.It should be understood that the whole policy announced is
tentative ; the Bishops have formulated it as a starting point for consultation with the clergy and laity. For our part we cannot think how the Bishops could really recover discipline for the Church except by such methods- as they propose. Their inner: mean- ing is : " We cannot 'go back on praCtices which have been either expressly permitted or openly tolerated by most of the Bishops for a- great many years. But we can and do call a halt in the 'case of extreme practices. The Book of 1928 provides us with a fair and reasonable means of doing this. It fixes .the limits of legality. Without it we should be helpless. We have let matters drift too much in the past, but now we have our oppor- tunity to say what is legal and -what is not and we propose to make use of it.".
