[To TER EDITOR Or TIM " StROT AT011.."] Sin,—In reading
your article in the last Spectator o4 "Nonconformists and the Communion" my admiration of your idealistic conception of the National Church, and my astonishment at your satisfaction that under present condi- tions it is realisable, are about equal. But to narrow the issue to one point—the wording of the rubrics to the Con- firmation Service, which you explain with such elasticity— may I ask : Is it the fact that any convinced Nonconformist is "ready and desirous to be confirmed " P Or is his "particular state of mind " the exact reverse of this desire, and therefore the very last "to be regarded" by any one in his senses "as a substitute for Confirmation "P 'You say the clause is "somewhat obscurely worded," but to most people it would seem plain enough. At any rate, it seems so to many clergymen who are conscientiously anxious to obey the rubrics of their Church. It seems hard, therefore, to blame such men for what they consider obedience so long as rubrics stand which they are only able to interpret in their literal sense. know that some of them leave themselves a way of escape by not inquiring (or even by asking not to be told) whether a communicant has been confirmed or not. And though this is a device as pitiable as it is amiable, it is one for which, pro tem., we must be thankful,—I am, Sir, &c.,
C. S.
Previous page
