity with which they cling to a theological position which all the world, except themselves, can see to be utterly untenable. They remain members of a Church which is manifestly and unquestionably Protestant both in name and in reality, and yet manage to make themselves believe they are Catholic, and make pathetic attempts to persuade the rest of the world also of their Catholicity. Their latest effort in this direction has been made in connection with the Order of Service recommended by the Bishop of London for use on Coronation day. In connection with this Order the following letter has been sent to the London Press :—: —

'Sir, — We ask you of your courtesy to allow us to say that, with the deepest regret, we shall be unable to use the Order of Service recommended for use on the Coronation day, as it now stands. In this Order, the minister is directed to inform the people, amongst other details, that the King has taken the Oath to maintain " the Protestant Reformed Religion established by Law." Whatever may have been the signification of the term " Protestant," either originally or at the period when it was first introduced into the Coronation Oath, it has acquired an extended meaning, in which it is popularly takrn as opposed to " Catholic."

'To inform the people that the King has taken an Oath in the above terms will, probably, create an erroneous impression that the religion of the Church of England is in some way opposed to Primitive and Catholic antiquity. It should be remembered that the term " Protestant" was not introduced into the Oath at the time of the Reformation, but at the coronation of William and Mary in 1689 — more than a century later. It nowhere occurs, either in the Prayer Book, the Thirty-Nine Articles, or any other authoritative formulary of the Church of England to which we have given our assent. ' We are, Sir, jour obedient servants, ' T. W. Belcher, Willoughby Carter, E. Vernon Collins, Edward Denny, S. Baring Gould, F. F. Irving, W. H. H. Jervois, G. Arthur Jones, G. G. Kemp, T. A. Lacey, G. C. Ommanney, C. J, Ridsdale, G. Ba> field Roberts, W. J. Scott, W. Frank Shaw, R. A. J. Sucking, H. N. Thompson, Lincoln S. Wainvvright, Harry Wilson, Edmund G. Wood.'

This repudiation, however well-meant it may be, will deceive nobody, and v\ill, of course, pass without any practical effect, except to emphasise the inconsistency of the signatories in trying to profess Catholic principles and yet remaining members of a Protestant Church. All roads, it is said, lead to Rome, and it is jnst possible that this Accession Oath and Coronation Service, like the famous Gorham judgment of 50 years ago, may serve to bring home to advanced Anglicans the essentially human origin of their Church and the hopeless inconsistency and illogicalness of the position they are in.