CLERGY IN KENYA
[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] SIR,—You allowed me to ask Churchpeople in England what they thought that a Bishop in the position of the new Bishop in Kenya ought to do to get clergy ; whether to be content with the few itinerant clergy whom he now has, or to join in the scramble for men and money here in England, or to
ordain Voluntary Clergy. In Kenya I asked the Bishop before I left what he proposed to do ; but he did not knom what answer to give me. Here I asked men to tell me and I get no answer.
Do you not think it strange that the Archbishop of Canter- bury should send men to be Bishops without the smallest idea how they are to provide what they all say is essential for the life of the Church in their dioceses ? Do you not think it strange that no one in England should be able to answer such a question ? Is not there something strangely fatuous in such conduct ? Is it surprising that men overseas, seeing the consequences of it, care very little whether they have a Bishop or not ? Is it surprising that when they see that money is the governing factor in all these Church arrangements they should talk of a " commercialised Christianity " and say that they do not want it ? Is it surprising that when the first appeal is for money, they should be slow to respond ? When they do subscribe, what do they get ? Can any truth be established and expand on this foundation ? When our leaders cannot tell us how they propose to meet needs on which they insist as fundamental, can they expect us to be enthusiastic followers ? Is not the Church made to appear an institution designed to provide a profession for a certain number of young men ? And is it not plain that neither laymen nor their sons are very concerned to see the profession well supplied ? Could any system be devised less calculated to conduce to expansion, less fitted for a widely scattered society of Christian men ? Has any religious teaching ever spread widely on such a foundation ? When the Apostles and their followers set out to convert the world, did they so restrict the ministry of the Church which they sought to establish ? On the contrary, wherever they went, they established the Church as one Body, the Church with its ministers ; wherever they went the whole was before them. They were not always looking behind them, still less were they always crying that no clergy could be found unless money was first found to provide for them. Is it not plain to all men that an expanding Church must find its clergy wherever it may go ? Is it not plain that it is impossible in small scattered groups to begin with a stipendiary order? A stipendiary order may perhaps be good for a settled and long-established society, but for a rapidly expanding one how can it be good ? It can only be a severe brake on expansion. It may not stop it altogether, but it can, and does, check it. Why then do not our leaders at home, seeing that they too are constantly deploring the paucity of clergy, give some answer to questions like these ?-
I am, Sir, your obedient servant, ROLAND ALLEN. Heathcroft, Weybridge.
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