LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
NONCONFORMISTS AND THE COMMUNION.
(TO TR. EDITOR OF TRII "SPROTATOR.")
SIR,—I sincerely trust that your admirable article on this subject in last week's issue will help to remove the general confusion in the public mind about the rubric at the end of the Order of Confirmation as to the admission of the non- confirmed to the Holy Communion. It is quite certain, as the best scholars have maintained, both from the history of the rubric and the nature of the case, that this rubric can have no real reference whatever to Nonconformists. For the question put to confirmands runs thus: "Do ye here in the
presence of God acknowledge yourselves bound to believe and to do, all those things, which your Godfathers and Godmothers undertook for you ? " But Nonconformists have neither godfathers nor godmothers. To ask them, therefore, this question in the presence of God is a solemn absurdity ; for them to answer it in the affirmative is a solemn falsehood. Consequently it is not, strictly speaking, possible for Nonconformists to be confirmed without perpe- trating both a solemn absurdity and a solemn falsehood, unless the form of the question is altered; yet to alter the question, as is commonly, and in my judgment rightly, done in order to enable Nonconformists to be confirmed is a distinct and open violation of Church Orden Thus, whether Noncon- formists are confirmed before admission to the Holy Communion, or are admitted Without Confirmation, a breach of literal discipline may be said to be committed. I incline to think the breach which admits them to Confirmation, though I personally prefer it, is the more definite breach of the two. Both alike point to the necessity for a revision of the Prayer- book to meet the needs of our age, which is in so many respects diverse from that in which the Book took its present form.— I am, Sir, Sm., [We withhold all comment on this most important letter, and on the correspondence generally, till next week, when we shall deal again with the whole subject.—En. Spectator.]
Previous page
