Слике страница
PDF
ePub

general importance, as they laid down principles affecting the intercommunion of all the variously circumstanced Anglican Churches. Some change of feeling is apparent since the 1867 Conference in this respect. At that time, partly from the difficulties in the Colenso case, and from an unwillingness on the part of some to recognise the independent authority of the provincial action of Colonial Churches, there was a tendency towards centralisation. This time the truer principle of the liberty and rights of the different Churches of our Communion, when formed into provinces, was much more distinctly recognised, and the fact of variety not being inconsistent with genuine organic unity was more distinctly perceived.

At the same time the necessity, which the Church in all ages has acknowledged, of united counsels for the purpose of preserving harmony, alike in principle and in action, was not only confessed, but the gradual development of these Episcopal Conferences into a more truly and definitely representative form is clearly pointed to as the safest solution of the difficulties of the question. The results of this last Conference, as compared with that of 1867, mark a real growth of opinion in this direction, and are hopeful and encouraging. Certainly there has never since primitive times been so distinct a proof given to the world of the fact that the true unity of the Church requires no visible centre either for its manifestation or for its exercise.

The last Report of the series was that respecting which at the time most anxiety was felt, since under its very general heading questions might have been introduced, and some actually were introduced, of the utmost difficulty and importance, and respecting which there were sure to be the greatest differences of opinion, and this without any notice being given of them, and without any consent of the Conference itself to their introduction. Happily, through the wisdom and moderation which, under the guidance of God's Holy Spirit, directed its counsels, this was not the cause of any disunion, though at one time a division seemed inevitable. But we trust that the experience of the 1878 Conference will prevent the repetition of the perilous experiment. Indeed, the first Report, which refers to the action of future Conferences, suggests a method for the previous choice and arrangement of subjects for discussion which will obviate this danger. The mistake on the last occasion was that a scheme of subjects was prepared by a committee of English Bishops, without any consultation with Bishops of the other Churches, or at least without any power being given to them to introduce subjects. And this scheme was consequently made so vague, especially under its last heading, that almost anything might, at the will of the Committee, have been brought in under its terms, without any notice at all.

Among the very important questions introduced under this head was the relation of the Anglican Communion towards the Old Catholic Body, and the practical method to be adopted for aiding it. This is

1

1 See, for example, the difference between the 1867 Report on Central Court of Appeal, which was due in great measure to the influence of Bishops Wilberforce, Selwyn, and Gray, and the Second Report of 1878.

clearly a question not merely of such abounding interest, but involving such fundamental principles of Church order, that it ought surely to have had a carefully digested Report to itself, instead of being left to be worked out in its application and details to the Prelates selected for that purpose.

IV.

The meeting of the Lambeth Conference leads naturally to the subject of our Colonial and Missionary Churches. It wants still five years before our foreign Episcopate will have completed the first century of its existence; and if its rate of increase was for very many years so slow as to be nearly imperceptible, of late it has been, perhaps, as rapid as is desirable. The Resolutions of the Conference, if only they are loyally followed, or can be enforced where such loyalty does not yet exist, will do much to consolidate and harmonise these growing Churches, of which scarcely any two are in precisely the same stage of development. We confess that we look with some anxiety to the prospect of the Lambeth Resolutions being quietly ignored in certain quarters.

What has been called a 'passion for organisation' is but a synonym for that system by which individual Churches, each instinct with life, and possessed by a keen sense of its necessities, are bound together, and find in such organisation and union their surest defence against secularism in its many forms. It is idle, e.g. to boast of our entire sympathy and full communion with the sister Church of the United States, when we sanction a duplicate organisation and a duplicate Episcopate in the same place. We have always regretted to find American and English congregations placed side by side and yet separate, and liable, but for the good feeling of persons concerned, to be more pointedly separate in Paris or in Rome; but the evil of this is magnified when it comes to separate missions to the heathen, each with its own Bishop at its head. We are thinking at this moment of Japan, where the American Church has had a mission with a Bishop at its head for some dozen years. Five years ago, on the appointment of a Bishop of Victoria-the third occupant of that see-the Primate added to his charge-for a diocese in the strict sense of the word does not exist—all British subjects, members of the Church of England, in Japan, distant from Hong Kong 1,500 miles. The Bishop can only visit Japan triennially, and on those occasions his ignorance of the vernacular must limit his efficient ministrations to the handful of English who form the congregation of the Legation chaplain, and at the same time removes him from his proper duties in China. The clergy in Japan, meanwhile, are, with the single exception of the Legation chaplain, missionaries to the heathen; they form three distinct bodies, the Americans, the Church Missionary Society clergy, and the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel clergy. The first-named have their own Bishop, an accomplished Japanese scholar, always with them; the last-named have been placed under the American Bishop, save in the few weeks of the English Bishop's triennial visit; the Church Missionary Society's elergy are,

except for the same period, autocephalous, or are governed from Salisbury Square. Such an arrangement, or, more strictly, defiance of all arrangement, loudly called for action from the assembled Prelates, and the Resolution declaring it to be 'most undesirable that either Church should for the future send a Bishop or missionaries to a town or district already occupied by a Bishop of another branch of the Anglican Communion' entirely satisfies us; but we repeat our hope that it will be loyally accepted, and, where necessary, enforced. We have noticed with surprise that, since the Lambeth Conference was held, the Bishop of Mauritius has gone, at the request of the Church Missionary Society, and held a Visitation of that Society's Missions at Mombas, which is close to Bishop Steere's head-quarters. Mombas is a very old mission of the Church Missionary Society, and no Bishop of Mauritius, with whose diocese it can have no connexion, has ever visited it before. No one claims territorial jurisdiction for Bishop Steere in the sense in which it is secured to a Bishop in England, but there is a law, higher than letters-patent, which should regulate these things.

