A NATIONAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND
SIR,—The swift collapse of discussion upon the Rev. K. L. Parry's plea for a National Church of England does not suggest that it has been received with enthusiasm.
One reason. which moved me to write to you before was that Dr. Paton, and: paobably others, did not seem to realise that an invitation from Lambeth to Congregationalists to return to the Anglican Church would have to be answered, not by the Chairman of the Union, but by every Congregational Church in the country, since the authority and power reside in the separate, independent Churches. A vote accepting the invitation would imply a surrender of its liberty thenceforward and a willingness to accept changes of faith and order of a very crucial kind.
This is what I meant by saying that Mr. Parry's appeal carried no authority and represented purely his personal point of view. I do not deny that, as the Bishop of Warrington reminds us, the passion for Christian Union is steadily growing in intensity, but in my view that passion, which I for one share, can at the present juncture be best met by our ceasing to unchurch each other, by acknowledging the validity of ministerial orders in other denominations than our own, and in many other ways to co-operate and cultivate the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Another reason was that I could not see that the opinions which three centuries of experience have crystallised into two widely different conceptions of Church life, could coalesce. The ecclesiastical and traditional are dissimilar from the primitive and New Testament ideals. Better by far to have mutual respect and charity and brotherly love than attempt a comprehension within one organisation of such con- trarieties.
Mr. Parry charges me with inserting in brackets a creed of Congre- gationalists while asserting that they are non-credal. But what I quoted is the confession of faith on which Church membership is based, belief in Christ as Saviour and Lord. This is a wholly different thing from the repetition at morning and evening prayer every Sunday of the Apostles' Creed—" An authoritative formula of the essentials of Christian belief." Congregationalists refuse to be bound by a creed in this sense, and they give scope for wide difference of theological belief within their borders.
Mr. Parry says that Uniformity is a dead letter within the Church of England, and he asks who now believes in the control of the Church by the State? All that one can reply is that Uniformity does still actually prevail, and that only a very few years ago we found that the Church could not alter a word in the Prayer Book without the consent of Parliament.
As to the Union of the Free Churches, it is true to say that Presby- terians, Baptists, Methodists and Congregationalists worship and work together in one Church in many villages now, and that it probably needs only a bold bid by denominational leaders and disregard of vested in- terests to bring the bulk of Free Churchmen together. In view of post- war demands for the rebuilding of bombed churches on the old sites or on new ones where they are more needed, and wide Church extensions in new residential estates, the call for union is very insistent, and it does not involve the danger of ultimate strife and disagreement, such as might arise where deep-seated convictions and principles are at stake.—Yours
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