THE RECENT REPORT on the Relations between Anglican and Presbyterian
Churches has pro- duced some sharp reaction in the press, but for un- informed criticism it would be hard to beat last week's editorial comment of the Daily Mail. It is strange enough to find that the main consideration of the Report can be called a material one because it states that 'disunity in witness and mission . spells not only a wasteful use of limited resources but also a deeply damaging contradiction between message and life.' (Perhaps it is not a coincidence that the Daily Mail omitted the last four words of this quotation, and failed to notice that the prime consideration of the Report is that unity is of the essence of the Church's life.) It is even more startling to find that the Mail objects to the pro- posals in the Report because it will create large church units. When the leader-writer wrote about `the proposal to fuse the Episcopal and Presby- terian Churches of England and Scotland into one communion,' I wonder whether he bothered to read the Report itself which clearly stated that `the modifications suggested do not envisage one single "Church of Great Britain" but rather a "Church of England" and a "Church of Scotland" in full communion with one another in the one Church of Christ.' The Mail warms to its theme by suggesting that if the Report were imple- mented, uniformity would be the result— oblivious of the statement in the Report itself that each church must allow the other a measure of freedom in interpreting the changes proposed.' This more to come. 'There is no case,' it writes, `for attempting to inject uniformity into matters of worship.' The Report makes no suggestions about uniformity in matters of worship. is the Mail interested in truth, or is it, like the Express, trying to make mischief?
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