The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-02-01

The high church or 'Romanizing" clergy
are undoubtedly the ablest and most ac-
tive and the laity who follow them are
the most earnest Another strong minor
| ity of the laity are actively and enthus,-
asticany Protestant but the great bulk
of the laity are Indifferent. and will fol-
low the party that comes out on top in
the present fight.
Now what is the trouble all about?
Kikuyu. which is likely to go down in
church history with oxford. Lambeth
| Trent and other places which have given
their names to landmarks in the progress
! of the church, is an obscure settlement
| in Brush East Africa 1t is the center
| of mission field in which in addition To
| Roman Catholics. missionaries of almost
| all the so-called Protestant sects are
| working. Mahometan missionaries ave
also at work and the Christian workers
found that their progress in winning
| converts among the natives was greatly
! handicapped by the divisions among them
| selves.
Accordingly, about six months ago a
conference OF all the Protestant mission
| aries-l use Protestant for convent
ence to include the Church of England
although the high church party repudi-
ates the term-was called to try and work
| out common basis of Christianity which
! all might teach to the natives and which
would be noncontroversial. The mission
aries met and fraternized and came to
the conclusion that there wasn't much
| difference after all between their various
! creeds. They agreed on a basis which
| included as its main planks the accent
ance of the Nicene creed, belief in the
divinity of Christ and salvation through
| faith.
So far there was no trouble. At the
| conclusion of the conference, however
| a communion service was held i'm a
PRESBYTERIAN mission church, which. bv
the way, was the only building avail
| able. All the missionaries attended and
| the sacrament was administered to all
! by DR.. Willis. the Anglican Bishop of
| Uganda, assisted by DR. Peel, the Bishop
OF Mombasa. This open communion"
as 1t is called is the rock on which
\ the church threatens to split
| News of what had happened came to
the ears of Dr. Weston. the Bishop of
| Zanzibar, who is an extreme high
chIrchman, and he at once cried out
| that an ecclesiastical crime had been
committed and that the Bishops of
Uganda and Mombasa were guilty of
heresy Their heresy consisted i'm the
eyes of the sacredotalists, in admittine
TO the sacrament persons who HAD not
| been baptized or confirmed and who
therefore, technically. were not Chris
] tlans. 1t may be explained that under
the high church Interpretation of the
laws of the Church of England no one
| VINO has not been ordained by bishon
1 who in his turn has received his con
secration by apostolic succession ia
competent to administer baptism or
confirmation. In admitting Presbvter-
inns, Methodists, Baptists and Quakers
to communion, therefore. the bishops
Were guilty of heresy.
| The Bishop of Zanzibar at once cot
the ball in motion. He wrote to the
| Bishop of st. Albans, who is one of
the leaders of the high church party.
asking him to join in asking the Arch
bishop of Canterbury to take action.
Just what action he desired was not
stated but it is evident that a heresi-
trial is the only thing that will sat-
fsfy the high churchmen and it is also
evident that the Protestant partv i'm
the church feel that the present is as
good time as any for them to make a
stand.
Hardly had the Bishop OF zanzibar's
letter been published when the Bishon
of Durham stood forward and declared
that If his brothers of Mombasa and
Uganda were heretics he too, was one.
and would be glad to go with them to
the stake. He was supported by his
DEAN DR.. Hens1ey Henson, one of the
most famous preachers in the church
4
lthe high church party is DR.. Gore. the
Bishop of Oxford. who is pressing for
4 heresy trial and who declares that
no Catholic churchman can remain in
communion with the African bishops
VINO so tiasrantly transgressed the
rules and traditions of the church.
This is regarded by the bulk of the
church membership as a yelled threat
| OF secession to Rome in case the arch
! bishop supports the African bishops
So far DR.. Davidson the Archbishop OF
| canterbury, has given no sign of his
attitude and it is unlikely that he Will
| botray his position until he is forced
TO do So for he has a great reputa-
tion as a diplomat and an apostle of
| compromise.
Almost as important is the cause Of
| the dispute itself is the form of the
trial. The Bishops of Zanzibar, oxford
| and st. Adams demand that the two
| bishops shall be tried before a court
| composed of the Archbishop of Canter-
bury and his comprovincial bishops
They base this demand on the per-
fectly reasonable ground that a charge
| of theological heresy should be tried
| by court of theologians Canon law
experts, however. declare that no such
court is known to the English church
and that the only court competent to
try charge of heresy is the judicial
committee of the privy council, a body
| composed chiefly of superannuated
Judges who may be churchmen or ath-
eists and who certainly are not theo-
lcgians. The fact Is that the Church OF
England is established by law and that
the King is it's head. Even the PRAYER
book, including the 80 articles, is a
schedule of the act of uniformity and
not a word can be changed except by
act of Parliament. The King as head
of the church delegates his judicial
functions to the judicial committee and
this, therefore. is the only competent
court in heresy trial.
If this Is good law and there seems
to be little doubt that 1t is Kfl<uyu
may lead to the severance of church
and state in England. The high church.
men declare that they will never sub
nit to the trial of question involv-
ing the most fundamental doctrines of
their faith by a court the members of
which may even not be Christians and
In that they will have the support of a
large section of the broad and low
churchmen among the laity. IT is quite
likely that this phase of the oues-
tion which has lust arisen may over
shadow the "heresy'' of the bishops.
I'm any case there seems to be wide
divergence of opinion among church.
men as to the law regarding the
"heresy." The high church party main
tains that the Anglican church is n
branch of the Catholic church and must
follow the practice of the Roman and
eastern orthodox branches, which. of
course, are opposed to "open com
munion." They argue that instead OF
making for Christian unity open com