In short, Society Bishops are bad in principle, and we hope the race will not be increased; but we hear with some concern that the ill-sounding 'Jerusalem Bishopric Act' is likely to be used for purposes not contemplated by those who passed it, and will provide for the consecration of more Society Bishops in India and other countries.

The changes in the Colonial Churches have been few during the past year. On the festival of the Purification the Rev. H. B. Bousfield was consecrated Bishop of Victoria, and has bravely gone out with wife and family to find his diocese the scene of war, and desolated by drought and famine. On S. Philip and S. James', Dr. Ll. Jones was consecrated Bishop of Newfoundland, and has justified the action of those who selected him, by a fourteen weeks' visitation by sea, in which he was compared by all who came in contact with him not unfavourably with Bishop Feild. On S. John Baptist's Day Dr. Roberts was consecrated Bishop of Nassau, in succession to the beloved Bishop Venables, and the long-hoped-for diocese of North Queensland received a Bishop in the person of Dr. Stanton, who, we learn with regret, took the oath of canonical obedience to Canterbury.

Bishop Oxenden has exchanged the see of Montreal for the chaplaincy of Cannes, and the election of his successor, Dean Bond, has shaken the faith of the most enthusiastic believers in the principle of popular election. The office of Metropolitan is no longer tied to the see of Montreal, neither does it attach itself, as in New Zealand and in the United States, to the senior prelate of the province. In Canada it is to be a matter of election on each vacancy. On the present occasion we hope to see both principles combined, and that the free choice of the Bishops will lighten the venerable Bishop of Fredericton, whose consecration took place in 1845, and who is the sole survivor of his contemporaries of that date.

The Tinnevelly movement,' as the remarkable accessions of inquirers and catechumens in Southern India have for brevity's sake been described, continues, but in reduced volume. Between 30,000

and 40,000 persons have voluntarily submitted themselves to Christian teaching, and Bishop Caldwell asserts of them that so far the new converts are, spiritually and intellectually, 'superior to the old. A similar movement, but on a smaller scale, has taken place in Ahmednuggur, in the diocese of Bombay.

In Madagascar we have observed with much interest a great step that has been made by the Rev. F. A. Gregory, son of the Rev. R. Gregory, Canon of S. Paul's. At a place called Ambatoharanana, a day's journey from the capital, Mr. Gregory has established a theological college, to which he has admitted by competitive examination seven out of fifteen Malagasy candidates for theological training. Their curriculum embraces Pearson On the Creed (which Mr. Gregory has translated), practical and dogmatic theology, Church history, and other subjects, secular and sacred. A quantity of subjects, which has proved a snare to the youth of Madagascar in previous efforts made for their instruction and advancement, has wisely been avoided.

The real progress of the Church's work abroad is often hindered by the complacent optimism of its friends; we desire to avoid this pitfall, and to record our conviction that the cause of the Church is suffering both from the lack and from the abundance of the men whom England sends out to the very hardest work which man can be called upon to do. Work abroad demands the very best men that our highest culture at home can produce; and of this sort, missionary work has very few labourers. The Cambridge Mission to Delhi, in connexion with the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, is a capital specimen of what the personnel of a Mission should be; but well-meaning people, who see in every lad who sings in choir or teaches in the Sunday School an embryo missionary, and who never rest until he has been trained and sent abroad at a cost of some 400/. or 500l. of charitable monies, have a good deal to answer for in respect of our failures. A few very good men will do more than a host of indifferent and half-educated persons; the latter are doomed to mediocrity if not to absolute failure; the former will disregard present small results in comparison with larger results of the future, and in preparing an indigenous ministry, they are securing the ultimate independence of the Church. Thus it is that the work of Bishop Selwyn is still bearing fruit in New Zealand, five Maoris having been ordained within the past year. So it will be, we hope, that from Mr. Gregory's College in Madagascar, those parts of the Island will be evangelised which have invited the Church to come to them, but which there is not yet strength to occupy.

The acquisition of Cyprus, to which island the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel has within the last few days sent a clergyman, may perhaps afford a base of operations for work among the Moslem population in the East, and may also be a link with the efforts being made for the benefit of the so-called Nestorians of Armenia. From the Cape we get news of Dr. J. M. Arnold's work among the Moslems, which is as encouraging as it is unusual, for Mohammedanism does not at present pose itself in an attitude of humble inquiry and docility.

V.

The extent to which the subject of clergy supply has occupied the attention of Churchmen of late years appears to make it desirable that we should henceforward give, year by year, the accurate numbers of the newly-ordained. A year ago, the following calculation appeared in the Guardian newspaper respecting the number of new clergy annually required to maintain the staff of clergy at its proper strength :

Number required to supply death vacancies

[merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][merged small]

460

200

660

As matter of fact, the number of deacons ordained during 1878 was 661, the numbers at the several periods of Ordination being as under :

[blocks in formation]

It may also be worth while to give the numbers for a few preceding years. They are as follows :

[merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors]

But, inasmuch as it may be said that what is really wanted is to know the number, not merely of deacons, but of those who in each year go forward to the priesthood, we will add the corresponding numbers of those ordained priests in the several years :

[merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][ocr errors]

From which it appears that we have more than recovered from the striking diminution in the numbers of candidates for Orders which followed the passing of the Public Worship Regulation Act, and that the number is now fully equal to the calculated number required to fili, not merely the death vacancies, but also the new posts. We are indebted for these figures to the Rev. H. T. Armfield, of Salisbury.

« ПретходнаНастави »