The Lambeth Report
ALL those who heard the great sermon preached in St. Paul's by the Archbishop of York at the opening of the Lambeth Conference, with its solemn emphasis on the over-ruling action of God, must have felt that the Bishops set out upon their task with a commission to recall our generation to a new sense of the unsearchable mysteries of the spiritual world, the vivid reality of the Divine. Even the most sympathetic reader of the Report and its accompanying documents will hardly maintain that this great opportunity has been taken. Perhaps no body of leaders trying to speak with one voice could hope to take it ; for the proclamation of absolutes is the function of the prophetic soul, not that of the conscientious overseers of an institutional group. The sub-alpine pastures of the Holy Mountain must inevitably be a chief centre of interest for the assembled Shepherds of the Church. But how much more attractive those pastures might appear to those who still avoid them, did their appointed guardians point out, beyond the hayfields and the cowsheds, the solemn beauty of Holiness, the splendour of the everlasting snows. The genius of Anglicanism, said a recent convert to the Roman Church, tends to produce worthies rather than saints. Regarded as an expression of the Anglican mind, the Report encourages this depressing view. For sanctity is concerned with the " numinous " and its absolute claim upon men ; and there are few hints of the numinous here. The theological background, whether implied or expressed, appears to be that immanental conception of Christian theism, made familiar by current apologetic. The " vertical movement " is at a discount ; the " horizontal " has it all its own way. In the encyclical the Bishops roundly state their belief that we " must humanize religion if we would commend it to our genera- tion," and almost approach eighteenth-century standards in their avoidance of other-worldliness. This anthropo- centric temper, however, is more strongly marked in that document than in the concise and workmanlike Resolutions which accompany it ; whilst the full Report upon the Doctrine of God, though certainly deficient on the supernatural side, at least gives a full and reasoned account of the case for natural theology.
Turning to the special subjects which were before the Conference, we find first a strong statement of " the duty of thinking and learning as essential elements in the Christian life." The failure of the Church is felt to be at least in part an intellectual failure. Indeed, in one paragraph learning appears to be placed on an equality with " spiritual power " in the equipment of the priest— a value-judgment which history does little to support. The need of improved and enlightened theological education for both clergy and laity, if they are to main- tain religious freshness, and bring their faith into a living harmony with modern thought, is rightly stressed. We are reminded that :
" Christianity, more than any other of the great religions, has undergone tho discipline of contact with scientific methods of thought, and emerges therefrom still strong to redeem and to inspire."
The intellectual outlook implied by the Report, and the practical proposals embodied in it, do much to acquit the official Church of those charges of obscurantism, mental sloth, and puritanic moralism often brought against it. The admirable Report upon youth should be read by everyone, and not judged by the singularly unfortunate passage which the encyclical devotes to this subject. For the first time, official approval is extended to direct spiritual work, such as preaching or conducting retreats, by women other than ordained Deaconesses
the quiet introduction of a far-reaching reform. The section dealing with Sex and Marriage has naturally received disproportionate attention ; but here again no one should form a judgment on its recommendations without careful study of the detailed Report ; a remark- ably candid review of the present situation, and the way in which the Christian mind should deal with it, which justifies and explains the more controversial resolutions adopted by the Conference. Here we find the germ of great changes in the orthodox attitude towards sex ; an attitude which has been one of the great barriers to understanding between Christians and other " men of good will." Sex, say the Bishops, is essentially holy ; and it is an imperative duty to educate all children in its meaning and use, that they may be prepared for the responsibilities of adult life. They go on to set forth a view of marriage which is at once Christian and modern ; and tempered by a charity which acknowledges the existence of hard cases and the need of a certain merciful elasticity which shall yet not imperil the fundamental principles of Catholic ethics. It is easy here to charge the Conference with opportunism ; but a sympathetic reading of the Report shows the grave sense of responsibility with which they have dealt with this, the most difficult single problem that was before them. On another great interest of the modern world they speak with equal firmness and courage :
" War, as a method of settling international disputes, is incom- patible with the teaching and example of Our Lord Jesus Christ ... as the Christian conscience has condemned infanticide and slavery and torture, it is now called to condemn war."
Surely St. Francis congratulated George Fox, when the news of this declaration reached the Rose of Paradise. And arising from it is the reminder that it is a part of the duty of all Christians to foster inter-racial sympathy and friendship by every means in their power. Here the Church must educate her own members, before she can reprove the world ; it must surely have been with a sense of shame that the Bishops found it necessary to lay down the ruling that " no one should be excluded from worship in any church on account of colour or race," nor may " the ministrations of the clergy ever be rejected on these grounds."
We have said nothing of the subject which for many people was the greatest issue before the Conference ; Christian Unity, and in particular the proposals known as the South India scheme. These proposals are in their nature too technical for discussion in a general article. But if they are to be seen in their true context they must be viewed side by side with the important movement towards full reunion with the Eastern Orthodox Church, which was made by the Conference in its demand for the appointment of a joint Doctrinal Commission, to examine the theological points at issue between these two great branches of Christendom. Here we see the Lambeth Conference of 1930 holding out hands of fellowship on one side to the representatives of historic tradition ; and on the other to those who are working for new conditions still to be. By such a recognition both of history and of novelty, it surely proves its possession of the characters of true life.
Previous page
