The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1901-10-03
THE EPISCOPAL CONTROVERSY.

The current number of the Diocesan
Magazine, the organ of the Anglican
Bishop of Honolulu, throws sidelights
upon the Bishops plan of campaign at
San Francisco. In the leading article
the Diocesan Magazine says:
All who wish to form an unbiased
7! opinion of the growth of the Anglican
Church during the present Episcopate
should study carefully Ike staristical Ia
BILE contained in our last issue Preris-
/ ing that on the Bishops arrival the
clergy were three in number, it will be
seen that the number was increased to
| ten by the ordination on September o.
| The column giving the acquisition of
real estate, by gift or purchase, togeth-
/ er with that of churches consecrated
will make it plain that there has been
steady growth, until the church sites
and buildings now owned by the Angli-
can Church in Hawaii are valued at
800, 600
There statistics are misleading. Of
the ten clergymen finally acquired in
twenty-five years-two of whom are at
tached to the Bishops personal staff
the only ones who have important
parishes are among His Lordship's most
hostile critics. Furthermore the congre-
cations which desire to escape the
jurisdiction of Bishop Willis are the
ones that have raised at least seventy
five per cent of the local funds rep
resented by the 100000 referred to.
This money was not raised by the
Bishop, whose own efforts can no more
attract contributors than they can
communicates.
If there is any member of the Ameri-
can Church who has been deprived in
Honolulu Of any of the ministrations of
religion he would have enjoyed on the
mainland, the Diocesan Magazine invites
him to call and state his grievance.
Baptism, marriage, burial and public
worship have gone on as usual. There
BILE is over the continuance on American
soil Of church which is neither Ameri-
can nor British and which excludes the |
ministry and the jurisdiction o. the
American church,
The Bishop fixes upon this utterance
of his synod as mis- basis of appeal to
the House of Bishops:
That the Hawaiian Islands having been
annexed to the United States of Ameri- |
ca, this Synod hereby expresses its gen.
eral agreement with the principle on
which the report of the committee on IN
creased responsibilities of the Church |
presented to the general convention at
its session in 1898 was based, viz: that
the Hawaiian Islands should ultimately |
come under the spiritual jurisdiction Of
the Church in the United States, and
further puts on record its readiness to
take such steps as may be necessary for
bringing the Anglican Church in Hawaii
into union with tn Church in the Unit
ed States, whenever an invitation to
that effect proceed from the authorities
of that Church to the diocese of Homo
lulu, it being made clear at the same
time that the interests of the Church
in Hawaii shall be duly and sufficiently
safeguarded and It's integrity maintained,
and that the support of the Bishop and
clergy now received from England will
be continued by the Church in the Unit
ed States, until the diocese or missionary
jurisdiction of Honolulu becomes finan- |
cially Independent.
In other words the Bishop makes an
ultimatum-either his See must be rec
ognized and supported or he will drop |
all negotiations with the American |
church and stay where he is. In that |
event but one thing remains to be done |
and it is to give American communi- |
cants here the right to choose between |
the separate Church in Hawaii, or a |
mission in these Islands of the Church |
the matter, will be the plea of those |
who have gone to San Francisco to |
protest against the Willis program.