The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1874-10-13 00:00:00

Corrrsponbrnce.

SALISBURY DIocEsAN SYNOD.
LA. Editor.

The Laity id thi. diocese Cr. again called npon to elect
mentberd to represent them at the Synod, and it would be
well for them to consider the constitution of this Synod,
and what they will be really promoting, by taking part in
the matte!,

They will find, if I mistake not, that they are excluded
from any real power. and care is taken to netitralbie their
antagonistic to the clerey, by leaving the Biehop
and the clerical members supreme. The lay element
consists of Churchmen (communicant.) not directly
elected, but indirectly, by representatives sent up by
each parish to Ituri-decanal meetings. At these moetinek
from the lay members sent up. the lay Synodansen are
appointed. But lest these laymen, filtered so carefully,
should prove • difficulty, provision is made that at the
request of a certain number of members, the votes of the
Synod are to be taken, not collectively, but by orders.
Now let the laity give good heed to this provision, and
weigh well its object. The Clergy are one order, the
Laity another order, and the Bishop • third order The
majority of the Clergy give their vote, the majority of -
the Laity give their., and the Bishop his : so that the
Clerical body. including the Bishop, have always on
critical questions two votes to the single vote of the Linty.
Can anything be more delusive, even if the Laity took an
arrive part, and sent up men equal to the occasion! The
slightest redaction shows that if the Laity, even when
united, press any point distasteful to the Bishop and the
Clergy, they can by this arrangement of voting by ordera,
be reduced to impotence. Surely, in such an arrange
meet, there is more of the craft of the serpent than
simplicity of the dove.
I pass by the statement of the Bishop when the late
gyaed was initiated, that he would not abdicate in any
degree the powers or evade the reswnsibilities which the
law of the Church and of the Land imposed on him as the
Bishop; for I cannot comprehend its meaning, or conceive
how he can abdicate powers impo•ed by law. It may be
merely an Intimation that thn Laity are not to expect too
mech. The Organising Comeittee adopted, by • majority
of ten to one, a propeal so simply just as that there
should he cumulative voting in the Rurddecanal meet-
ings, yet this was set aside by the Bishop, and this may
be an instance of what was to le ex
Let the Laity then stand apart rrOctui.edthis movement,
and assert their Christian liberty. Let them watch the
tendency of Church Congresses, and take warning. There
is • party among us, spreading more and more among the
Clergy, who would turn back the shadow on the dial, and
whose united and persistent action, in the assueiption of
priestly character, in the inculcation of the dependence
of sacramental efficacy upon a priestly act, not ass metes
of order, but as an essential condition, is evident to all.
By many of them doctrines, distinctively Banish, are
avowed, the principles of the Reformation are denounced,
and the superstitions of the Medieval Church are
not merely regardol by them charitably, but with regret.
Can it be doubtful, that in the degree they are successful,
the people, instead if being conciliatemj will be more and
more estranged from the Church, and its overthrow
hastened.

The Ukr.y must thoroughly change their attitude on
such point, as those, or they will meet nothing from the
Laity but ilietrust and reOstance, passive resistance It
may be, but not the lees effective.

A LATMAN.