The report on relations between the Church of England and
the National Church of Finland, which will next . week be laid before the Upper House of Convocation by the Bishop of Gloucester and before the Lower House by the Dean of Chichester, has had ma rather unlooked-for reaction. The proposal is that Bishops of either Church shall be authorized to take part in the consecration of Bishops of the other, and that there shall be full inter- communion. This, if adopted, will bring the Finnish Church nearer to the Anglican than any other except the Old Catholics, and the fact is producing visible signs of anxiety in Germany, The Finnish Church, being Lutheran, is Germanic in origin, and the latest develop- ment seems to be regarded in some circles in Germany as a movement away from the Germanic to a Scandinavian and Anglo-Saxon orbit. For the idea that there is some subtle political move in this there is, of course, not the smallest foundation.
* *
Previous page
