THE LAMBETH REUNION PROPOSALS.
(To TM EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR.")
Sra,—At the urgent request of my friend, the Rev. J. E. Rattenbury, head of the West London Mission, founded by my friend and former colleague, the Rev. Hugh Price Hughes, 1 write this letter. Mr. Rattenbury is anxious that I should place on record the views expressed to me in the strongest terms by Mr. Hughes, which bear directly on the report of the Lambeth Conference. The occasion was in 1893, on my resig- nation as a Wesleyan minister, when Archdeacon Farrar had suggested that I should become his curate at St. Margaret's, Westminster, and Bishop Temple was willing to ordain me. Mr. Hughes held that individuals as such should not submit to ordination, but that any such action should be entered into only as between " high contracting parties." Dr. Berry was present at these discussions, and agreed with him. In the Conference on Reunion, over which I presided in 1892-5, he again and again expressed his definite willingness, as one of a corporate body, to accept the episcopate, and even, if necessary, reordination, to bring peace to the divided Church. As Dr. MacFadyen has pointed out, Dr. Mackennal was prepared to accept reordination on such a basis as the Lambeth Conference has suggested. Dr. Berry, Mr. Hughes, and Dr. Mackennal were three out of the first four Presidents of the National Free Church Council.—I am, Sir, &c., HENRY S. LUNY. Oldfield House, Harrow.
Previous page
