The Reunion of Christendom
Introductory Article
[The writer of this article introducing the series on "Reunion of the Churches," is well known in London as Vicar of St. Paul's, Knightsbridge (since 1928), and previously for twelve years Vicar of St. Mary's, Primrose Hill. As Assistant Editor of the Guardian he is conspicuously in touch with modern religious thought.—En. Spectator.]
THE unifying of mankind in hope and faith and mutual charity is implicit in the Christian view of the world. Indeed, it is more. It is an aim that every convinced Christian would energetically proclaim as dominant. But, unfortunately, it is an aim that the spec- tacle of the Christian world, any time these last four hun- dred years, has seemed violently to contradict. It should not be overlooked that in the deeper fabric of men's thoughts a great unification has taken place, even in these years, and that much of it is to be attributed to the accep- tance, so widespread as to be almost unconscious, of the Christian doctrine that every human being is sacred, and that we are all members of one another. At the bottom, if the metaphor may be allowed, the glacier is one ; but on the surface it is the fissures and crevasses that appal the eye.
The series to which this article is an introduction has been planned because a great opportunity of bridging some of the gulfs that separate Christian people has appeared on the horizon. Is it a mirage, or is it a beacon of hope ? The answer will largely depend upon the interest taken in it by the ordinary lay member of the Church of England. In ecclesiastical questions the expert and the layman live in different worlds. The unhappy outcome of the Prayer Book discussions shows what dangers lurk in this separation. In 1930 great decisions must be taken by the Anglican Episcopate when they meet together at Lambeth. Never before, it may safely be said, have they had to deal with a problem so practical, or one that may have such far-reaching effects. They will come from America, Asia, Africa, Australia, and what they decide will make its influence felt wherever Christianity has been sown by the hands of English-speaking people. If its real importance is to be understood and its difficulties realized some preliminary history must be kept in view.
Efforts towards reunion have gone on for a long period. But the last Lambeth Conference, which met in 1920, brought issues to a head. Never previously had the Bishops of the Anglican Communion shown so clear a conviction that they stood in a mediating position between the great forces of Catholicism and Protestantism. They manifested an ardent desire to use to the uttermost the opportunity that they believed was theirs, and they drew up with a precision never till then attained the lines on which they were prepared to act. The largeness of the appeal they made and its obvious sincerity called forth a response from four directions. New contacts with eminent Roman theologians were made at Malines, Orthodox and Anglican leaders came into closer contact, and Eastern Patriarchs took part in a service of thanks- giving for the Nicene faith in Westminster Abbey. Among Protestants, the Continental Churches began to look at the Anglican Communion with new eyes, and in England itself a long series of conferences between Anglican and Free Church leaders took place. What has been the result ? Undoubtedly, a growth in mutual understanding all round, which is not to be despised.
Let us put it shortly. The road to Rome is still barred. Acceptance of the Tridentine decrees, and those of the Vatican council remain insurmountable obstacles. The Orthodox and Protestants have agreed on a statement of faith, but are still separated by questions of order. The Church of Sweden and -the Chuich" of -England have come nmch closer. The Free Churches and the Church of England very nearly agreed to a scheme of corporate reunion. It became plain that a great change was taking place in the mind of English Nonconformity in regard to the question of bishops. Many Methodists and even Congregationalists and Presbyterians were prepared to accept episcopacy as the only possible basis of a united Church. What they would not accept at any price was the reordination of existing ministries, even if it was only conditional reordination. And so a halt seemed to have been reached. It looked at one time as though the next Lambeth Conference would have to allow reunion questions to " bide a wee."
But gradually it began to be realized that if the older Churches of Europe had reached a halting place, the younger Churches of the mission field were being driven by powerful forces to demand an advance. In South India a United Church of Presbyterians and Congregationalists had already been formed. There were ardent longings for a wider comprehension which should include Anglicans and Wesleyans. And it should be noted that it was the native Christians themselves that were demanding a united brotherhood in one body, partaking of the Sacraments together. Long negotiations based on the last Lambeth appeal followed a parallel course to those between Anglicans and Free Churchmen in England; Episcopacy, the Apostles' and Nicene Creeds, the two Sacraments of the Church Catechism were all accepted, and a scheme was drawn up. What remained to be done ? The Anglican Bishops in India had to accept it, and the various Churches at home whose missionary enterprise had sown the Gospel must agree. It is possible that the Anglican Bishops may reject it. It is more likely that they will forward it, with criticisms, to Lambeth next year. The determining voice is with the Anglican Church. Where so much has been accepted by the purely Protestant bodies, what stands in the way ? The difficulties will be made plain in the articles that follow. One great step forward has been taken. There will be an interim period in which non-episcopally ordained ministers will function in the united Church. But Anglo-Catholic opinion will demand that Anglican Christians only receive Communion at the hands of episcopally ordained priests. The real question is, what will be the relation of the united Church ultimately to the English and American missionary bodies who are its begetters ? Ultimately, the issue is this. Can the Anglican Communion act, on a large scale, on its own theory that it has the power to weld Catholic and Protestant into a unity ?
Some sincerely fear that, in its attempting to do so, its Catholic qualities may desiccate and die. Others equally fear that, if it does not make the attempt, Anglicanism may lose the unifying lead that it at present possesses, and shrink into a sterile body that talks Catholicism with an increasing incapacity to impart it. Reunion with Rome is a vision that faith must hold to Will it ultimately be hindered by the proof that Anglicanism can exercise over growing churches, face to face with heathenism, the sway of the great central Christian tradition ? Here are problems that every layman should strive to appreciate and help to solve.
A. S. DUNCAN-JONES.
The idea of the series of articles to which the foregoing forma an introduction is to air the subject of Reunion in general, in view of the South Indian Scheme and the Lambeth, Conference. Succeeding articles will be written by the Bishop of Middleton, Archbishop Germanos of Thyateira, the Rev. Dr. Scott Lidgett, Father Leslie Walker, S.J., the Rev. William Paton and the Rev. Dr. Sparrow Simpson. Nexd -week the Bishop of Middleton writes on " The -Anglican Outlook."
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