The Church IN England

The fiery founder of Methodism, John Wesley, started out to reform the torpid Church of England of the mid-18th century; thanks to Anglican hostility, the evangelical societies he founded grew into a new and separate church. Last week a committee of Anglican and Methodist church leaders announced a plan to bring England's two great religious bodies back together.

The plan is in a report on 16 ecumenical conversations that have been held since 1956 by representatives of the Church of England (9,748,000 Confirmed members) and the Methodist Church (1,081,000 members). Unity requires one major concession by each side:

>The Methodists must accept the ordination of their clergy by the Episcopate and, implicitly, the Anglican principle of rule by bishops descended, by the laying on of hands, from the twelve Apostles. Wesley scoffed at this historic episcopal structure, and British Methodism is run by district chairmen, not bishops. Much against Wesley's own wishes, U.S. Methodists have always called their top officers bishops, but without recognizing the apostolic succession.

> The Anglicans must accept disestablishment, persuading Parliament to pass a bill cutting the church off from the privileges and protection accorded it by the British government.

The committee proposed joining the churches in two stages, a period of full intercommunion followed by formal union, with the Methodists becoming, in effect, the evangelical branch of a new Church in (rather than of) England.

Wine or Grape Juice? "Union in one church is a long-term dream," admitted Bishop Harry James Carpenter of Oxford, co-chairman of the joint committee, "and it may be 10, 20 or 30 years before it is achieved." The plan must first be considered by the Anglican Convocations in May and by the Methodist Conference in July. The committee suggested that the question of merger be discussed at the parish and district level for two years. Only after the discussions end will ecclesiastical experts attempt to resolve such technical problems as whether the teetotaling Methodists should continue to use grape juice instead of wine in Holy Communion.

If the churches agree to go ahead with the intercommunion, the committee suggested that the decision be celebrated in reconciliation ceremonies at churches and chapels across the country. The committee thoughtfully drew up a formula for the rite, drawn largely from Anglican and Methodist service books.

A Step Backward? Anglican committeemen, high and low churchmen alike, were surprisingly hopeful about bringing the merger off. Said the Rt. Rev. George Sinker, provost of the Diocese of Birmingham: "I think this is the finest opportunity we have had since we turned John Wesley out of the Church of England." The Rev. Leslie Davison, president of the Methodist Conference, went so far as to say: "Denominations have fulfilled their day."

But Dr. Harold Roberts, chairman of the Methodist representatives, admitted that "radical adjustments are demanded of Methodists in the proposals we are putting forward." Perhaps the adjustments will be too radical. Four of Roberts' representatives signed a "dissentient" minority report, warning that many Methodists would be unable to accept such violations of tradition as episcopal organization. Wesley, the dissidents noted, called apostolic succession "a fable which no man ever did or could prove." Their conclusion: "To move from a Church committed to the evangelical faith into a heterogeneous body permitting, and even encouraging, unevangelical doctrines and practices, would be a step backward which not even the desirability of closer relations could justify."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.