NONCONFORMISTS AND INDIVIDUALISM. [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR ,—While
not wishing to intervene in the discussion con- cerning Prayer-book Revision, may I, as a Congregationalist reader of your excellent paper, venture to demur to the description of Nonconformity contained in Mr. Massingham's, article in your issue of April 19th ? Referring to those English churchmen who dislike the proposals of the extreme " Catholic " section, he says : " Nonconformity chills them, even repels them. It is the individualist's creed, and in religion at least these men are not individualists."
This surely is a strange travesty of our position. In what sense can Nonconformity fairly be regarded as in- dividualist ? Surely in no other sense than that we do not repress but welcome private judgment in matters theological. If this is our individualism, Mr. Massingham himself ought to be among us, for in the same article he gives at some length his own individual judgments, mostly negative, it is true, but still his own. In religion, however, we most certainly are not individualists ; for our conception of the Church is one that demands corporate inquiry and witness. Copec is indeed essentially a Congregational church- meeting, and Copec is certainly not individualistic.—I am,
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