Article October 10, 1908 Issue

CHRISTIAN SCIENCE AND THE LAMBETH CONFERENCE

Frederick Dixon—London, England.

The Onlooker

The report of the Lambeth Conference with respect to the "Ministries of Healing" has been issued over the signature of the Bishop of Winchester. It is a remarkable document. affecting many schools of thought, both within and without the Church, but it is entirely with respect to its attitude towards Christian Science that I wish to examine it here.

There was no compulsion on the bishops to examine "the claims" of Christian Science. Indeed, the bishops, though some of them are men of deep learning, and all of them are men of high character, are very far from forming an ideal judicial assembly. There was, again, no compulsion on them to accept the offer of information made to them from the official quarters of Christian Science, though it might have been imagined that, as they were accepting the assistance of certain members of the medical profession, they would not have ignored this offer. What is remarkable is that they should have been so devoid of the salt of humor as not to have foreseen the inevitable fate of a report arrived at by such means.

The object for which the committee was appointed is stated with admirable clearness in the preamble: "To consider and report upon the subject of ministries of healing: (a) the unction of the sick; (b) faith-healing and 'Christian Science.'" The conclusion arrived at is stated with equal clearness in the report. So far as healing in Christian Science is concerned, this is set out as follows: "The committee considers that the claim to heal all manner of diseases and organic troubles has not been substantiated, while suffering has been caused, with many deaths, by the refusal to allow the sick, children as well as adults, to profit by medical attendance and care." Now the Bishop of Winchester, who signed the report, is one of the foremost scholars in the country. He knows the value and meaning of words better than most people. It is permissible, therefore, to ask him whether he considers the phrase, "the committee considers that the claim to heal all manner of diseases and organic troubles has not been substantiated," to be a fit one to employ to describe a report compiled after an inquiry from which the evidence of Christian Scientists had been excluded and that only of its opponents accepted. This is the gentlest way of putting it. The wording of the report really suggests, to a public absolutely ignorant of the facts, that evidence as to healing had been tendered by Christian Scientists, and found unconvincing.

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