20 SEPTEMBER 1919, Page 3

The Times has recently published several important letters on the

" interchange of pulpits." The Bishop of Norwich put forward a scheme, worded with notable care and moderation, for regulating this interchange of pulpits between Churchmen and Nonconformists. During and since the war such an inter- change has become much more frequent than formerly. Seven well-known Free Churchmen have consented to accept all the conditions proposed by the Bishop of Norwich. It may be pointed out that the Bishop of Norwich provided that there should be no challenge to the episcopal order of the Church of England. All he wants is that the underlying unity of Christians, which the ordinary man is always prepared to assert in the face of sacerdotal narrowness and intolerance, should be made an official reality. The Bishop of Manchester dissented only because he wanted much more than the Bishop of Norwich's small scheme. Bishop Gore dissented completely because he believes—with the enthusiasm and the intense honesty of the real priestly fanatic, be it-said—that the Church of England can have no dealings with those bodies which seceded from the Church without compromising her faith and her tradition.