2 FEBRUARY 1934, Page 2

The Freedom of the Church In his address to the

Convocation of the Northern Provinee the Archbishop of York dealt with his accus- tomed Wisdom with the Liverpool Cathedral case in a survey which did much to clarify the issues still to be decided. The invitation to a Unitarian Minister to preach at one of the regular cathedral services is con- demned by the Bishop and now regretted by the Dean, who issued it. The question remaining is 'whether the approval given by Convocation to occasional invitations to "members of Christian communities " to speak or offer prayer in Churches (outside the regular services) can be held to cover Unitarians like Dr. L. P. Jacks, who-. spoke • at three such services at 8.30 on Sunday evenings in Liverpool Cathedral. That has still to be decided and the Archbishop expressed no definite opinion regarding it. The most important feature of his address was his demand for liberty for the Church to revise its own canons in accordance with changing thought and the needs of the day. It may be noted in that con- nexion that the Bishop of Exeter, in the Southern Province, has just observed that he fully approves the invitation extended by the Dean to Free Church Ministers to preach in the cathedral, but that it- is in fact illegal. Lord Cecil's committee on Church and State will no doubt raise the question of new legislation directly.

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