The three Indian communions, when the Scheme of Union reached them from the Joint Committee, all made conditions to its acceptance. The non-episcopal bodies required that it be made plain that no theory of the episcopate should be regarded as official and that their constituencies should continue to have full liberty of communion with non-episcopal Churches after the lapse of the term of thirty years. On the other hand, the General Council of the Anglican body voted that, in adopting the Scheme (1) it did not commit itself to the principle of the equal validity of all ministries, while at the same time requiring from the other bodies no endorsement of any particular theory of ordination; (2) that the Anglican rule for Anglican ministers in regard to the celebration of the eucharist should continue to be binding; (3) that as 'a measure of great importance, the rite of confirmation should be adopted as early as possible by the United Church.'
The position taken by the Lambeth Conference was set forth by a set of resolutions, in the Encyclical Letter sent out by the Bishops and in the Report of the Committee on the Unity of the Church, and was favorable to the inauguration of the movement. The movement the bishops pronounced a 'venture' and 'an experiment on behalf of the whole body of the Anglican Churches, made by our brethren of South India.' The Committee on the Unity of the Church--whose findings are printed in full but were not adopted by the Conference--approved the conditions proposed by the Anglican Church of India, Burma, and Ceylon, including the ultimate use of confirmation as a general practice of the united Church. The resolutions passed by the Conference gave 'its general approval to the suggestions contained in the Report of its Committee on the Unity of the Church,' and commended them to the General Synod of India, Burma, and Ceylon. They spoke of the Scheme as 'bringing together the distinctive elements of different Christian Communions, on a basis of sound doctrine and episcopal order, in a distinct Province of the Universal Church,' a province not subject to the jurisdiction of Canterbury. [2260]
[2259] The Conference ordered negotiations resumed with the Free Churches of England and opened with the Scotch Churches.
[2260] The Anglo-Catholic party in England, through Bishop Gore as its spokesman, demands as an essential condition of the union the acceptance of the doctrine of Apostolic succession and the rite of confirmation. In the new edition of his Church and the Ministry Dr. Gore says that 'the adoption of the Scheme as it is, would go far to break up the Anglican Communion,' p. 224. See also Gore: Proposed Scheme of Union in S. India, 8 pp., London, 1930; Bell: Documents, II., 143-210, and especially the Lambeth Conference 1930, a volume of 200 pp. issued by the S. P. C. K., giving the encyclical letter of the bishops, the resolutions passed by the Conference, and the report of the Com. on the Unity of the Ch., and other reports.
IV. The Anglican and Protestant Episcopal Churches and the Orthodox Eastern and Old Catholic Churches. Communications between these communions and friendly approaches have been increasing since the meetings of the General Convention, 1886, and the Lambeth Conference, 1888. [2261] Unofficial efforts to bring them together are to be dated from 1863, when the Anglican and Eastern Churches Association was formed in London and, 1864, when the Church Unity Society was formed by Protestant Episcopalians. American and English delegations have visited Eastern prelates--as also the Archbishop of Canterbury, 1929--and prelates of the Eastern Churches have been present at meetings of the General Convention and Lambeth Conferences and have joined in Church services in America and England. The most notable gathering was, 1925, in Westminster Abbey at the services in commemoration of the sixteen hundredth anniversary of the Nicene Council and Creed, when the Archbishop of Canterbury preached the sermon and the East was represented by 'His Holiness and Beatitude and Pope and Patriarch of Alexandria,' the Patriarch of Jerusalem, the Metropolitans of Kieff and Nubia, and other dignitaries.
