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tion is made, that we can say that we stand where we ought to stand in this matter. It is true that the Catholic churches here and in the United States have in very many cases large and devout congregations. It is true that there is a splendid keenness especially among the young men and women who attach themselves to us; but there are many laity, both thoughtful and ignorant, who from their different angles regard us with scruple and doubtfulness. A fairly large number even in our own congregations do not attempt to prevent others from doing so, though again there is a fair number who object to the Sacrament of Penance altogether. On the other hand any small change in the services or ornaments of the Church is generally resented by a section in any congregation. This is founded, I think, not merely on prejudice or conservatism, but often on a fundamental failure to understand the Catholic idea. I believe that much good will be done in England by the careful working of the Parochial Church Councils. It would be interesting to know the opinions of American Catholics as to the success and usefulness of the Vestry. But at least such bodies as these, by making it possible for the laity to comment on and even to question the action of the clergy, must lead to many explanations and to the elucidation of many doubtful points. This must be for good.

And further, a second difficulty comes out of our failure altogether to convert the laity. We do not yet pull nearly our full weight in the Councils of the Church. The recent elections to the Lower Houses of Convocation in England do indeed point to the fact that Catholicism will be well represented in the National Church Assembly, but then, the electors were all clergy. And it is a fact that very few Catholics are chosen for the higher offices of the Church. Bishoprics and Deaneries, at least in England itself, are seldom filled by priests of our side. It may be that this

is passing, but it will not really pass until we can show that we have made more impression on the laity of the Church in general.

I can illustrate this failure to make any great impact on the public mind outside the Church in the matter of appointments in the Church. You would expect, under our admittedly scandalous method of appointment of Bishops, that Mr. Lloyd George would feel constrained sometimes to consult the President of the English Church Union as to his appointments. This would be wise, one would think, merely from the worldly point of view of trying to please all powerful bodies in the disposal of patronage. As a matter of fact I do not believe he does anything of the kind. I suppose he knows of our existence, but I doubt if he knows much more. I am not desiring that the Church, or the Anglo-Catholic body within the Church, should be in a position of political power. Politics have harmed the Church too much in the past to make it possible for anyone who has her welfare at heart to desire that. All I am saying is that the present state of things illustrates the smallness of the influence which AngloCatholicism brings to bear upon the general mind of England today. I am not qualified to say how far this is true in the United States, but I should suppose from my general knowledge that it is even more true there than here.

A third trouble, distinct from and yet growing out of the last, is the danger of our being satisfied. We have our congregations and our adherents. We have something more than toleration, and to a certain, and I think, a growing extent we are influencing the Anglican Communion; but it would be deplorable indeed if our internal pre-occupations swamped our interest in national movements, in social problems and in the great affairs of the world. Persecution has a tendency, by driving the persecuted into a corner, to produce in them a certain negligence of other

interests than their right to exist. It is important that the cessation of persecution should lead us to a truly Catholic breadth of vision.

And a fourth danger I see very clearly here a want of cohesion among the clergy. There are different "strands" in our movement, and a good deal of mutual suspicion which ought to be impossible. And, to speak frankly, during the short time I was in America I saw quite clearly that you suffer from the same weakness. Unity is absolutely necessary if we are to win our battle: jealousies and divisions are unchristian-they are also very bad policy. The formation of the Federation of Catholic Priests in England has done a good deal to unite some of the strands of thought: some of our plans for future work will, I hope, do more. But the Catholic movement needs above all things unity among the priests. We all know how quickly the relation of the clergy between themselves reflects itself in the congregation. For all reasons we must understand one another, and hold together.

3. The Next Step. And this brings me to the consideration of our next step. I take it that all thoughtful Anglo-Catholics agree that the next move must be extensive, even if it passes first of all through a short intensive stage. It must in the long run be evangelistic. By this time we can take our Catholicism for granted, and not be self-conscious about it. We can regard it as the foundation of all that we do, and not as a thing in process of construction. We want now to go out and forward and commend all that we stand for to the rest of the Church, and to the world, so far as we can reach them. I am now thinking of England. As I write we are standing on the brink of the first Anglo-Catholic Priests' Convention which is to be held at Oxford from July 18 to 22. It is a remarkable circumstance that there will be be

tween 1,100 and 1,200 priests present, and that the University Church, New College and Magdalen, and other Colleges are allowing the use, not merely of their buildings, but of their Chapels for the Convention. The Cathedral and the University Church are also to be used for services; the Bishop of Oxford is President.

The culmination of the whole is to be on Friday morning, July 22, when it is hoped that all the priests of the Convention will meet together to discuss its practical outcome. It will then be proposed that we should begin a year of repentance and hope for the Anglo-Catholic priesthood, in order that they may be prepared for an evangelistic movement a little later. It is hoped that retreats, conventions and clergy schools will be arranged through the length and breadth of England, and that we shall be able to touch and vitalize the work in the vast majority of Anglo-Catholic parishes. A year of intensive work will then, we hope, be followed by the second Anglo-Catholic Congress. This should have an evangelistic note running throughout it, and should issue in a great evangelistic effort, an effort which will take note of the whole of the national life. It is time that we ceased doing things in a corner and came out into the open. I greatly hope that we shall be able to co-operate with such groups as the Life and Liberty Movement and others which have in general the same aim as ourselves.

The two notes which I hope will sound from the Convention are sanity of thought and keenness in action. There must be all the up-to-dateness which is compatible with fidelity to the Catholic Faith as the Church knows it. There must be the presentation of a reasonable Catholicism based on the fullness of the sacramental life; a presentation made, I hope, with a newer attractiveness coming out of a year of quiet intensive cultivation of the devotional life.

And, secondly, we want something of the fire of the beginning of our Movement, as indeed of the beginning of all great movements. We need to pray to the Spirit of God for a new ideal in the pastoral sphere. In the last resort it is the teachers who count, and it is futile to begin propaganda until the teachers are ready.

You will hear more, no doubt, in the course of the next few weeks of what we over here are proposing to do. I am in a real difficulty owing to the fact that this article must be posted before the beginning of the Convention. I may perhaps be allowed in a later issue of the AMERICAN CHURCH MONTHLY to write more in detail after the 1,200 priests have agreed as to The Next Step.

Thy Faithful People

REV. A. PARKER CURTIS

OME years ago I was asked to review two books con

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cerning Bishop King, of Lincoln: his "Spiritual Letters," and a "Biography." In one of them I found a letter from which I quoted a passage in which he said he loved the common people-"down to the ground." I thought it worthy of quotation, because it revealed a phase of his character, which was perhaps the secret of much more that was worthy of respect and veneration. Looking through the volume of "Spiritual Letters" again today, I find many others which breathe an intense love of the common laity. He mentions ploughboys, carters, servants and "our poor villagers." What I seemed to gather from the two books, was that he was a great Bishop, a great Priest and a great lover of souls, and he was the first two things chiefly because he was the last.

In these degenerate days of a scarcity of laborers in the vineyard, when a vestry or even a bishop goes clergy

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