New-York tribune., 1901-11-24
THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH PROTESTANT

THE EPISCOPAL CHChcH i'4
Tho recent declaration Of DR.. Donald rector
Of Trinity Episcopal Church or BOSTON, 'ld'
Eniscopal ordination is not necessary 10 lhe
ra,id administration of the Lords Supper pos
sesses an interest for Christians OUTSIDE the
Fpiscopal Church For il is one or the man!
evidences indicating that the protestant eie-
ment in that Church is by no means deaa. Inc
extreme Catholic wing in the Episcopal Church
has been so much in evidence during the Iast
few wears that its ultimate ascendancy in the
Church has come to be generally assumed. The
Catholics themselves have been so sure OF TINS
that they have been in the habit of treating
their opnonents not a school or thou&hl
entitled to liberation. but as unbelieverS ana
heretics to be disciplined or driven out or the
Church. In reality, however the CathohcS are
themselves simply tolerated school OF thoueht'
and in spite Of their strength 1t IS quesuoh
whether the Church will not ultimately reject
their principles and range itself with the Prot
estant conception of Christianity
That there is a strong Protestant reaction IN
the Anglican and Episcopal churches Is eVi-
dent to every observer In a sermon recently
preached at the University OF Cambridge canon
Henson. of Westminster, vigorously aTraigned
High Anglicans for their attitude toward Non
conformists He declared that he had found
sniritual strength and inspiration in the books
of such Nonconformists Ramsay. George
Adam Smith Fairbairn and Bruce, no less than
in the works of Anglican divines. And III MS
deyotions Roman Catholic Lutheran, Anglican
land Nonconformist were reconclled easily
enough in the privacy Of prayer ana u'edl-
"tation" Moreover, the most Christlike people
he ever knew were outside Of the Anglican
Church; yet, according to sone Churchmeh'
these men whose books ne read. whose prayers
he used and whose characters he revered were
outcasts from fellowship. II it be urged that
| doctrtnaI differences make this ostracism neces-
sarv he would simply reply that even greater
| doctrnal differences exist within the Church
itself without breaking fellowship 1t will be
| said of course, that men like DR.. Donald and
Canon Henson are radical Broad Churchmen,
and therefore do not speak for the Church in
general But in the last issue Of The Church
man" appears All article by an advanced Catho-
| lie clergyman. the Rev. b. W. r. Tayler, of
| Los Angeles, Cal, in which he reprobates some
! of the tendencies of the Catholic school of
| thought in this country. Declaring himself to
| be an ardent believer in the Oxford movement.
| he is nevertheless forced to admit that the
| movement is now IAN utter perversion or the
spirit and purpose of the Anglican reformation
"of the sixteenth century or Of the Catholic
| revival of the nineteenth century.
|
word of condemnation for a stately ritual, he
| protests against 1.-The absurd posturings of the
| priest and his cohort of attendants, the re-
''peated swayings of the head and crossings of
| ''the hands, and movements backward and for
| ward. hither and thither, the multiplied genu-
| "fections the covering and uncovering of the
| head, the incessant removal Of books from
| lone side of the altar to another, the multitu-
"dinous signings OF the Cross, the inaudble
| "mutterlngs :. utterly destructive of that
| "statuesque stateliness which is characteristic
| "of true worship" The use, also. of the word
| "mass," associated as it is with the PapaI
Church. and the scornful rejection of the word
| Protestant must have the effect of alternating
| the people from the Church. Then, as to doc
trine Mr. Tayler says that some of the Anglo
Catholic leaders have come to accept the Roman
teaching of tranSubStantiaton, the Roman view
| Of eschatology and the Roman doctrine of the
necessity of auricular confession. They have
also flooded the Church with devotional litera-
| ture adapted and sometimes adopted from
| Roman Catholic sources. In the opinion Of the
| writer all this tends to align the Catholic party
| with Romansm, against whose system and
teaching the Anglican and Episcopal churches
have lodged their solemn protest-a protest
| which in the case Of the Episcopal Church has
| been embedded in its very title.
But Mr.. Tayler holds that the most serious
Indictment Of the Catholic party is its failure to
understand the deep religious life of the Ameri-
can people outside of the Episcopal Church. And
its ignorance Of Professionalism is made pecul-
iarly offensive by It's attitude Of lofty contempt
Yet Professionalism is force to be reckoned
with in American Christianity, and in the opin-
ion Of the writer must be factor In any pos
sible basis Of Christian or Catholic unity. He
says:
The look Romeward for Christian unitv Is
only a wasting Of time and blasting of hooes
1 satisfied that the hope of the
Church lies not Romeward, but toward those
masses Of separated brethren who are bearer
to by ties ef knship and religion than Rome
ever Let me Catholic Church
man warn the Catholic party that it is not
to-day gaining ground In the Church; that
already the reaction is on; that the tide has
turned. and 1t has turned because 1t (the Catho-