A commission on relations with the Eastern Churches, appointed by the General Convention, 1910, having completed the work assigned to it, was dismissed, 1925. In the meantime, 1920, the commission, meeting in New York with delegates from the East, formulated a 'Concordat or Terms of Agreement as a basis of restoration of corporate unity and intercommunion,' which were later accepted by the General Convention and by the Patriarch and Holy Synod of Constantinople and other Eastern prelates and ecclesiastical bodies. The basis included (1) the 'authority of the Catholic Church to teach what is necessary to be believed and practised for salvation'; (2) the Scriptures as interpreted by the Catholic Church; (3) the Nicene Creed and the 'decrees of faith' of the oecumenically-called Councils. The two parties also declared their acceptance of 'the sacramental acts of each other.'
As a result of the communications, the validity of Anglican orders has received recognition from the Old Catholics of Holland, Germany and Switzerland, and by the Patriarchs of Constantinople and Jerusalem and other Eastern prelates, the latter with limitations given below. The Lambeth Conference of 1930 was visited by 'the most weighty delegation ever sent by the Orthodox Eastern Church to any Western Church,' [2262] and it was agreed to appoint a Joint Theological Commission to consider their differences and agreements in the hope--to use the words of the Lambeth Encyclical Letter of 1930--that 'restoration of communion may become possible as soon as the assemblies of the various Churches can meet.' At a meeting in Lambeth Palace, July 15-18, 1930, between bishops of the English Church and Eastern prelates, seventeen articles were agreed upon as a basis of further discussion by the Joint Theological Commission and promise made that a pro-synod should be convened in the East to discuss the matter. The articles embrace limitations laid down by the Easterners.? 1. In regard to the ministry. The demand that the statements of the XXXIX Articles be interpreted by the Book of Common Prayer and that ordination be accepted as a mysterion--that is, as being sacramental in its nature and conferring a charisma--was agreed to by the Anglicans.? 2. In regard to the eucharist. The Anglicans granted that it is a sacrifice in the sense defined in the archbishops' letter to Leo XIII., 1897, and 'as including the whole company of faithful people, living and departed.' [2263]
[2261] See the Journals of the General Convention and the Reports of the Lambeth Conferences. Canon Douglas: The Relations of the Angl. Ch. with the Churches of the East, London, 1921; the "Eastern Ch. books" issued by the Faith Press, London; Bell Doc. on Christ. Unity.
[2262] A quotation from the Report of the Com. on the Unity of the Church. A final judgment on the 'weight' of the delegation would require a comparison with the delegations sent from the East to the Councils of Lyons, 1274, and Ferrara, 1439.
[2263] The articles and the archbishops' letter, so far as it bore on the eucharistic sacrifice,' are given in the Lambeth Conf., vol. 136-140.
V. The Church of England and the Roman Catholic Church.--In volume II. a brief account is given of the 'Malines Conversations' between Cardinal Mercier and an unofficial delegation of Anglican clergymen, 1921-25, also Leo XIII.'s encyclical on Anglican orders and Pius XI.'s encyclical, 1928, setting forth the Vatican's attitude to the movement toward Church unity brought to its attention by the Appeal of the Lambeth Conference, 1920, a copy of which was sent to Rome, and by the invitation to take part in the Lausanne Convention. Pius demanded unconditional submission to the Roman see from all Protestants, including Anglicans.
Proposals of Church Union within the Protestant Churches of the United States.
1. The Protestant Episcopal Proposals.--Following the action of the General Convention of 1886 proposing four articles as a basis of Church union, the House of Bishops declared 'their desire and readiness to enter into brotherly conference with all or any Christian bodies seeking the restoration of the organic unity of the Church with a view to the earnest study of the conditions under which so priceless a blessing might happily be brought to pass,' and appointed a Commission on Christian Unity 'to open communications with various bodies of Christians in this land.' Prolonged communications were had with the Congregational and Presbyterian Churches. The Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church forthwith declared that it could not agree to the historic episcopate or to the Nicene Creed 'as the sufficient statement of the Christian faith.' The Baptists made no official reply, but insisted on the principle of Church independence. The Methodists also made no official reply except to declare its readiness to fraternize with other Churches.
