Article August 8, 1903 Issue

Anglican Liberalism

Canon Henson of Westminster Abbey has recently said that the church has no right to withhold the sacrament from any Christian man who lives a consistent life and who has fulfilled the apostolic requirements of faith and baptism; "members of Christ's mystical body they are; and how can they be refused permission to affirm the fact? Neither the spirit of the Prayer Book nor of the New Testament," said he, "authorizes the exclusion of any of Christ's flock who come to partake of the Lord's Supper, and such a course is wholly inconsistent with Paul's benediction : 'Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity.' "

Rev. Dr. Abbott, rector of St. James Church, Cambridge, Mass., has taken yet more liberal ground in proposing that any baptized person shall be permitted to address his congregation "on occasions, himself being present." This privilege and exercise he does not think comes under the proscriptive rule of the church which forbids that the ministers of other religious organizations shall be permitted to perform any priestly function. These, and many kindred indications of a true Catholicity of spirit, are among the encouraging signs of the times, and offset the tendency toward greater exclusiveness which has occasionally been manifest in the Anglican body.

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