MISSION OF REPENTANCE AN]) HOPE.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."]
Ent,—I have the permission of the Archbishop of Canterbury to send yen a copy of a letter recently addressed to him and also a copy of his reply. The letter was signed almost exclusively by laymen.—I am, Sir, &a, T. ID. Holmium,
&cannot Park, near Macclesfield.
Hon. Secretary to the Signatories,
NY LORD ARCHBISHOP 07 CANTERBURY,
The signatories of this letter are deeply interested in the National Mission of Repentance and Hope initiated by your Grace and adopted, after full consideration, by the Church of England through its repre- sentatives. They understand that the main object of the Mission is the senewal of Repentance and Hope within the Church itself, so that the Church may do its duty by the nation.
We venture to press on your Grace that this opportunity should be fully utilised for urging the whole Church, Bishops, Clergy, and laity alike, to take a far more definite lino than they have hitherto taken in advocating and personally supporting well-considered, organised action for ameliorating the conditions of life of their poorer fellow-citizens. If it were pressed on Churchmen by your Grace, and by all the authorities of tho Church, that such service of the poor and suffering is the truest service of their Master, we believe that Churchmen in general would gladly use their great collective and individual influence and votes and efforts in the direction of many social reforms. At present many of them are held back by the fear that they will be thought to be " inter- fering in politics." No preventive measures can be effected except through the State or Local Authorities, and part of what construetive action is needed can also be effected only by, or with the aid of, the State or Local Authorities; and, therefore, many such measures must be, in a sense, political. It Reeds, we are persuaded, to be impressed on the Church as a whole, that ft is not only not precluded from such politics, but that our duty to our Master calls us to a far more general, avowed, intelligent, and active participation in pressing such measures. It is not necessary to go into detail. We have in mind such difficult but all-important questions as the extension of Trade Boards, tem- perance, town-planning, housing, care of infants, and maternity, &e. It la the conviction, we believe, of lay Churchmen generally, as well as of very many who are not Churchmen, that a more courageous and chival- rous attitude on the part of the Church, from the highest to the lowest of Ks members, would be a better fulfilment of its duty, and would increase Its influence. It would, moreover, eventually lead to, what we earnestly desire, a hearty co-operation in the sight of the whole nation between Churchmen and Christians of other denominations.
We should have obtained many more signatories to this letter, did we not feel sure that your Grace would be more influenced by its contents than by the names at its foot. We have the honour to be, Your Grace's faithful Servants,
Lambeth Palate, S.E.
4th August, 1916. Ifir BEAR Mn. HOESFALL,—I am exceedingly glad to have the letter which you and your co-signatories send me. It is, as you rightly say, a main object of the National Mission to renew Repentance and Hope within the Church itself that the Church may do its duty by the Nation.
The Repentance which we desire to make will most certainly embrace, N I have any claim to be a true interpreter, a confession of deficiency and shortcoming on the part of laity and clergy in the carrying out of our Lord's command to love our neighbours as ourselves. And the Hope to which we wish to witness is the splendid hope of making Christ Lord of all human life, a hope moreover which lays upon us, as Churchmen, sesponsibilities of the most strenuous character in questions of inter- national, national, and civie welfare.
In these months which precede the actual delivery of what we may g all the Message of the Mission, it is our endeavour to recall the minds of Churchmen in the most urgent way to the first principles of the Christian Faith, and so to create an atmosphere in which the application of these principles in private and public, life may be worked out with wisdom, ' enrage, and self-sacrifice. I am myself most anxious that all Churchmen should enter Into the tali social and political life of the whole community ; and I trust that one result of the Mission may be a far greater concern for the lives and fortunes of the poor and suffering, a deeper knowledge and a more per- sistent and definite share in what you describe as "well-considered, sagaaised action for ameliorating the conditions of life of their, poorer Isllow-eitizens." The details of such sharing will require study in which men like you can render foremost service ; but an instructed conscience will swiftly lead to right action.
There are many social reforms upon which we shall, I hope and believe, be able to present a practically united front, and much social work—e.g., in some of the practically but all-important questions" described in your letter, towards which we can all help ; and I hope that the National Mission may lead us Churchmen to start again and give this help in the best and most useful ways we can find.—I am, Yours
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