CHURCH UNITY.
[TO THE EDITOR Or THE "SPECTATOR:]
SIR,—No practical Christian expects, or even perhaps deems altogether desirable, uniformity in religious organisations, but every common-sense Christian surely yearns for the unity of the Church of Christ. The Lambeth proposals of 1888 suggested four fundamental points as a basis for union,— namely, the acceptance of (a) the Holy Bible; (5) the two Sacraments of Holy Baptism and Communion ; (c) the Apostles' and Nicene Creeds; (d) the Historic Episcopate. Presumably the only one of these four overtures that would offer any serious practical difficulty would be the last. Can that be surmounted conscientiously by all concerned ? Well, we British folk are so much hidebound by precedent that the two following ancient patterns of "inclusion" will be interesting. and may possibly point the way to a satis- factory solution. Archbishop Bramliall "included" a Scotch presbyter thus "Not destroying his former orders, nor determining their validity or invalidity, but only supplying what the canons of the English Church require, and providing that occasion of schism be removed, and the faithful assured that they may not doubt of his ordination, or be averse to his presbyterial acts as invalid."
Archbishop Grindall used this form of "inclusion" :-
" Called to the ministry by the imposition of hands according to the laudable form and rite of the Re-formed Church of Scot-
land we therefore, approving and ratifying the form of your ordination and preferment, grant you a license and faculty in such orders by you taken. You may and have power to cele- brate the divine offices, to minister the sacraments."
—I am, Sir, &c., THEODORE P. BROCKLEHURST.
Giggleswick-in-Craven.
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