THE LAMBETH REPORT
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]
Stre,—Your article on the Lambeth Report is surely a little ungenerous, both in its " superior " and slightly ironical tone, and also in particular criticisms ; I think specially of its reference to " the singularly unfortunate passage which the Encyclical devotes " to the subject of youth and its vocation.- I have read and re-read the passage, and am entirely at a loss to understand why your critic thinks it " singularly unfortunate." He does, it is true, commend that section of the Report as " admirable." I 'agree, and would gladly extend this commendation to the." unfortunate passage " in the Encyclical. Admirable they- both are—as far as they go. The criticism that really lies is that they do not go far enough. There is one issue, and a vital one, which they -fail to face.
The Report appeals to - young men choosing their life's work to ask themselves, not " Why should I ? " but "'Why should I not be ordained " I write as one who had hig choice to make well back in the last century. The answer to this question to which many of my contemporaries were forced was : " Because I cannot honestly answer the further question asked at ordination " (" Do you unfeignedly believe all the Canonical Scriptures of the Old and New Testament ? This question is still asked, and must be answered. The Revised Prayer Book, of course, would alter it. But, most unhappily, the Revised Prayer Book is still without authority. If to very many forty years ago the question was honestly
unanswerable, it must be so to far more to-day. Who can say how many recruits the Church loses every year by leaving this question in its traditional—and discredited— form ?
Men view these matters, I know, in different ways. To some the question is a formal one requiring a merely formal assent. Others have their consciences eased by a private talk with the Bishop. But the fact remains that to the young man who thinks and is honest with himself the question does present a real, and in many cases insuperable obstacle.
Is it wise, is it fair, to ask a young man at the most solemn moment of his dedication to the service of One who spoke of Himself as " The Way, the Truth, and theLife " to trifle with the truth of words ? -
The recurrent discussions of the " lack of candidates for Holy Orders " are largely futile, for the simple reason that they will not face the real issue. It is not lack of religion; nor of the desire to serve their fellows, nor of courage to face hardship and poverty, which has kept, and keeps, and Will keep them from taking Orders, but just the common honesty which will not allow those who haVe difficulties in belief to subscribe to forms of words which are too narrow for thern. If the Church of England hopes to enlist once more the lest of young Englishmen to take its Orders, it Must first revise its formularies. I have tried here to focus attention on a single point—the question in the Ordination Service, because it is the most obvious and the most glaring. There are, of course, others ; but this is not the place nor the time for their
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