The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1895-03-15

e, free: Obituaries and Personal Communication
cents per line.
Office in the Town Hall.
HS-Ar correspondence with this office should
addressed to THE Enquirer.
THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH AND ITS LAWS
The history of the Church of England II
the colonies, saws the Philadelphia Times
follows very closely the political history
of the colonies themselves The union OF
church and state worked badly in two ways
it identified the great body of the clerg,
with the Tory side, and it held back the
ecclesiastical authorities in England from
sending any Bishops to America, who
could have given the Colonial Church an
indcpendent existence: and thus, when
the separation was accomplished, the
church was left tli>organized and diScred-
tied The States were Independent. and
the church was thrown on its own re-
sources in each colony separately.
Organization was effected in Connecti-
cut first for which Seahury was consccra-
ted Bishop in Scotland, and in the other
States afterwards the first Bishops of
PENNSYLVANIA and New York being conSe-
Grated at London. In this way each of the
new States constituted Il diocese. and when
whole it was on a basis consciously mod
cled upon the Federal Constitution. the
dioceSeS retaining rather unusual meas
IRE of autonomy, though in all essentials
subject to the national synod. which was
given the unecclesiaStical title of the
General Convention.
Considering the growth of the EpiSco
pal Church in the century and more that
has followed, it is remarkable that this
constitution, which practically organizes
the church in the whole United States into
a single province has served so long and
so we'll 1t has been clearly recognized OF
late that some notifications were needed
to adapt the system originally framed for
a dozen contiguous dioceses on the sea
board to the requirements of seventy or
eighty dioceSes scattered from the Attain
tic to the Pacific. and the last General
Convention appointed commission to
consider and report such changes as might
he deemed desirable. 1t is the report of
this committee made public in advance.
that was furnished to the newspapers
Tuesday. and which some of them have
treated as though it involved some radical
changes
As matter of fact the changes recon-
mended are not many, though one or two
are important That the General Conven
ton should be called the General Synod is
merely a change of phraSeologv. That
the Presiding Bishop should be more con-
venientlv called the Primus. after the Scot
fish title is less important than the prOpo-
sition that he should be chosen by the
House of Bishops instead of Succeedingto
Even this involves no very radical change
1t is evidently suggested by practical eN
perience, the Presiding Bishop by seniori-
tv being nearly always very old if not a
superannuated man.
The only distinct departure recommend
ed is in the provision for the organization
of provinces, of not less than five contig-
uous dioceses, the Bishops of each prov
ince to choose their own Primate. and the
provincial synod to exercise such inter
mediate authority a. NAV be delegated to
it by the General Synod. This is a reform
that has been earnestly advocated for many
years and it is so obviously in the inter
est of greater facility of administration
that it is likely to commend itself to the
judgment of the General Convention.
The commission has taken the opportunity
to revise the phraSeolo"y of the constitu
ton and of the body of canons which are
the accumulation of a century of more or
less fragmentary legislation, but it does
not appear that any radical changes are
that the report has scarcely the importance
that would seem to attach to it if it were
mistaken tor Il new creation instead of
merclX 4 reNiSinn