The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1883-10-06 00:00:00

The CHURCH CONGRESS at READING.

The Church Congress opened on Tuesday at Reading
under the most favourable auspices. The town being
situated in the diocese of Oxford, the Right Bov. Dr.
Mackarnass, Bishop of Oxford, was, in accordance
with rule, president of the congress. The present,
which is the 23rd annual meeting, in point of atten-
dance surpasses most of its predecessors. The prin-
cipal meeting was held in a spacious hall capable ef
seating 3,000 persons, and which has been built near
the station of the Great Western Railway. In the
old Toe n-hall, which is in the immediate vicinity, a
large apartment was adtnirably fitted up as a reception.
room, and the two sectional meetings in which the
various Church questions were discussed were held in
the Congress and the T.wn-halls respectively.
The congress, according to custom, opened with
three Church services, the preachers being the Arch-
bishop of Canterbury, the Bishop of Winchester,
and Lord Plunket, Bishop of Meath. Shortly before
eleven o'clock the mayor and corporation proceeded in
carriages to S. Mary's Church, where the Archbishop
of Canterbury preached, and at the conclusion of the
service his Grace aLd the other bishops, attended by
the clergy, returned to the Town-hall, and were intro-
duced to the mayor and corporation and the reception
committee. Having partaken of luncheon, the party
adjourned to the Congress-hall to listen to the presi•
dent's inaugural address, the delivery of which occupied
about half an hour. The se2tions then commenced
their work, the subjects discussed being "The Rela-
tion of Recent Advances in Natural Science to the
Christian Faith," and "The Best Methods for securing
the Expression of the Opinions of the Laity in Church
Matters."

The Archbishop of Canterbury preached his sermon
from the sth Micah, verses 4 and 5, "And He shall
stand and feed the flock in the strength of the Lord,
in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God, and
they shall abide. For now shall He be great unto the
ends of the earth, and it shall be peace." Our lives,
he said, arra the life of the world were a continual
disclosing and manife.tation of the things that are.
What else was living Christianity than the manifest&
tion of God? Before Christianity God made himself
known by many operations and in many manners, acd
since He had begun to speak to us in His Son His mani-
festation was that of one who was with us at all times.
If we believed that Christiaraty was the final manifes-
tation of God which this earth would have—if we had
this faith that must be the faith of a Christian, that
other beings and other spheres were concerned in
watching the manifestation of God which is going
on here—then we must rise to comprehend the
supreme importance of the conduct of the Church in
every crisis that occurred : the extreme importance of
her solution of each problem as it presented itself.
They must be at unity among themselves, and must
understand that there was no function or region of life
or thought which it was not the Church's duty to
occupy. For her disunion was the death of action,
and for her nothing was " secular " but what was
sinful. The early Church did not know the word
" secular " in any other sense, Whatever a good man
could do the Church could do or help him to do better.
No hindrance could be insuperable. Hitherto the
Church Congress had served to extend and deepen the
sense of unity in the Church, and might this meeting
excel.
The Bishop of Winchester preached at St. Laurence's
and the Lord Bishop of Meath at St. Giles's.

At two o'clock the general meeting was held in the
Congress-hall, a large, temporary wooden building,
decorated with flags—the Bishop of Oxford presiding,
having the Archbishop of Canterbury on his right, and
being supported by the principal members of thn
clergy and laity who are attending the congress.