The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1909-03-20
THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH.

The almost universal indifference of the Amer-
can people-beyond the pale of the Catholic church
| to dogmatic Christianity is menacug for the flu
| ture and is alarming serious minded men, This in
difference is threatening the permanency of the
Episcopal church which. socially at least stands at
the head of Protestant Christianity in our country
To neutraize, with the hope of eventually destroy
ing, the effects of this religious dry.Pot number
of sincere and thoughtful clergymen and laymen
within the Episcopal church have formed union
whose basic principal is return to the "one fold
and one shepherd" The organization is known as
the "Anglo-Roman Union" formed for the defense
and maintenance of Catholic principles and to pro-
mote the corporate reunion of the Anglican church
with the See of Rome Another time we will dwell
at some length the admirable aim and object of
this most meritorious movement within the Epis-
copal church If in the near future our separated
brethren of the Anglican communicable men of
good will among them acknowledgements with
the "one fold and ond shepherd" we believe that
union will, humaney speaking, be brought about
through the influence of the educated intellects the
pious souls and the large body of sincere and honest
and women to be found in the Episcopal or
rather the Anglican church. which our friend Faith
err Francis of Graymoor insists calling the Feel
esia Angcana of Pre-reformation times.
1t has been our privilege for forty years to have
mingled, socially and Intellectually. in Great Brit
ain and the United States, with those who are not
of our fold, and while we have known and learned
to respect many who belonged to different dissent
ing bodies or religious denominations we are con-
strained to acknowledge that among the members
of the church of England in Europe and America
we found higher standard of honor keener ap-
probation of the courteses of life greater respect
for religion and more exalted ideals, than among
those of the non-conformst bodies. Many causes
may have conspired to produce this religious and
social superiority but waving the influence of
hereditary arlstocracy, disposed to accredit
this preeminence to the fact that the Anglican
church has in the division of the Seamless gar
ment' retained larger part than other Protestant
bodies
Again it is an incontrovertibe truth that God
has visibly conferred the grace of conversion on
greater number of Anglicans than on all other En-
Protestants combined In advancing
this statement particularly allude to those priv
LEGGED souls who have returned to the faith of God
convinced that outside the Roman Catholic church
there could be no salvation for them.
Unhappily the Episcopal church in the United
States is today house divided against itself and
has become its own worst enemy 1t has no lead
ers no great men, and is in danger of degenerating
INTO an undiscipned body, with organic unity
and no center of authority.
Moreover there is among some of its bishops and
many of its clergymen ugly disposition mani
testing itself towards those who for the sake of the
church and perishing souls, are laborng TO restore
discipline and impart efficiency to the Anglican
,attaions
Within the Anglican communion today there
ire two divisions contending over a supreme issue
IN the settlement of which the very life of the
church depends. The great and vital struggle now
aking place among the Anglican forces hinges
1pon this question: Shall the Anglican church
decide for unbranded Protestant free thought or
or reconciliation with Rome :"
Sincere and thoughtful men within the Anglican
old forsee that, if the church is to be preserved.
something must be done to arrest the decomposi-
ion induced by the slow action of religious luke.