Battle of Prayers

The scandal of two Church of England factions praying against each other, in Westminster Abbey, deeply shocked, last week, many a Scotch Presbyterian, Irish Catholic, Welsh Nonconformist. From 9 in the morning until 10 at night, on two successive days, the embattled prayer groups (each numbering over 1,000) contrarily beseeched The Holy Trinity, with a view to influencing the action of Right

Honorable Members of Parliament. The issue, which was being simultaneously debated in the House of Commons--directly across the street from Westminster Abbey --was whether to authorize or reject a revised form of the Church of England Prayer Book (TIME, Dec. 26). The book submitted to parliamentary judgment, last week, had already been approved by the highest dignitaries of the Church of England: the established or State Church.

Protestantism v. Popery. Basically the great struggle of last week was between British Protestantism and that which nationalistic Britons have for centuries called "Popery." The "Popish" or Anglo-Catholic faction of the Church of England yearn toward Roman Catholicism and practice, for example, such Roman rites as reservation of The Most Blessed Sacrament.

To a layman this means that they not only believe in the transubstantiation of wafer and wine into the flesh and blood of the Savior, but that they also consider it permissible that the entity of Jesus Christ be "reserved" or even carried away from the church to be consumed in unsanctified places, such as private homes.

From all such flat Popery the Evangelical wing of the Church of England turns with loathing--as from a detestable idolatry--and approaches the great Protestant bulk of Englishmen, these latter being commonly called by certain snobbish Anglo-Catholics "the protestant underworld."

Book into Commons. As presented to the House, last week, the revised Prayer Book is the fruit of more than a generation of honest effort by broad-minded Church of Englanders, such as the Archbishop of Canterbury, to compromise their differences with the Evangelicals and avoid a schism in the State Church.

Therefore, the new manual of prayer authorizes reservation of The Most Blessed Sacrament only in cases where the local Bishop specifically approves, for example, in emergencies, such as the need to convey the entity of Christ to a citizen on the verge of Death.

Numerous other compromises have been included and it was hoped that the book submitted last week would prove more acceptable to Parliament than an earlier revised version, voted down last year.

Commons Debate. "A favorable majority for this measure," cried Home Secretary Sir William ("Jix") Joynson-Hicks, "would transform the Church of England into a veritable hotbed of Romish practices!"

When it was suggested to Sir William that he was attacking the life work of the venerable and beloved Archbishop of Canterbury, Primate of all England,--the most Reverend Randall Thomas, aged 80 --the implacable "Jix" thundered, "We seem to remember that a Protestant martyr, Ridley, went to the stake in his eightieth year!"*

Spoke for the book in lofty, compelling periods that great Anglican Lord Hugh Cecil, now esteemed the leading orator in the House of Commons, and brother of famed League of Nations Exponent Viscount Cecil of Chelmwood. At greatest length Lord Hugh traced the practice of reservation from earliest, primitive Christian times, and concluded that, as practiced by Anglicans, it retains its primitive purity unsullied by Popery.

After this abstruse discourse the air was cleared by famed Chancellor of the Exchequer Winston Churchill, ruddy as a round full moon, matter of fact as the taxes he imposes. Crisply Mr. Churchill told the M. P.s that they, as a body of laymen, should not set themselves up as ecclesiastical arbiters, but should pass the Book in deference to the expert endorsement already accorded it by the Archbishops of Canterbury and York and a large majority of the Bishops of the Church of England.

Finally, good, easy-going Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin rose to conclude the debate with a soft-soapy appeal for TOLERANCE--tolerance of the Book, he appeared to mean. At this crux of debate, the battle of prayers--still raging across the street in Westminster Abbey--reached a climax of Evangelical appeals to the Father, Son and Holy Ghost;* while Anglo-Catholics did not scruple to additionally beseech the Virgin Mary, her mother St. Anne, and many another saint.

The House of Commons then voted 266 to 220 rejecting the Prayer Book.

Aftermath. Bowed with disappointment the Archbishop of Canterbury was reported to have said, last week, that he will resign from ecclesiastical office.

Before politicians loomed the serious prospect of a schism within the State Church so grave as perhaps to lead to its disestablishment--a possibility seriously dwelt upon, last week, by Mr. Baldwin.

Sir William Joynson-Hicks, triumphant, announced that the Evangelicals are preparing and will shortly submit their version of a revised Prayer Book.

* A gross error. Martyr Nicholas Ridley was ignited in his fifty-fifth year.

* An astounding and unprecedented affront to the Holy Trinity was the laying of very heavy bets at leading London clubs during the two days of prayer and debate Odds of 7 to 4 favoring the Prayer Book narrowed rapidly to even money, and finally reached 5 to 4 against.

Since nearly all members of the exclusive clubs where such betting took place are professed Church of Englanders, the hypothesis that all upper-crust Britons are congenital hypocrites may be said to have been strengthened.