AN APPEAL to Churchpeople on behalf of the Welsh Church has been
put forth by the Archbishops and the Episcopate, with the exception
of the Bishops of Hereford, Oxford, and Lincoln. One point which
the letter particularly emphasises is the effect the Bill would
have in separating, so far as the State is able to separate, the
Welsh bishops and clergy from the Convocation of Canterbury. Even
the attempt to do this is a scandalous assault upon the rights and
the Constitution of the Church in the Southern Province, and we can
only hope, as we think the guarded language of the appeal justifies
us in hoping, that, if the Bill becomes law, the English and Welsh
Bishops will go on meeting together in their Convocations as though
nothing had happened. The appeal bids us "beware lest, by our
action, or by our inaction, we render it less possible for those to
whom that trust [which has come down to us] is given to discharge
it freely and fully to the glory of God and to the good of men."
Not to resist this interference of the State with the internal
affairs of the Church would be to be guilty of that inaction
against which our Fathers in God, with the three notable exceptions
named above, are careful to caution us. Best of all would it be if
Churchpeople of all political sections so bestirred themselves as
to make it impossible for this Government to place this Bill on the
statute book. In this way we should avoid the unpleasant conflict
with the State which will in all likelihood follow.