The Twenty-Ninth Canon is to be altered. Convocation was ordered
to change it so as to allow the parents to be godfathers and godmothers, and did so, but added that no applicant was to be admitted unless "capable of receiving the Communion." The old words were "unless they have received" the Communion, and the change enabled the clergyman to put all manner of ques- tions. The canon as amended was therefore disallowed, but Con- vocation remodelled it according to instructions, and it is now before the law officers of the Crown. While the Bishops were about it they might have lightened the subscriptions imposed upon parents who stand as godfathers or godmothers. A man may be quite determined to bring up his child as a member of the Church of England, and yet unable to say he "steadfastly believes" every one of a number of theological propositions.
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