and truly progressive. If they can secure a measure of sympathy and co-operation between parties, and a concentration of their several activities upon the same great objective, the Reformation may take place without disruption or important secessions. Like Erasmus and Colet and More, they do not despair of the Church's power to rise to the new responsibilities and set her own house in order. And in spite of a frank recognition of the difficulties, and moments of doubt as to the vitality of these dry bones, they have since the war received such manifest encouragement that the risk of a break with the past is steadily diminishing, and the future is bright with hope.

The Anglican Communion owes its existence to the circumstances of a very similar epoch: it is the concrete proof that God has used and blessed the genius of Englishmen for interpreting His truth in the terms and methods of a new time. Anglicans have a great and glorious inheritance and a peculiar and sacred responsibility, since to-day the very quality of the age cries aloud for the exercise of the special talent committed to them. The whole circumstances are those of a Renaissance: everywhere a fresh movement of the human spirit is evident: everywhere there is need for the guidance which Christians believe can be given by God in Christ alone. It is still not too late for a great revival: to win the world for Christ has never been so plain and immediate a possibility. If only the religious institutions of Christendom can hear the call and obey it, the new age may see the coming of things long awaited, of a splendour hitherto seen only in dreams. And no other denomination has so great an opportunity as the Anglican Church, whether we look to its past history or its present equipment or its future potentialities. Rome clad in all the prestige and panoply of sovereignty sits like Canute before the incoming tide: unlike the king she is chained to an immovable throne: she has committed herself to

an obstinate resistance to the social and intellectual movement of the time, pitting an outworn philosophy and a rigid organisation against forces which are inevitably destroying her. The Free Churches, with their exaggerated individualism and consequent tolerance of schism, in discovering the needs of the day are discovering also that the historical causes for their separation have long since disappeared, and if Anglicans reform themselves reunion will not be long delayed. Attractive to us all as must be the hope that the Church of England will ultimately be enabled to use her unique position for the uniting of the ancient Catholic Churches with those denominations that owe their origin to the Reformation, it is plain that such a possibility is at present remote. Our immediate task would seem to be the promotion of a strong and if possible united evangelistic movement within the Church, a movement planned with the sympathy and, if practicable, the concurrent support of the Free Churches. Recent experience in simultaneous missions has shown the power of such activities not only to extend the Kingdom, but to create mutual trust and affection between the various bodies taking part in them, and so to produce a widespread recognition of the evils of division and a popular demand for reunion. For co-operation in the work of making disciples rapidly discloses how great and how fundamental are the matters upon which Christians of all types speak with one voice. Beliefs will be restated, machinery overhauled, scandals removed, and the Reformation accomplished as we learn humbly and whole-heartedly to throw ourselves into the gigantic and sorely needed task of world-wide evangelisation. It should be the privilege of the Church of England, if she is true to her character, to take the lead in such an adventure.

VII

THE LAMBETH "APPEAL' AND ITS

RESULTS

BY

THE MOST REV. H. LOWTHER CLARKE, D.D., D.C.L.

FORMERLY ARCHBISHOP OF MELBOURNE

SYNOPSIS

Reunion in the Lambeth Conference, 1908.

Further advances in 1920.

Conditions of union permissible in the Anglican Communion.

The great task of the National Assembly.

Negotiations with non-Episcopal Churches in England.

The Creed of the Church.

The Orthodox Eastern Church.

The Swedish Church.

The Mission-fields of South India.

The Latin Communion.

THE object of this essay is to define as briefly as possible the attitude of the Anglican Communion to the question of Re-union as decided by the Lambeth Conferences of 1908 and 1920, and then to examine what is being done and how far difficulties are beginning to emerge which must be removed before the goal aimed at can be reached.

The Appeal to all Christian People issued in 1920 was no hastily conceived utterance. In 1908 the subject of Re-union was advanced by a Resolution of the Conference, which gave new hope, especially to the Dominions beyond the Seas, and prepared every one for the further advance in 1920. Resolution 75 of 1908 said:

In the welcome event of any project of re-union between any Church of the Anglican Communion and any Presbyterian or other non-Episcopal Church which, while preserving the Faith in its integrity and purity, has also exhibited care as to the form and intention of ordination to the ministry, reaching the stage of responsible official negotiation, it might be possible. to make an approach to re-union on lines suggested by such precedents as those of 1610. Further in the opinion of the Conference it might be possible to authorise arrangements (for the period of transition towards full union on the basis of Episcopal Ordination) which would respect the convictions of