Evening journal., 1908-02-24
REACHES ON THE
ALLURE TO ELECT
v. F. NJ. kuS in Sermon
Refers to the Recent
D OCeSan COnVe. ton

1.-THE Making of a Bishop was the
subject Of a sermon by the Rev. f. NJ.
Kirkus. rector Of Trinity Episcopal
Church. yesterday. morning. Following
so closely the special election for the
election of a bishop and the prominent
part which Mr.. Birkus himself took in
that gathering, the sermon was of more
than usual interest.
The sermon was based on the text
from Timothy 3: z. After a brief
reference to the late convention and
the slight acquaintance of the laity in
general with what is involved in this
solemn responsibility which their rep
resentatives in convention have thus to
perform" he said in part:
Spoke Of Deadlock.
but there is one other matter about
which / want to speak in this connec-
ton. because it has been prominently
alluded to in the public press in cons
nection with our failure to make an
election, on Wednesday last. 1t is un-
fortunately true of tho Church to
which we belong-as it was of the
ancient Church in Corinth-that there
are divisions amongst us Even I'm
our own harmonious little diocese we
cannot claim an entire absence of
party spirit though / do not believe
what the newspapers have proclaimed,
that it was the cause OF the deadlock
last Wednesday There was in fact
no extreme party candidate put in
nomination. and the leader OF. the
Ininority-who was at all times their
spokesman in the convention-is well
known as a moderate and conserva-
tive churchman. And. on the other
hand. there were several types of
churchman included among the sup
porters Of Mr.. Thomas. who consti-
tuted majority so considerable that It
would be absurd to speak of them as q
faction
Doesn't Want Factions.
Now to my mind it would be a very
serious misfortune for our future
bishop to be elected through the mach
nations of any faction and much
more for himself to be a man definitely
and notoriously affiliated with any
party in the Church. The wei known
party names-High, Low and Broad
have by no means a clear and definite
connotation. In the mouth Of the
average layman the two first are al
most always used in connection with
ritual, and the last to indicate a spirit
Of compromise WHICH is willing to
tolerate anything and everything with
in the Church. whether 1t be good,
bad or Indifferent. People as a rule
do not like to employ these party
names as self-descriptive. In fact
they are used much more frequently
as terms Of opprobrium than in any
other way. In any case they are
terms of exclusion, indicating certain
things in which those to whom they
are applied differ from the rest of their
brethren in the Church.
"A bishops sympathies should be
large enough to include every conceiv-
able shade of churchmanship which is
permissible under our very liberal con-
stitution. Hence any party man is, to
my mind, disqualified ipso facto for be-
ing a thoroughly effective bishop Let
his opinions be as decided as they may:
let him be a high churchman or low
churehman Che may be either and still
be perfectly within his rights). but let
him not be I'm any sense of the word)
partisan.
1.-THE term broad churchman is often
used Cil1e the other party names that
1 have mentioned) as a term Of exclu-
sion and opprobrium. He is sometimes
described as a man with a creed Of his
own, consisting mainly of negations;'
but the description does him an injus-
tice.
Broad Churchman
"A true broad churchman is one who
recognizes and acts upon that Catholic
liberty which is our noblest heritage
In that sense, whatever else a bishop
is, he should be broad. The Rituals
tic or so-called Catholic party in the
Church includes some men who are
recognized as earnest and
devout and utterly sacrificing;
men whose work for the kingdom of
Christ Is beyond all praise. Why
should they be disturbed or put down,
when we know perfectly well that
there is a class of people to whom
their particular methods bring genuine
spiritual strength and consolation?
And, on the other hand, why should
the rest of us be forced to use their
methods or adopt their theories. while
we may differ from them widely and