p. 6 | The Anglo-Roman Union

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Mar 12, 1908

The Anglo-Roman Union

THE proposition put forward recently at a meeting of Episcopalians for union of that church with Rome is attracting considerable attention, and much of the sentiment expressed is averse to the idea. The Christian Herald of February 26 in an editorial speaks as follows regarding the movement:—

The society openly proclaims its desire to overthrow all that Luther and Wycliffe and their friends accomplished, and replace the churches on old pre-Reformation footing. They desire to take a step backward, and to give up all for which the early Protestants struggled and suffered. They propose to do all they can to restore the old tyranny of the popes by adding to the power the pontiff now wields the whole power of the Episcopal Church. It is a humiliating confession, a surrender of principle, which should put every member of the church on the alert.

The time chosen is the more significant because the pope has recently been at some pains to show that neither the Romish church nor its head has changed its principles. It is not a converted nor even a renovated church with which the Episcopalians are to be united, but a church with all its old faults, its old tyrannical methods, its old arrogance and assumptions, its old hatred of honest inquiry and discussion. We are under no apprehension of American citizens being led away when they know the facts. The Christian deplores the divisions of Christendom

but better separation a thousand times than union with such errors as Rome represents, and the surrender of individual spiritual liberty into the hands of an Italian priest. Let every Episcopalian be sure that this is the meaning of the movement, however its character may be disguised under the sophistries of its leaders.