The Express.
London, England, 1866-12-25 00:00:00

ELECTION OF A NEW BISHOP IN NATAL.

The mail just arrived brings a report of the
election of a bishop in place of Bishop Coleus°, by a
number of the clergy and laity of the diocese of Natal on
the 25th of October. The proceedings commenced with
an early celebration of the Holy Communion (choral) at
8 a.m. At 10.30 a.m. the meeting assembled in Brooks's
large room in Longnarket-street, specially engaged for the
purpose. The chair was taken by the Very Rev. the pean,
and the meeting was composed of the following clergy,
Arohdeacon Fearne, Rev. Canon CallaweY,
and the Revs. F. S. Robinson, W. 0. Newnham, J.. Bar-
ker, J. Walton, W. A. Elder, W. IL 0. Lloyd, S. T.
Tozer, end F. Delaniere, priests ; and the Revs. J. F.
Neville Rolfe, T. Taylor, and E. W. Jacob, deacons ;
and between forty and fifty communicants of the dis-
tricts of Maritzburg, Richmond, the Karkloof, Unainto,
and others ; the districts of Durban and Verulam having,
at a meeting held at Durban on the 22nd, decided to send
no representative. There were also present the Revs. A.
Tonneesen and E. Robinson, and about 120 of the laity,
which number, however, speedily swelled, and at one time
there could not have been less than 200 persons in the
room, exclusive of the clergy. The westing having been
opened with prayer, the dean read the following letter
from the metropolitan :
" Bishop's-court, Sept. 19, 1866.
" My dear Dean,
difficulties, as I trust you will do, it might perhaps be wise
to name two or three, and leave the selection from them
to the Archbishop of Canterbury, or others. I think,
under the circumstances, the bishops of the provinces
would concur in the act. My reasons for hoping
you will proceed to an election are these :
The way is now clear for you to act. There is no
doubt that you have a perfect right to do so if you will ;
and that you will forfeit no privilege which you now en-
joy in connection with the church of England by doing so.
Convocation has answered your questions fairly and fully.
It throws the responsibility of further acti'.n now upon
yourselves. The next step must be yours. There is
nothing more that you can fairly ask the mother church
to do. If you do not elect now, you never will. You leave
the field to Dr. Colenso, and he will make havoc of o
ars
For myself, I say that I am already overworked, and can
hardly getthrough what I have to do. You cannot look
to me effectually to superintend the diocese, and still less
to throw vigour and life into it. It abaolutelyrequires an
active, energetic bishop on the spot to do this. Without
a bishop, Wesleyaniam will take the place of the church.
Dr. Colenso may live for twenty years. Where wili the
church in Natal be at the end of that time, if you fail in
your duty at this important crisis! Your hour has come,
and you must act, or be prepared to see your church die
out. Supposing, then, that you decide upon election, what
course are you to pursue? 'believe that you will comply
with the conditions named by Convocation if you simply
elect, and present your nominee or nominees to the bishops
of the province. Ido not myself suppose that the inten-
tion of Convocation was that you should draw up a decla.
region at all, or, stall events, one that should bebinuing upon
the bishop elect. It would be for the provincial synod
to dothis. There can, however, be no porible objection
doyour doing this as expression of your faith. Your
ing so would indeed be satisfactory to the church at
home, and give confidence to all. If yon do make a de-
claration, the Bishop of Grahamstown, now with me, con-
curs with me in thinking that you had better adopt that
agreed upon by the Synod of Bishops in 1863. . . • •
As to the mode of election, the counsel of Convocation
is clear—the clergy elect, communicants assent. They
alone have to do with the matter. All communicants
have a right, I apprehend, according to the customs
of the primitive church, to express their assent, if
they so will. If men will not give themselves the
trouble to go to the place of election on so greet an oc-
casion, they have no right to complain if their voice is not
heard. If they do come, and claim their privilege, Ido
not see bow you can exclude them. Anyhow, if delegates
are appointed by the several districts, non-communicants
cannot elect their representatives. The church does not
give this highest spiritual right to those who are not
really and fully in communion with her
The clergy of these parts have met the Bishop of
Grahamstown, and addressed him as they did you. We
have discussed the future organization of the province.
They have unanimously advised (the Bishop of Grahams-
town included) that I do not, in the first instance, call a
provincial synod, but a conference of clergy and laity from
every dioonie for counsel only, and to decide upon the
future ; these to be elected somewhat upon the principle
proposed by me in reply to the parties in Natal who called
upon me to resign ; the meeting to be held in Cape Town,
the time left undecided. The wish would be not to call
it till after the Colonial Church Bill, to be introduced by
Lord Carnarvon, is passed ; if it were not that, probably,
renewed attempts at legislation would be made in your
council next year. The general opinion was that any
legislation would be most undesirable, and would tend to
separate your diocese from the rest of the church, but
that it would be absolutely wrong while you were without
a bishop. The period for inviting the assembling of * con-
ference was not fixed, because it was desired to meet the
wishes of your approaching conference on this subject. I
think that I may say tbat.whatever wish your conference
might express would weigh very considerably with the rest
of the province. If held before the meeting of parliament,
it would, in a very legitimate way, bring our view before
parliament. You will see that, before the consecration
can take place, the Convocation expects that the South
African church will have agreed upon a declaration, which
the new bishop, and all future bishops, priests, and dea-
cons shall sign. Of course, we, who have signed at our
ordination or consecration, have no need to enter into any
fresh contracts ; nor have the laity need to do so.—Believe
me ever, my dear Dean, faithfully yours,
" R. CArerowe."