ON THE eve of this week’s momentous meeting of bishops the Morning Post published a leading article bidding them leave the Prayer Book alone, and our contemporary has since printed letters from its Protestant readers characterized neither by good temper nor by good sense. It is only “flabby Christians”, we are told, who desire an enriched Prayer Book, and another Morning Post Protestant scornfully refers to the authorities of the Church as “time serving and compromising”. As might have been expected the Times has been far more reasonable and dignified. Its leading article showed a real appreciation of the difficulties of the situation and of the responsibilities that rest with the bishops. But even the Times leader-writer permitted himself to refer to “the dangerous activities and specious arguments of a small group of schemers” — a polite reference, we imagine, to the Anglo-Catholic party, which includes a large proportion of the clergy and the lay communicants of the Church of England. It seems worth while, in view of the constant accusations brought against Anglo-Catholics, to emphasize the fact that while during the days before the bishops’ meeting the Protestant societies were holding partisan meetings all over the country, at which the speeches were always violent, and often vulgar, the Catholic clergy have been content to invite their people to attend Mass daily in order to pray before the Blessed Sacrament that the bishops may be guided to wise decisions.
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