APPENDIX THE CHURCH AND NONCONFORMITY I Mr. Albert Dawson to the Dean of Durham THE CITY Temple, Holborn VIADUCT, LONDON, E.C., VERY REV. SIR-I am requested by the Church Committee to invite you to preach here at one or both of the services on any Sunday after the end of February. We are at present without a minister, and it is felt that at this juncture, when relations between Anglicans and Nonconformists are more cordial than they have ever been, a visit from you would do much good. We remember that on more than one occasion you have shown fraternal feeling for Nonconformists, and we shall greatly rejoice if you can see your way to accept this invitation. Your appearance in the City Temple pulpit would be a demonstration of Christian unity which would have a very beneficial effect upon, in particular, the non-churchgoing public. I am, yours sincerely, ALBERT DAWSON, Hon. Sec. THE VERY REV. THE DEAN OF DURHAM. II The Dean of Durham to Mr. Albert Dawson DEANERY, Durham, MY DEAR SIR-I have to acknowledge your letter of January 13 conveying from the Church Committee of the City Temple an invitation to preach in that church, and I take leave to thank you very heartily for the kind words in which that invitation is conveyed. Just eight years have passed since I was formally "inhibited" by the Bishop of Oxford (then Bishop of Birmingham) from preaching in the Digbeth Institute connected with the Carr's Lane Church at Birmingham, then represented by that eminent preacher, Dr. Jowett. The legal document, signed and sealed, hangs framed on my wall to remind me of a significant episode in my own. career, which had far more than a personal importance. Some correspondence passed between Bishop Gore and myself, which by its publication served, perhaps, a valuable purpose in educating the public mind and stirring the Christian conscience. I have observed with very great pleasure that the Bishop of London is reported recently to have authorized the loan of a parish church within his diocese to Presbyterians in circumstances which called plainly for an exercise of Christian fraternity. I cannot indeed satisfy myself that his lordship had any legal power to do this, but I applaud his frank recognition that (in the words of Archbishop Tillotson) "Charity is above rubricks," and I admire his intelligent refusal to plead a morally obsolete law against an evident public duty. You yourself say that at the present time "relations between Anglicans and Nonconformists are more cordial than they have ever been." That assurance is infinitely welcome to me, and I infer from it your own clear persuasion that, if I accept your kind invitation to preach in the "City Temple," I may be well assured that the general sentiment of religious people in London would approve my action. You do me no more than justice when you credit me with "fraternal feeling for Nonconformists." Not only are many Nonconformists my personal friends, and many Nonconformist scholars my honoured teachers, but it is my fortune to reside in a part of England where Nonconformists are numerous, and where, but for their Apostolic labours a few generations ago, Christianity itself could hardly have existed among the incoming multitudes who were engaged in developing the mineral wealth of the country. Besides, I am firmly convinced that the world never needed so urgently as in this critical time a clear and constant affirmation of those evangelical principles which are the common heritage of all the Reformed Churches. In the maintenance and extension throughout the world of Evangelical Christianity the Nonconformists and their disciples in other lands (where the term Nonconformist is unmeaning) have in God's Providence achieved great things. I hold it the plainest duty of the parent Church of England to draw closer and make effective for service the spiritual links which unite the divided sections of English-speaking Christendom in an unexpressed but conscious unity. I believe that the only reunion of Christendom which would be sound, or could be permanent, must be built on those Evangelical principles which were reaffirmed at the Reformation, that the method of spiritual advance is forwards from what has been already gained, not backwards to what was once and is no more. Therefore I would gladly labour for the closer association in work and worship of Anglicans and Nonconformists. The intrinsic importance of the proposition you have made to me, its unhappily exceptional character, and the deep sense I have of the solemn significance of this time, lead me (at very great inconvenience to myself) to accept the invitation of your Church Committee, and to consent to preach in the City Temple on Sunday, March 25 next, at both the services. You are quite free to make any public use of this letter which you may think desirable.-Believe me, yours very H. HENSLEY HENSON, faithfully, (Signed) ALBERT DAWSON, Esq., Dean of Durham. Hon. Sec. of the Church Committee of the City Temple. III The Bishop of London to the Dean of Durham LONDON HOUSE, January 29, 1917. DEAR DEAN-Although you have sent me no intimation of your intention yourself, I noticed in The Times a few days ago that you announce your acceptance of an invitation to preach in the City Temple. not only as an old friend but as Bishop reconsider your acceptance? May I ask you, of London, to During the sixteen years I have been Bishop of London I have made it my business to draw all Christians in London together; I have been elected for sixteen years Chairman of the London Public Morality Council and Chairman of the London Temperance League-these bodies contain all denominations of Christians and also the Jewish community. I will venture to say that never have the relations between the Church and other Christian bodies in London been more trustful and more cordial. But this has been accomplished on certain lines, and surely it is the business of the responsible Bishop of the diocese and not some one outside, however distinguished, to determine those lines. It is my deliberate opinion that the action you contemplate tends to defeat instead of helping on the ultimate reunion on which my heart is set as much as yours. Such a reunion can only come about by recognizing the principles which underlie our divisions, and not by ignoring them. The Committee on Faith and Order now sitting is in my opinion on the right lines. The instance you adduce as a precedent, you will forgive my saying, has nothing to do with the matter. A body of earnest Christians at Northwood, whose new Church had been commandeered for the wounded, found themselves without a building; there is absolutely no breach of principle in allowing them to meet and hold a service within the walls of one of our churches at a time when it was not in use. We are not responsible in any way for the service. It is purely an act of Christian courtesy, and such a course ought to have been followed in France instead of our poor men being left to hold their services in draughty barns or in the open air. So far from our being on anything but brotherly terms |