The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1865-07-01
Communicated. |
Communicated.
The COlcnsO Discussion md its Bearing ON
Hawniinn 4 fairs.
w. d. ALEXANDER

HI 4 "hu fs OH
Hawaiian Affairs.
To those of your numerous readers who have been
interested in the Colenso discussion, that discussion
which has engaged the pens of men of all classes and
abilities, from the Bishop of Oxford to the Archdea-
con of Maui, who built an altar of grammatical
blunders on which TO immediate poor Colenso, it was
doubtless q source of satisfaction TO learn that a Syn
cd of South African Bishops had pronounced q dep
osition against him in case of q refusal to retract his
heretical opinions and when upon n refusal by him
TO make such n recantation, this decree was actually
promulgated by the Bishop of Capetown, it was sup
posed TO be an end of the matter, and the termina-
ton of the Episcopal functions of Colenso. Later
papers, however, give a new complexion to the mat
ter.
1t seems that there is another department of the
"Apostolic Succession not described or alluded to
by St. PaMl-,unless it might have been that amiahlA
and dignised body before which, anu at the command
of whose master-spirit he, the chief of the Apostles,
was smitten on the mouth-known in England as the
Privy Council, which reserves to itself the right to
give tnal decisions upon knOtty theological questions.
and to this body COlenso made haste to appeal.
On the 10Th of March last a decision was given by
a committee of this body, that the judgment against
Colenso was null and void, and it now appears that
he is a good Churchman still, and that that feeling of adherence
which had been So generally expressed by the dignitaries of the
English Church-men claiming to be the successors of the apos-
ties, and possessors of the power to confer the Holy Ghost by
the imposition Of their hands-was really nothing bu; pious
rant and an exhibition of zeal without knowledge. Could Brig
ham Young himself ask for more?
But the decision does not stop here. While it declares " that
the jurisdiction claimed by the Bishop of Capetowa over Co.
lenso was entirely fictitious" it goes on to state that
THE same was the case with the Jurisdiction which Colenso
and all other Colonial Bishops claim over the clergy Of their d-
oceses, and it is laid down that the Queen has no power to d
portion any Colonial territory TO Bishops. She can make a
Bishop in name, and endow him with a prelaticai function: but
there the jurisdiction Of the CrOIcn stops. II nnOt make
nm q Bishop Of any place, or OUer 0nybOdy in yarftcu T1r.r
The London Times says of the decision " One cannot but
feel "A certain compassion for the Colonial Bishops who are thus
reduced tn so helpless and comparatively insignificant a posi-
ton but the public in general, and the Colonies in particular.
may be sincerely congratulated on this issue Of what promised
to be "A most troublesome and difficult question:
My object in this communication is not TO show how mon
strous heresies may be cherished in n State Church, for that has
been fully illustrated long ago; but to inquire by what right or
show OF authority a certain " parsonage" in this community
claims 20 faunt himself as The Z" Bishop of Honolulu If IT,
Queen Of England has not the power to appoint a Eishop over
amy place OF any body in her own Colonies. can it be claimed
that she can appoint one FOR a foreign land Has our Govern
ment the right to do any such thing or has it ever exercised
any such power The talk about appointments bv invitation
of His late Majesty, is not at all satisfactory. What the Queen
of England has no lawful right to do, she certainly is not by an
invitation authorized To do, and what this Government has no
right or power TO do itself, it cannot properly invite anybody
else to do for it.
Will not L. y. explain this matter? Or. Fletcher has given
him an opportunity to prove the claim OF his Church to genuine
EpiscOpacy, and he has now a good chance to show the validity
Of his own appointment in it. Shall we have a renewal
OF the whining plea for - courtesy titles " from men who
Or will he, by his silence, leave US to settle down in the opinion,
long since formed by many, that the whole thing, with its posi-
lions and "mpositiOns," / a humGug from beginning to end ?
Yours, ISQUIRER.