71 RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
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bé these; and these surely constitute, as the bishops declared, ‘‘ the substantial deposit of Christian Faith and Order committed by Christ and his Apostles to the Church unto the end of the world, and therefore incapable of compromise or surrender by those who have been ordained to be its stewards and trustees for the common and equal benefit of all men.” The Anglican Church consistently adheres to this standpoint. The whole meaning of its initiation of the movement for a world conference on faith and order is to help to bring about the mutual understanding, and the friendly cooperation in study, which is necessary for the growth of all Christians into one mind concerning what has been received from Christ.
The impossibility of securing external uniformity in non-essentials, and the necessity that a truly Catholic religion should be practically adapted to
every race, condition, and tempera- 2. External ment, should be clearly realized. Yet eae ai there is an obvious limitation to this
p fae of Principle. True unity requires de- Ministries, Cency and order, even in things not in-
trinsically vital. There must be visible harmony even in things of human ordering; so that Christians can feel at home in the Church wherever they go; and so that the divergencies of use that remain shall not appear to represent a conflict of principles and ideals. The Supper of the Lord is the sacramental and working center of unity; and its general method should be at least as uniform, broadly speaking, as is consistent with the edification of diverse peoples and temperaments. The elasticity of the Church’s devotional life is most fully to be attained in the devotions and usages which supplement and fill out this central service. The thorny question of parity of ministries ought not to be forced to the front until it is more ripe for settlement. In particular, mutual reciprocity in ministerial functions can not be pressed without imperiling the earlier stages of growth toward unity. For Christians of different bodies to confer successfully is possible only by treating ministerial claims as a subject for discussion and study, rather than as a mutually accepted platform; and to treat the subject in this mutually non-committal way is entirely consistent with faithfulness to conviction on the part of all.
4. How Unity is to be Achieved: This is certainly not by mere human effort and wisdom, nor on lines which can with certainty be described beforehand; but by the working of the Holy Spirit, in manners known only to God, and in God’s own time. The certainty that Christian unity, and
therefore union, is God’s will, and the 1. Trust in assurance that the Holy Spirit is the
oe q see real cause of the growing demand for ae unity, show clearly that Christians
ought to labor for the union of Christendom, and that such labor will not, in the long run, prove abortive. The most powerful human factor is love—love which is strong enough to bridge the gulfs that divide the Christian world, to overcome denominational pride, to fortify patient courtesy and persistent study in the face of polemical war-cries, and to enlighten our minds to distinguish
what is essential truth, and incapable of compromise, from what is not.
Another important human factor would appear to be modern cosmopolitanism in religious investigation. In our day the results of Christian research in every land rapidly become common property. No doubt these results are often obscured
and given perverted explication from
2. Broad rationalistic standpoints, but the power
Tnvestiga- of truth to accredit itself, and to pretion, ‘ ‘ 4 j Patience, Vil against caricature, is to be counted and Prayer.on. Above all, the Holy Spirit can be reckoned upon, whose enlightening grace will enable sincere truth-seekers everywhere to profit by cosmopolitan scholarship, and to utilize it from a truly Christian standpoint for the attainment of increasing unity of faith. To doubt it is to doubt Providence. Time also is a vital factor. Reunion may indeed become possible sooner and more suddenly than was dreamed, but in any case it will come as precipitating and revealing results of much hidden growth, of workings that have gone on for generations. The point requiring emphasis is that unity can not be forced before God’s moment; and until that moment arrives, efforts to formulate the precise conditions and terms of unity must serve. as a hindrance rather than a help to the cause of unity. Prayer—unceasing and habitual prayer for unity, and for the Christian graces and illumination which make for it—is absolutely indispensable. Prayer is necessary to afford the human conditions of the Spirit’s work, to develop love, and to enable us all to growin one. The following prayer is widely used in certain communions, and might well be used by all Christians: ‘‘ O Lord Jesus Christ, who saidst unto Thine Apostles, Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you; regard not our sins, but the Faith of Thy Church; and grant her that peace and unity which is agreeable to Thy will: Who livest and reignest God for ever and ever. Amen.” Francis J. Hawn.
5. Anglo-Swedish Negotiations: [After some preliminary unofficial negotiations in 1888 and 1897 between the Anglican and Swedish Churches, the archbishop of Canterbury, at the request of the Lambeth Conference in 1908, appointed a committee to inquire into the possibility of closer relations between the two communions, the initial basis being the fact that the Swedish Church, alone of Lutheran communions, has preserved an episcopate. The report of this commission has declared that “ the succession of bishops has been maintained unbroken by the Church of Sweden, and that it has a true conception of the episcopal office. . . . That the office of priest is also rightly conceived as a divinely instituted instrument for the ministry of the Word and Sacraments, and that it has been in intention handed on throughout the whole history of the Church of Sweden.” It is, accordingly, reeommended that at the next Lambeth Conference (or at a meeting of English bishops) a resolution be adopted which, like that regarding the Old Catholics of Germany, Austria, and Switzerland (adopted in 1888), will permit ‘“‘ members of the National Church of Sweden, otherwise qualified to receive the Sacrament in their own Church,’”’ to be admitted to Holy
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