The National Council of Congregational Churches, 1889, responding 'to the courteous and fraternal appeal of the House of Bishops of 1886,' pronounced the 'declaration of the episcopate indispensable' a barrier to union. The effort to secure co-operation or union between the two bodies has been continued, measures now originating with the one and now with the other. In 1910, the National Council 'voiced the earnest hope of closer fellowship with the Episcopal Church in work and worship.' A notable episode in the dealings between the two bodies was opened with an unofficial discussion between members of the two meeting together, the results of which were brought before the General Convention, 1919, in the shape of 'proposals for an approach toward unity.' The proposals were not adopted by the National Council. Three years later, the Bishops at the General Convention adopted a canon recognizing clergymen of other Churches with the right to perform clerical ministrations in the Protestant Episcopal Church and at the same time to continue 'their fellowship or ministry in the communions,' from which they came and, in case such ministers became settled over Episcopal parishes, they were to 'conform to the doctrine, discipline, and worship of this Church and thus become for all purposes ministers of this Church.' For such ordination, while subscription to the historic episcopate was not explicitly mentioned, the acceptance of 'the historic faith of the Church as contained in the Apostles' Creed and the Nicene Creed' was required. The act of the Convention went beyond the resolution of the Lambeth Conference of 1920, which permitted a bishop to give 'occasional authorization to ministers, not episcopally ordained, to preach in churches in his diocese.' [2264] The Conference at the same time refused to allow ministers not episcopally ordained to celebrate the communion for Anglican congregations, and declared as the general rule 'that Anglican communicants should only receive the communion at the hands of ministers of their own Church' or a minister otherwise episcopally ordained. The action of the American Bishops, 1922, was found not to have been ratified by the House of Deputies, when Dean Brown and Professor Bainton of Yale University appeared before the Bishop of Connecticut and on that account were denied ordination.
The Communications between the Presbyterian Church in the U. S. A. and the Protestant Episcopal Church were prolonged, lasting from 1887 to 1896, and involved a clear statement of the ecclesiastical principle on which they differed, the principle of Church polity or the relative standing of bishops and presbyters. [2265] In accepting the Episcopal invitation and appointing its Committee, 1887, the Presbyterian General Assembly expressed 'its own sincere desire that the conference may lead, if not to a formal oneness of organization, yet to such a vital and essential unity of faith and spirit as shall bring all the followers of our common Lord into hearty fellowship and to mutual recognition and affection and to ministerial reciprocity in the branches of the one visible Church of Christ.' At the same time, the Assembly set forth its conception of the terms of Christian unity in the following words, 'proclaiming them to the world': 1. All believers in Christ constitute one body, mystical yet real, and destined to grow into the fulness of Him who filleth all in all. 2. The Universal Visible Church consists of all those throughout the whole world who profess the true religion, together with their children. 3. Mutual recognition and reciprocity between the different bodies, who profess the true religion, is the first and essential step toward practical Christian unity. With regard to the historic episcopate, the Assembly declared that, although it accepted another origin of the Christian ministry, it 'would find no difficulty with those who interpret the bishops of the New Testament and the primitive Church differently from ourselves, provided our own liberty of interpretation is not infringed.' The reply of the Protestant Episcopal commission was that, so far as the historic episcopate went, the Church in whose name it acted was bound by the words of the Ordinal of the Book of Common Prayer, namely, 'it is evident unto all men, diligently reading Holy Scripture and ancient authors that from the Apostles' time there have been three orders of ministers in Christ's Church, bishops, priests and deacons.' On the question of original historic fact, the two bodies were thus placed in irreconcilable conflict. In one of its communications the Commission stated that 'in days gone by it was the habit of men to glorify divisions, now the great evil of them is generally conceded and the sin of them acknowledged and deplored.' Without replying to the statement, which it certainly would have accepted only with modifications, the Presbyterian committee pronounced that 'external unity' did not seem possible at that time and expressed the hope that measures might be devised to bring the two Churches together in practical Church work, especially on the mission field.