Welsh Journals

own borders. What do we find? A large and influential society of Anglicans, clerical and lay, leaving no stone unturned to popularise the doctrines and practices of the Roman Catholic Church We greatly desire to be shewn any evidence of visible unity, not nominal but real, within the Anglican Church. Was not a protest numerously and influentially signed, and lodged, against the Consecration of the present Bishop of Hereford? Have not Protestant Bishops been flouted by Romanising clerics in many dioceses ? More, are not the Bishops themselves, in many cases, convinced Ritualists? What is there in "the fact of Episcopacy that should make Protestant Welshmen eager to dishonour their illustrious dead for its sake ? One more question. If the visible unity of Christendom is, in itself, a desirable thing, why does not the Anglican Church consummate it with Rome? Is it because Rome refuses to recognise the validity of Anglican Orders ? If so, the Anglican Church must believe that it is possible to pay an exorbitant price even for Re-union. Why, then, expect Nonconformists to take a step which, if the Anglican Church took it, would be regarded as rank disloyalty ? It must be perfectly evident that, along those lines, there is no hope of Re-union between the Protestant denomina- tions in Wales and the Church of England. There is nothing to prevent individual Nonconformist ministers, should they so desire, from joining the ministry of the Anglican Church, at the cost of admitting their previous orders invalid. And individual members of our Free Churches may pass into that Communion through the door of Confirmation. But that Welsh Nonconformity, as a body, should accept those terms is a demand that is pitched in far too high a key. But, union of another type is both possible, and in every sense desirable. A League of Churches," says Mr. Price, is the essential correlative of a League of Nations." That seems a fruitful idea. But what chance should we have of an effective League of Nations, if France had to accept the fact of Monarchy as one of the conditions of membership ? The argument would be even stronger if we substituted America for France. For, between us there is much in common,-our origin, speech, and so A CAMPAIGN OF YOUTH THE last Sunday in February has come to be recognised as a fixed festival in the student-world. It is a day of universal prayer for students, and of recent years the Churches have been invited to join the Christian Unions of the 2,500 Universities and Colleges (now federated in 40 different countries) in expressing their solemn concern that this highly-privileged section of the community may be led to dedicate its disciplined powers of mind and heart to the highest ends. Surely this is an appeal to which the faithful are bound to respond. I would also like to urge those of your readers who may not be associated with any of the Churches, but who are profoundly interested in Social, National, and Interna- forth. But, to phrase it gently, Americans are as attached to the Republic as we are to the Monarchy. And, for- tunately, a League of Nations, and the future peace of the world, need not wait until Britain and America have done discussing the merits of their respective systems of govern- ment. Why, then should a League of Churches wait until Nonconformists have accepted the fact of Episcopacy? The truth of the matter lies here There is a type of unity which is achieved by abolishing differences and there is another type which is attained by transcending them. The former is the unity of the machine the latter of the living organism. One is a manufactured product the other is a natural growth. The higher one ascends in the scale of life, the more complex the structure, the more comprehensive the unity. And, in those institutions which are the embodiment of the highest of all types of life,- namely, the spiritual,-why should our aim be to stereotype ? One should not forget that the proposals for Re-union, advocated by Mr. Price, come at an inopportune moment for Wales. As long as Mr. Shakespeare was content to argue for a Federation of Free Churches, he commanded a liberal measure of sympathy and support. Although many felt that he had put his hand to a plough which would have all its work cut out to break up the caked soil of Welsh denominationalism. The danger now is, that Mr. Shake- speare's later advocacy of Ecclesiastical Re-union with the Anglican Church (involving, as it does involve, the acceptance of "the fact of Episcopacy" and its logical corollaries), will make it more difficult for him to succeed in his original, more modest, and certainly more practical scheme. By all means let us strive after union. But let it be a spiritual union, not a mechanical one growing from within not imposed from without. The churches are not suffering because some of them do not accept the fact of Epis- copacy." Our tragic failures are due to a cause that lies far deeper. We lack a dynamic. No amount of machinery will make up for that. Given the power, the churches of Christendom, even as they stand, could revolutionise the world. By the Rev. Herbert Morgan, M.A., Bristol. tional Reconstruction, to follow the operations of the Student Christian Movement with sympathy and goodwill. For it is a creative force of the first importance. It should interest and attract all those who realize that Reconstruc- tion (in any truly satisfactory sense of that much-bandied word) is not merely a matter of economic and political readjustment (though that too is involved), but that it requires fresh insight into the deeper meaning of life, and a surer recognition of the supremacy of moral and spiritual values. Nothing can help us more in laying a sure founda- tion of idealism (instead of the old discredited materialism and commercialism) than Christianity properly understood and sincerely practised, and nobody has done more in