EXACTLY two hundred and fifty years after the political union
of England and Scotland a report on Relations between Anglican and Presbyterian Churches (S.P.C.K., 3s. 6d.) has been published. Without denying the existence of considerable problems of belief and practice, the report—the work of many distinguished churchmen—recog- • vises the overriding responsibility to press forward towards unity—though it does not 'envisage one single Church of Great Britain,' but rather a ' "Church of England" and a "Church of Scot- land" in full communion with one another in the one Church of Christ.' It suggests the introduction of Episcopacy into the Presbyterian Churches of a sort consonant with the view of the ministry as the function of laity and clergy in combination. And it suggests a wide application of such a view of the ministry into the Episcopalian Churches. The report got off to a good start by incurring the encouraging hostility of the Beaverbrook press, but it has already run into trouble in Scotland. Indeed the changes proposed are so far-reaching that the report is wise in hoping that they will not be immediately considered by the Churches con- cerned; immediate consideration would almost certainly lead to immediate burial of the pro- posals.
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