THE TEACHING OFFICE OF THE CHURCH.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."] SIR,—In view of your article upon " The Teaching Office of the Church," which is itself based upon the Report of the Committee appointed by the Archbishops of Canterbury and York as an out- come of the National Mission, may I note one significant and, as it appears to me from the standpoint of a Churchman, unfor- tunate contrast ? It is that, while the Nonconformist Churches have in recent years more closely associated the training of their ministers with the Universities both ancient and modern, the Church of England has at last in some degree divorced the training of her clergy from the Universities. The process of creation or transference by which such institutions as Mansfield College, Cheshunt College, Westminster College, and Manchester College now exist at Oxford or Cambridge, and such institutions as the Lancashire Independent College, the Hartley College, the Baptist College, and the Didabury College exist in or near Manchester, sufficiently indicates the trend of Nonconformist policy. But among the twenty-six Theological Training Colleges of the Church of England there are, I think, only three which belong locally to Oxford and Cambridge, and only one which belongs to Man- chester. Yet it may fairly be expected that the students of theology, who receive their training in or in close contact with a University, especially perhaps one of the ancient Universities, all breathe a wider and freer atmosphere than is possible or probable elsewhere. I do not at all wish to exaggerate the contrast; but it is not unimportant, and it may influence the future both of the Church and of Nonconformity.—I am, Sir, &c.,
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