Evening star., 1895-09-16
Constitution to Be Considered by the
Episcopal Convention.
REVIEW OF It's VARIOUS ARTICLES
Importance Of the tssembIage to
the Church in Washington.
MUCH DISCUSSION EXPECTED

| triennial general convention will begin its
deliberations At the meeting of the last
| general convention a commission was ap-
| pointed to draw up new constitution and
| canons for the government of the church.
| The report of this commission was pub
| lished some months ago, and Immediately a
| somewhat strong opposition to It was de-
| veloped on account of the extreme radical
| ism of some of it's suggestions.
This opposition may be tempered some
| what when definite action Is reached by
the fact that all the various schools of
| thought in the Episcopal Church a
| uEit in agreeing that its present conStltI-
tion Is crude and entirely inadequate to it's
growing needs. This feeling, it is believed.
| may possibly inspire some of the deputies
to vote for the new constitution, despite
| tfeir impression that it is not altogether
| what 1t should be.
| OF course the first opposition that will
| make itself felt will be the argument of
| the high churchmen. who take the ground
| that 4. is contrary to Catholic conditions
! for the church to have any sort of paoer
| constitution. arguing that the only consti-
! tuition of the church in the true sense of
| the word is Christs divine commission to
| it, of which the bishops are the guardians.
| This question has been hotly discussed
| ever since the Episcopal Church was or
| ganiZed, but as the first organizers provided
| it with such document their followers
| have had nothing to do but to follow In
| their footsteps.
Declaration of the Church Doctrine.
The new constitution contains the decla-
ration of what the church stands for and
| teaches
This was not in the old constitution. The
| declaration is made that the Scriptures are
| to be received as the word of God; the
| Lambeth articles declare that the Holy
Scriptures contain the word of God. There
| will he objection, therefore, to the new
statement because no such assertion has
| ever been put forth by the church before,
and the opponents of it argue that to say
| that the Bible is the word of God js to
| tigurative language, the trouble with which
| Is that every one soon comes to interpret
| it in his own way.
| The first article of the new constitution
| relates to the organization of the general
convention. The general convention at
present is the supreme legislative body of
| the Episcopal Church. 1t consists of two
| houses of coordinate power. The house
| of bishops, composed of all bishops of the
church, and the house of clerical and lay
| deputies, consisting of four clergymen and
| four laymen from every diocese in the
church. AS there are now tifty-two dio-
ceses and twelve missionary Jurisdictions
| in this country and seven foreign juriSIlic-
tionS. the convention has become almost
| too large a body, and therefore the new
| provision in the new constitution reducing
| the representation to three of each order
from each diocese will meet with the
hearty approval of every one except the
| odd men who will be shut out.
Provisions of the First Article.
The first article of the new constitution
relates to the organization of this general
convention. Its name is changed 10 the
general synod. 1t also does away with n
provision in the present constitution by
| which the house of deputies can pass a law
| il the upper house does not signify it's dis
approval within three days. 1t is proposed
not to count the missionary bishops, low
| some twenty in number, IN making up a
quorum of the upper house. This would
make twenty-nine a quorum, which means
| that fifteen bishops might exercise the au-
tfor1ty of the whole house.
1t is further provided that the upper
| house elect a president from its own num-
| Der. who shall be called a primus. Under
| the present laws of the Episcopal Church
| the presiding bishop is the Oldest bishop
IN IN point of service as SUCH Consequently
| he is also an old man. and therefore not
always able to perform the increasingly
| onerous duties of the office. The import
ance of this proposition in the new consti-
| tuition will be treated of at length further
on. Article first also provides, as stated
above, that the diocesan representation
| in the general synod is to be three of each
order instead of four, and the present con-
stitutional quorum of dioceses is doubled
| The constitutional quorum of the house of
| deputies Is also increased, and 1t is pro-
Vlded that the two houses sit in joint SeS-
| SION.
|
Article Ill of the new constitution con-
| tains a new declaration that the general
| synod is the supreme legislative authority
| 1t contains the term degradation as an
| equivalent of deposition from the ministry,
| which has been seriously objected to in
many quarters as being unnecessarily Of
| fensive. 1t provides tnat bishops alone are
| to compose the court for the trial of
| bishop, and emoowers them to enact all
n i,le,
| as they please and as often as they please
| The power tc define to revise doctrines
| is taken from the general synod and lodged
with the bishops alone, who are thus made
| sole and supreme judges of what the
doctrines of the church are. The house of
bishops is constituted final court of ap-
peals and provision is made for the as
soclation OF contiguous dioceses into prov
inces, each province to have its chief
bishop, to be called primate.
Government of Bishops.
In article V four changes are proposed:
Missionary bishops are to be chosen by
| the house of bishops alone; the house of
bishops alone shall have the right to send
bishops to foreign lands; new bishops must
have the consent of a majority of the bish-
ops and the house of bishops shall have the
right to meet at any time for any purpose
except that Of legislation. Hereafter, also,
bishops alone shall pass on the election of
a diocesan bishop. The translation of
canons.
| Article VII raises the number of self
supporting parishes and settled pastors in
proposed new diocese from six to ten.
Article VIII gives the declaration of belief
| to which all candidates for the ministry
| must assent. A noticeable phrase is ito
conform to the doctrine Of the church" in
stead Of the doctrines" A controversy
over this is expected, the same ques-
tion has been discussed In previous con-
Ventfons with much warmth.
Article TX says the prayer book "shall
! be the use" in the church, but 1t does not
say that every rubric shall be obeyed
Article is so worded that II 1t were
adopted it would be practically impossible
to alter or amend the constitution in the
future.
Matters of Intense Local Interest,
The coming convention, while being of
paramount interest to Episcopalians
| throughout America and the world in gen.
eral, Is of supreme Importance to the men,
bers of the church in the diocese of Mary
land. The reason for this is obvious 1t
will be recalled that several months ago
! the diocesan convention at the Epiphany
Church in this city favored, by a large ma
5ority, the proposition looking to the diyi-
sion of the diocese of Maryland into two
portions, each to have bishop of its own.