[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] SIR, — I, too, am a
young Anglican clergyman, and I can there- fore sympathise with your contributor who writes for " The Voice of Under Thirty—V."
But it seems to me that the whole of his article is vitiated by a sense of impatience which riles and kicks at everyone and everything. His remarks regarding the Church seem to me to be most unfortunate. We are all well aware that there are many things within the Anglican Church which need reforming. Mere carping and impatience will not rectify the faults in the Cht4n of England.
As a clergyman your contributor is supposed to be an officer and leader of people within a society. How can he preach and teach others, or uphold to them that society in which he himself has so little hope or faith ? The honest thing for him to do is to very seriously consider whether or no he ought to continue his functions as a pastor and leader of people.
His remarks regarding the increasing period of training for Holy Orders betray an ignorance of the conditions under which the clergy have to work today. Mere zeal for the Kingdom of God is apt to be misdirected and do a great deal of harm. It is highly important that a priest should receive proper and adequate training in all aspects of the Church's Ministry. Know- ledge and zeal most go hand in hand.
No doctor of medicine ever qualified after one year's training in medicine. Does your contributor really consider himself fully qualified to deal with people as their spiritual physician after such inadequate training ?—Yours faithfully, C. E. POCKNEE.
" Prospect," Hellesdon Road, Norwich.
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