SECTARIAN ANGLICANISM.
[TO THE EDITOR OP THE " SPECTLTOR."3
Sin,—It may seem presumptuous to speak when such doughty champions are in the field, but may I, as a rank-and-file member of the Church of England Missionary Society, try to put a drop of oil on the water ? The spiritual activities of the Archbishop of York and the Bishop of Birmingham differ in their special direction from those of Canon Henson ; but will not a little keener insight disarm the antagonism ? The Bishops in question are striving to deepen the conception of the Church of Christ as a divinely organised body, with definite memberships and functions of divine appointment and ordination, and to quicken and strengthen and enlarge the definite response to the insistent call for common service which membership in a corporate body entails. They are seeking to work intensively; the Canon, whose efforts are extensive in their character, is inclined to regard their work as narrow and exclusive in its tendency. But it is not so necessarily. The Bishops would recognise every baptised person as a member of the Church of Christ; but they insist with earnestness that the membership is seriously defective if it does not recognise the corporate side of the Church's character, and if it fails to respond to the calls which membership in a corporate body always entails. They do not ignore the fact of our divisions, or the sadness of them. Each sphere of activity has its special dangers, and Canon Henson, like all of us, has a keen faculty for seeing the dangers of other people. But you, Sir, will, I trust, try to help us to see the good on both sides, to work hard each according to the measure of our light, and to love one another. The needs of the day are grave beyond words, too grave to justify any weakening through internal dissension.-1 am, Sir,
[We trust that Mr. Haigh is a true interpreter of the position occupied by the Archbishop of York and the Bishop of Birmingham.—ED. Spectator.;
Previous page
