The Sun.
London, England, 1869-04-22 00:00:00

THE REV. A. H. 31.4.CICONOCHIE ON THE
CHURCH CRISIS.

On Tuesday evening an address was presented at Leeds
by the Yorkshire branch of the English Church Union to
the Rev. A. H. Mackonochie, incumbent If St. Alban's,
Holborn, thanking him for the part he had taken in up-
holding the catholic teaching and Ritual of the Church.
In reply, Mr. Mackonochie, after stating that be was
wholly unworthy of the enlogium which had been passed
upon him, spoke of the catholic movement of the last 3G
years. He said that of old the hard working men of
England were the strength of the Church, and then day
after day the church doors stood wide open, and the men
who worked in the field or in the towns entered them and
knelt down to pray to God to help them in their work
before they did it. He hoped and believed that the day
would soon come when the same people would act in that
manner, and become united again with the Church. It
was with that hope that the Church Union existed. Mr.
Mackonochie went on to combat the idea that
the Church Union was an aggressive or a
persecuting body. It was neither, nor did it
even originate In a panic. It was in the days
when he and soine others were accustomed to dread the
very sound of the church bells of St. George's-in-the-
East ; whe,n, in one sense, they would have given
anything to have stopped those bells, and gone to worship
in some peaceful country church, instead of being at
St. George's, standing often in the face of a howling mob,
being insulted in going through the worship, and
scarcfly able to perform the commonest parts of it with
decetCy ; it was in those days that the English Church
Union began. It was then that men's hearts were stirred
up ; they tried to get the common protection which an
English citizen was entitled to ; they asked that they
should be protected against those outrages, from which a
Mormonito would have been protected. A man might
hold any faith he liked, however monstrous it might be,
and still be protected against outrages upon his liberty of
conscience ; but when they asked the Home Secretary
or the police authorities, not to be supported in anything
that belonged to their church, but that their property
might be protected, and their liberty of conscience in
worshipping as they maintained the Church of England
intended them to worship, as they had a sight to ask
until such time as the authorities of the Church
had declared it to be not its worship, there were, it was
true, plenty of policemen sent to the place, but they were
told not to act. It was their not obtaining that protec-
tion for which they asked that led to the formation of the
English Church Union. It was at its beginning, and had
been ever since, a defensive society, and nothing more ; and
it never came into operation until there was an assault
made upon the doctrine and discipline of the Church of
England. Mr. Mackonochie concluded a very animated
speech by exhorting his hearers not to be discouraged by
the recent judgment. All the events which seemed at first
to make against the Church had only made for her and
strengthened her.
In the speeches which were made subsequently,the Rev.
J. Eddowes stated that he had asked Mr. Mackonochie
to preach, but that the Bishop of Ripon (Dr. Bickersteth)
had inhibited that gentleman from preaching anywhere in
the diocese. The Rev. J. W. Hunt then delivered an
address on "The duty of English Catholics at the present
crisis," in which he exhorted them never to leave the
English Church unless their doctrine was assailed, and
then they should throw up the Establishment, or establish
a Free Church, not go to Rome.