Episcopalian Overtures Toward Rome
RECENTLY there was held in Boston, Mass., the triennial general convention of the Episcopal church, at which the Archbishop of Canterbury, who was visiting this country for the first time, was present. A feature of this convention was a plea for closer union with the Church of Rome, made by Rt. Rev. William Doane, bishop of Albany. “If we can only find the place where the ways parted,” said Bishop Doane, “it is not impossible to find the place where we shall meet again.” It ought not to be difficult to find the place where the ways of Romanism and of Protestantism separated, if that is what the bishop has in mind; and the Church of Rome would doubtless be quite ready for a reunion with the Protestant bodies at that point. Such a reunion would involve no change on the part of Rome; while on the part of Protestants, however, a return to the parting of the ways would involve the surrender of the cardinal Christian doctrine of justification by faith. Bishop Doane saw no objection to such a degree of oneness with Rome as would involve a recognition by Episcopalians of the primacy, though not the supremacy, of the Roman see. “It is easy to acknowledge a primacy,” he said, “because of the antiquity of the Roman see, and because of its splendid service in the early days.” The question of the union of the church with her divine head, Jesus Christ, which is of far greater moment than any problem of uniting church bodies can be, seems not to have received any of the bishop’s thought. Yet this is the real and only problem of church unity, from the Christian standpoint. If there is union with Christ, no other union is necessary; two individuals who are united with Christ must necessarily be in union with each other. And if union with Christ is lacking, no other union is of any consequence. Church legislation, which was considered at the convention, embraced a proposition to change the name of the church, omitting from it the word “Protestant.” Such a change of name might be consistent at this time, if nothing more. Such incidents are straws showing which way the religious wind is blowing.