CHURCH COUNCILS AND RITUAL.
LTD THE EDITOR OF THE " SPE CT•TOR."]
Sia,—There seems to be one solution of the question of Ritual in the future which has not been touched upon by your many correspondents. It is, the establishment in the parishes throughout the land of a Parochial Church Board. The law of the Church must eventually conform itself to the will of the parishioners. So far as the opinion of the Church is represented, it is made known in a Parliament where no Church measure has a fair chance of discussion, whilst Irish business stops the way, even in matters on which the nation is anxious to express an opinion;—or in Convocation, in which the laity and the un- beneficed clergy have no voice.
The creation of Church Councils in each parish, to whom the control of the services shall be entrusted, would enable the voice of the laity to be expressed, and would prevent the continuance of such a condition of affairs as has caused the imprisonment of Mr. Green. It is asserted that he has the majority of his parishioners with him, that the "three aggrieved" are outsiders in all but name. The difficulty of persuading Churchmen to assent to the introduction of such a Bill rests on the nature of the constituency to which it is proposed to commit the election of the Council.
Whilst the Church clergyman claims the right of entering every house, as the appointed minister, whilst the Church system considers every baptised man, unless excommunicated, a member of the Church, it is yet held that no man should vote for the Church Council, unless he be either a communicant, or unless, in some other way, he declare himself a Churchman.
Tho answer of those who support such Bills as Mr. Albert Grey's Church Boards Bill, or his Public Worship Regulation Act Amendment Bill, is that the system which has been at work in the election of Churchwardens has worked well. Every parishioner, by right of residence, not of religion, votes for the churchwarden ; and where, as is often the case, a Non- conformist, and sometimes a Jew, is elected, no damage has accrued to the Church. On the contrary, many men who have taken office as Nonconformists have become Churchmen.
The Church Council is simply the multiplication of the Church- wardens power,—an expedient which the altered condition of matters since Church rates were abolished seems to render necessary. In old times, the Churchwarden had real power, because he represented the Vestry, which could make or with- hold the rate necessary to maintain the fabric. Now, the con- gregation, which raises the money, has really no power of expressing its opinion.
If to this Church Board were allowed the right of veto, or, at any rate, of remonstrance, on the appointment of an incumbent, the influence of petitions got up by unauthorised persons, and having no real validity, which so much trouble patrons, would be destroyed; or, if the desire expressed in them were such as ought to influence the patron, it would find an authoritative expression. The incumbent, once appointed, would be obliged to consult his parishioners on ritual, and the effect of an ex- pression of opinion on the part of Boards thus elected through- out the country, would influence public opinion in a way in which it can never be influenced either by solitary parishes or Diocesan Synods. The Church, in theory, belongs to the whole people of England ; the power of influencing the Church prac- tice would, I believe, as in other Departments of the State, create an interest in their concerns which is now wanting.—I am, Sir, &c., [There seems to us little justice in giving virtually the power of controlling Ritual to a number of persons who have no personal interest whatever in that Ritual, since they never worship in the Church.—En. Spectator.]
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