SCHOOLS AND THE CHURCH Since 187o, when the State began to provide primary schools in districts where there were no Church schools, education has been steadily but surely passing out of the control of, and largely out of all association with, the Church. In State schools religious teaching is neither ordered nor forbidden, except that the famous "Cowper-Temple clause" provides that no teaching distinctive of any particular denomination may be given in them. In 1896, a Conservative Government, pledged to support Church schools, in troduced a far-reaching measure providing for grants to poor voluntary schools in aid of staff and apparatus and that local managers should make arrangements for denominational instruc tion in religion where a number of parents desired it. Unfortu nately for these schools, the Bill was withdrawn. In 1901 another attempt at settlement was made by Convocation. The basis of it was the public financing of secular teaching in all schools coupled with provision for effective local control in the case of voluntary schools. While demanding Church teaching for Church children in Board schools, Convocation proposed facilities for the denomi national teaching of other children in Church schools. In the following year Mr. A. J. Balfour's Bill proposed to make the County Council (in the Counties) and the Borough Council (in the Boroughs) the only educational authority; managers of volun tary schools were to provide for the maintenance and improve ment of their buildings, but they were to be given a majority in the controlling authority so that they could appoint teachers paid with public money. That the control of religious teaching should be taken from the parson and vested in the managers was opposed by many Anglicans unable to recognize good in any convictions not those of the parish priest; Roman Catholics were committed in advance to opposition; Nonconformists objected to having to pay for religious teaching which they disliked and could not control. The Bishops approved the Bill and it became law. Subsequent attempts to change matters have so far proved abortive. The difficulties of the Church schools have enormously increased and necessity will decide their fate. The raising of the general edu cational standard has increased expense; the cost of post-war building is alone sufficient to make the difficulties acute. Primary education is slowly but surely passing altogether from direct association with the Church. In secondary education the same transition proceeds. The Public schools alone maintain their in dependence by reason of their fees, but few of them are directly connected with the Church of England. At the older Universities all "religious tests" have gone; if the official services are those of the Church of England they are, where voluntary, poorly at tended. Thoughtful and learned University sermons are delivered to congregations, small and grey headed, almost bereft of under graduates. The modern Universities for the most part have no ecclesiastical allegiance and provide no, or next to no, training in the teaching of religion. Since 1921 the Board of Education is no longer prevented from making grants from public money to secondary schools where the teachers are required to belong, or not to belong, to a particular denomination, but in these schools, Church influence is practically non-existent. In elementary schools "the religious question" has been little more than a squabble about ecclesiastical and political rights, in which the interests of the chil dren have escaped attention. Happily, however, the old definite lines of cleavage in this matter between Churchmen and Noncon formists are less clear. The Churchmen who hold that only "definite Church teaching" is worth giving to Church children are a dimin ishing number: an increasing number weigh the fact that thou sands of Church children are educated in Council schools, and realize that the Church has responsibility to the nation at large. Free Churchmen naturally still feel at a disadvantage in districts where the Church school is the only one, but they are increasingly willing to co-operate in efforts to establish a system of religious teaching at once definite and free from emphasis on particular denominational tenets. The regular teachers resent the intrusion of outside teachers of religion who know nothing of the art of teaching, and, less reasonably, are apt to object to any qualifica tions being demanded of themselves. They have a real grievance in the fact that too many headships are only open to members of the Church of England. But with the spread of the demand that education shall be directed to the training of good citizens rather than denominational bigots these difficulties will prove less and less intractable.
The last forty years have witnessed great changes in the organi sation of the Church, and a wealth of legislative acts. As early as 1872 there was much talk about the Disestablishment of the Welsh Church. In 1894 an attempt to make it a fact by the Liberal Government then in power proved abortive. But in 1906 a Com mission was appointed to examine the condition of the Church in Wales. It was revealed that, while the Church was the largest of the religious bodies in the Principality, less than a quarter of the inhabitants nominally belonged to it. In 1912, though the project was never really popular in England, a Measure of Disestablish ment was introduced into the Commons and passed, but it was rejected in the Lords. It was reintroduced and passed under the Parliament Act, and the separation was finally effected in 192o. The Bishop of St. Asaph became the first Archbishop of Wales and now presides over six dioceses, two new ones having been added since 192o. A splendid co-operation between clergy and laity has triumphed over the crippling effects which were predicted as the inevitable consequence of the Act of Disestablishment.
