Men for the Ministry
SIR.—The Reverend Bernard Croft seems to throw all the blame for anomalies in the Church of England on the bishops. But surely he must know that thirty years ago the Church Assembly was established with the express purpose of dealing with anomalies in the administrative system of the Church. So for whatever avoidable abuses which remain today the two elected houses of clergy and laity in the Assembly must take their share of the blame together with the bishops. To blame the bishops alone is not only unjust but a gross over simplifying of the problem.
Mr. Croft calls upon the bishops to concentrate on the problem of man-power. We all hope that they are doing this already. But I rather suspect that the sort of reforms he envisages would mean a substantial modification of the parson's freehold, if not its abolition, to say nothing of benefice endowments. These more than anything else make a whole- sale and radical redistribution of man-power by the episcopacy or by any other body impracticable, as Mr. Croft would know full well if he had any experience of finding new spheres of work for clergymen. I do not intend to embark on a discussion of the merits or demerits of the freehold, but I would suggeit that if, as a preliminary to reform, the bishops announced their intention of assailing it, the majority of the beneficed clergy would be rushing to the barricades within twenty-four hours.
Bishop-baiting is one of the oldest of our national sports, and doubtless like other forms of recreation it has its value as a safety valve. But the cause of the Church is hardly furthered when the bishops as a body are represented by some of the clergy to the world as a crowd of selfish, indifferent blockheads, when in fact they are nothing of the sort. The burden of the parochial clergy is a very heavy one at the moment, but the bishops are not responsible for it and most of them (including Mr. Croft's own Diocesan who has four hundred parishes to superintend) are striving against enormous difficulties to lighten it for them.
An independent and vigorous body of parochial clergymen, if true to the traditions of the Anglican Church, will always be ready to resist prelacy and to criticise . episcopal mistakes without fear or favour whenever they are made. But when we do decide to criticise let us be sure of our facts and let us, above all things, be just.—Yours Archdeacon of Newark and Vicar of Upton, Notts.
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