A FREE CHURCHMAN ON PRAYER BOOK REVISION [To the Editor
of the SPECTATOR.] Sin. Permit me to thank you sincerely for publishing- the Rev. Harold -E. Brierley's lucid and well-balanced opinion on the Composite Prayer Book. He has evidently put on it. proposals the most .faVourable construction of which they admit from the liturgical and devotional point of view, and finds in them nothing which need Marin Free Churchmen, Who.c interests in the reformed character of the Church of England he Very ably defends:
It is not clear from his letter that he has considered the book
the Official answer of the Church of England to the vigorous anii-liefonnation propaganda, which has for many years disturbed her peace. From that point of view the new proposals seem to affirm that our present Prayer Book adhered too narrowly to the principle that nothing was to be accepted for public worship which was not either expressly contained In Sei:ipturenr clearly deducible therefrom. The new propOsals allow primitive liturgies and traditions to be a contributory hasis of public worship, and therefore of doctrine also, even when those liturgics and traditions deviate from, or go beyond, Scriptural limits. This is, of course, the starting point of Homan Catholic teaching, the doctrine of development.
Formerly Bishop of Manchester.
18 Beckenham Grove, Shortlands, Kent.
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