OCR Text |
Show PLANS REUNION OF ENGLISH CHURCHES LONDON. Nov. 9. (By the Associated Press). Plans for a reunion of the Church of England and the Wesleyans were announced an-nounced by the Bishop of London in an address on the "Reunion of Christendom" just delivered in St.-Paul's cathedral. The bishop supplemented this, to England, startling proposal with the statement that ; it was certain other churches would want to Join them. He believed, he declared, that the time wouid come when they would be In close association not only with the churches of Greece and of Russia, Rus-sia, but even with the Church of Rome. The plan for the reuniting of the two churches was the outgrowth of a two years' conference between the "Wesieyans and the Church of England, the bishop said. Briefly, it would provide that after January l, 1921. there should be no ordinations" ordi-nations" In either church which were not considered valid by the other. There would be a bishop with the presbyters at the laying on of hands, and at the end of forty years there would be no Wes-leyan Wes-leyan minister who would not have been ordained by a bishop of the Church of England. In order to have "VVesleyan ministers episcopally ordained at once, twelve presbyters would be consecrated bishops. The bishop asserted that the Church of England was powerless when the war broke out. because of the divisions of Christendom. It was equally powerless in dealing with the great labor disputes of today. The church as an organized society, so-ciety, he said, really did not count in any of these great affairs. |