New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1889-10-25
THE EPISCOPAL GENERAL CONTENTION.

TIE EPISCOPAL GENERAL CONTENTION.
The Protestant Episcopal General COnven
ton, which adjourned sine die last evening,
was chiefly notable for what it did not do
fact in strict accordance with the conservative
traditions Of the Church. 1t devoted much
more time TO Prayer Book revision than to
any other question that came before it; but
the results of the revision movement,
now virtually ended, are pitfully meagre.
The Prayer Book has not been materially en-
riched. and little has been done to make it
more flexible and better adapted to the On
banding needs Of the American Episcopal
Church. The truth is the Prayer Book, as it
stands, has almost become a fetch in the Epis-
copal Church, so that the compare lively few
broad minded, enlightened men like DR.. Hunt
ington, who have been at the head of the re-
vision movement have had to fight desperate
~ on the one hand for the comparatively trivial
changes that have been made, and on the other
against reactionary changes that would have
made the Prayer Book even less adapted than
il now is TO the needs of American churckmen.
But though the conservatives have gained
partial victory, the Episcopal Church will soon
be forced to face the fact that the Prayer
h,
conditions of modern Christian thought and
belief. II would have been so easy, without
even remotely touching any fundamental doc
tline or venerable form, to have made this
venerable book the noble expression of the
widespread craving for liturgical worship which
now chaIacterizeS American Christianity, that
the failure to do so is regarded by many church
men as a grievous mistake. The best friends
of the Prayer-Book, they claim, are not those
who look upon it as already perfect and in
violate, but those who desire to make u truer
reflection Of the religious needs and aspira-
tons, not merely of Episcopalians, but of all
Christians who to- day are ready to accept some
stable and rational form of liturgica worship.
The adoption by the convention yesterday
Of the report OF the committee 10 which had
been referred the memorials of the colored
conference recently held in this city, was per-
haps as much as could be expected under the
circumstances. The objection made to the
minority report of the committee was that it
condemned certain dioceses in the South for
refusing To recognize the equality in the Church
of the negro. But to this it might be re-
piled first. that its statement of the question
was general in its character and would anply
to dioceeeS or parishes in the North with eouaI
force, and secondly, that diocesan sovereignty
should not be so Interpreted as to allow any
body Of men in the Church to DENY 10 any
other body their fundamental rights AZ
churchmen. While therefore the declaration
adopted is step in the right direction, it stops
far short Of what the Church should have done
in accordance with its own principles A Chris
tian body which claims, as the Episcopal Church
does, to have exclusive divine authority to
preach the Gospel TO every creature, ought to
have been courageous enough to declare that
no diocese in the Church has the right to egis.