THE PROPOSED CHURCH COUNCIL
[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR:1
SIR,—Canon Rashdall has little difficulty in finding points of detail to criticize in the proposals of the Archbishops' Committee on Church and State. May I venture to suggest that the unsatisfactory nature of the Committee's scheme is due to the fact that it is an attempt to combine two incompatible things—the principle of a National Church and the self-government proper to a sect ? Tho essence of the sehems is that the present clerical Convocations, with the infusion of a lay element carefully filtered through subordinate Church Councils, should be invested with statutory power. It can hardly be doubted that the effect of such a system would be to bring about what you, Sir, call " the narrowing of the Church." The central Church Council would almost certainly, as Dr. Rashdall warns us, try to get rid of any remnants of State control still loft standing, such as the existing Church Courts and the appointment of Bishops by the Crown. And how could Parlia- ment resist such changes, after setting up a representative Assembly entitled to speak for the Church ? It is to be feared that Homo Rule for the Church, like Home Rulo for Ireland, would create more diffi- culties than it would solve. It is only plausible if the terms of the settle. ment aro so ambiguous or complicated as on the one hand to lead Churchmen of the school of Bishop Gore to believe that they will get their way and enjoy what is described as spiritual independence, and on the other hand to lead English Christians generally to believe that the supremacy of the national Legislature in matters of religion will not
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