LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
NATIONAL CHURCHMANSHIP.
[To TILE EDITOR OF THE SPECTATOR."1
But,—Mr. Healy's proposal to limit the franchise for the National Synod and other representative Church bodies to those parishioners who pay the Church-rate (where levied) seems a sug- gestion of no little value ; and the Council of the National Church Reform Union will take into consideration the possi- bility of introducing this provision into the Church Boards Bill, which will be again brought in next Session.
The practical objections to the open " Ratepayer franchise," at present adopted in that Bill, have never been ignored by its supporters ; though, on the other hand, as upholders of the historic National Church of England, in which every parishioner possesses his priviliges who does not deliberately renounce them, they have always been loth to propose any test of Church membership based upon human opinion, or upon this or that formula of man's devising.
Contribution to the Church-rate, where levied, surely offers a practicable working-test of national Churchmanship. It is a test which, instead of assuming a parishioner to be outside the Church till he avers his membership, assumes him to be inside until he declines his privilege. And this is in complete accord- ance with the law, the custom, and the history of the National Church.
Again, no novel principle nor new machinery is involved. Despite the " Compulsory Church Rates Abolition Act (1868)," the ancient custom of a rate voted in vestry meeting to pro- vide the necessaries for religious worship stands as good as ever. All that has been abolished is the power to enforce payment by process of law. In the introduction of the principle of lay re- presentation into the National Church, which is essential to its continuance, its growth, and its vitality, there could be no fairer winnowing-fan to exclude, where found, essentially antagonistic or indifferent parishioners than the test of a Church-rate. The rate need not be more than nominal. In cases it might prove a preferable alternative to pew-rents. The parish church, its ministrations, and its minister would still remain at the service of all ; bat only those who contribute, where called on, would claim a direct voice in parochial management. There could be no better basis for the ecclesiastical franchise in a Church which claims first to be National than a ratepayer suffrage, guarded with the equitable and logical qualification that when a Church-rate has been levied by the parish within twelve months past, the ratepayer must for Church purposes be also a Church-rate payer.—I am, Sir, &c., [If the rate were purely nominal, it would be no longer a guarantee of real adhesion to the Church; while if it were sub- stantial, it might, and often would, exclude the poor.—ED. Spectator.]
Previous page
