CHRISTIAN REUNION.
[To THE EDITO3 OF THE " SPECTATOR.")
SIR,—It has not, I think, been noticed in your columns that the National Assembly of the Church of England at its recent meeting carried the policy of Christian Reunion to a point which had not, and indeed could not have, been attained before. The Archbishops and Bishops, in the noble appeal issued by the Lambeth Conference, had not only refused to "call in question for a moment the spiritual reality of the ministries of those communions which do not possess the Episcopate," but they had expressly provided under certain definite conditions for an interchange of pulpits between clergymen of the Church of England and ministers of the non- Episcopalian Churches, and for the admission of "baptized but unconfirmed communicants" of the non-Episcopalian churches to Holy Communion in churches of the Church of
England. But the Lambeth Conference is only an advisory body. The National Assembly of the Church of England is a legislative body. It is this Assembly which has now by a unanimous vote welcomed the appeal of the Archbishops and Bishops,- and expressed an earnest hope that "preliminary steps may be taken as soon as possible to initiate conferences on the proposal therein set forth."
It is permissible to express the desire that too Much stress may not be laid upon the demand for exact equality in regard to the proposal of the Archbishops and Bishops; that ministers of the non-Episcopalian churches, if they wish to officiate in churches of the Church of England, should accept Episcopal ordination, and conversely that clergymen and even Bishops of the Church of England, who wish to officiate in non- Episcopalian churches, should accept such "a form of com- mission or recognition" as would commend their ministry to the congregations of those churches. The reciprocity which this proposal embodies is a matter not of contract or bargain, but of Christian goodwill. If the Churches will in effect say each to the other, not "We will give you so much, and we ask for so much in return," but rather "We will give you all that we have to give, and we will receive from you all that you have to give," the road to intercommunion, and perhaps ultimately to reunion, among the Churches will seem to have
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