Ever since the revival of Convocation there has been an in crease in the number and importance of deliberative bodies within the Church. Since 1878 a Conference of the Bishops of the Anglican Communion has been called to meet at Lambeth once in every ten years (see LAMBETH CONFERENCES). The desire for lay co-operation and support led to the formation of a House of Lay men in each Province, the members of which were elected by the Diocesan Conferences. But these Houses had no legal or ecclesias tical status. In 1896 the Convocations of Canterbury and York held a joint Session with the two Houses of Laymen, and in 1905 a body called the Representative Church Council was formed of members of the Convocations and of the Houses of Laymen. In 1913 this Council petitioned the Archbishops to appoint a Com mittee on Church and State "to enquire what changes are advis able in order to secure in the relations of the Church and the State a fuller expression of the spiritual independence of the Church as well as of the national recognition of religion." An un official organization known as The Life and Liberty Movement did much to awaken popular interest in the need for change. The Arch bishops' Committee published its Report in 1916, on the basis of which Convocation in 1919 presented an Address to the Crown, recommending legislation to provide for a National Assembly of the Church of England. In December of the same year the Church of England Assembly (Powers) Act (otherwise known as the Enabling Act) became law. The Assembly constituted under this Act has power to prepare and pass Measures for submission to Parliament for approval, "relating to any matter concerning the Church of England." All baptized members of the Church of England of responsible age who will signify themselves as such and declare that they are not members of any religious body not in communion with the Established Church may have their names entered on an Electoral Roll, kept in every Parish. Of these electors there are some 34 millions. In every parish they elect a Parochial Church Council whose function, as defined by a further Powers Measure of 1921 1s "to co-operate with the incumbent in the initiation, conduct and development of Church work both within the parish and without it." The Councils elect Ruridecanal and Diocesan Conference members, and the lay members of the latter elect the House of Laity in the Church Assembly; the num ber of representatives for each diocese depends on the total number of parochial electors in the diocese. The Church Assembly meets in February, July and November for five-days Sessions. It works through many Committees. A Measure, corresponding to a Parlia mentary Bill, is prepared by a Committee, circulated to Members of the Assembly and formally introduced. General Approval is sought for it. There follows a stage of Revision in which amend ments may be interested. Then comes a Committee Stage, and sometimes a Drafting Stage, in which verbal adjustments are made. The Measure is then presented for Final Approval and, if this is secured, it is handed over to the Legislative Committee of the Assembly for presentation to the Ecclesiastical Committee of Parliament. This last is a body specially constituted under the Enabling Act. Fifteen members of each House are nominated re spectively by the Lord Chancellor and the Speaker and hold office during the life of a particular Parliament. It is the duty of this Committee to examine Assembly Measures, and to report on their nature, legal effect and expediency, whereon (the Report being favourable) any member of Parliament can propose that it be presented to His Majesty for Royal Assent. Parliament must either approve or reject the Measure, but cannot amend it. If both Houses pass it, the Measure becomes law on receiving the Royal Assent.
The great advantage of this reform is that it provides a repre sentative body with a legal status through which the Church can initiate reform. It can carry out work for which Parliament has neither the time nor the qualifications. Facts reveal its utility. During the 25 years from 1888 to 1913, some 217 Bills dealing with ecclesiastical matters were introduced into the House of Commons; 33 of them became law, though only one was re jected: the remainder were dropped for lack of time. Since 1920 more than 20 Measures have received the Royal Assent, that is two-thirds of the former number in slightly more than a quarter of the time. The Convocations which formerly were largely ex officio bodies have been reformed and made more representative. Their relation to the Church Assembly is by no means clear, but it is likely that they will continue, in spite of their superfluous character, for reasons of historical sentiment, and because Anglo Catholics think that so many of the matters with which the As sembly deals affect the clergy alone, and that priestly approval is always doctrinally necessary. Thus, since the Convocations give their approval to Assembly Measures, and are, in fact, themselves the Episcopal and clerical Houses of the Assembly, this feeling of Church opinion is respected by a redundant formality, which adds substantially to that avalanche of words which seems to be re garded as a sign of religious vitality. A brief summary may be added of the more important of the Measures which have become law since the Enabling Act. (a) In 1921 a scheme was introduced for securing a better distribution of the diminishing man-power of the Church by providing for the amalgamation into a single parish of cures too small to provide adequate work for one parson. The arguments in favour of this policy are theoretically unanswer able, but, in practice, it always elicits strong opposition. (b) A Measure of 1923 prohibits the sale of the right to appoint to a benefice: after the two vacancies next following the passage of the Measure, no such sale can take place. (c) The Clergy Pension Measure of 1926 provides that every parson under the age of 55 must contribute 3% of his ecclesiastical income to the Pension's Fund. This secures a maximum pension of f237 per annum at the age of 7o after 4o years service. The contributions of those who die earlier are returned with compound interest. A capital founda tion of f35o,o0o was provided by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners who also made an annual contribution rising to f 1 oo,000. The Church Assembly Fund also provides f 5o,000. This measure re moves the long standing scandal of the fact that no provision was made for the old age of an ill-paid clergy beyond allowing a man, on resignation, to appropriate part of the income of the benefice as a pension and thus frequently to handicap his successor. A similar Measure provides for episcopal pensions. (d) The Delapi dations Measure of 1923 arranged for the systematic repair of parsonage houses, which are regularly surveyed. Definite annual contributions are made from the parish or by the parson ; the Ecclesiastical Commissioners provide f 5oo,000. In the case of benefices under the annual value of .125o Queen Anne's Bounty is empowered to pay half the initial cost of repair and, thereafter, half of the annual charges. (e) The Sees Committee has been very active. The ancient diocese of Winchester has been divided into three, the two new dioceses being those of Portsmouth and Guild ford; a new diocese of Leicester has been carved out of Peter borough, Blackburn out of Manchester, Derby out of Southwell. A proposal to divide Lichfield was rejected by one vote in the Lords. There exists considerable doubt both as to the wisdom and the necessity of this policy of multiplying Bishoprics. There is no corresponding growth in Church membership to demand such an increase of episcopal oversight ; and, where money is scarce, the founding of new sees is a luxury; improved methods of loco motion should make episcopal work easier ; it may be doubted whether there are enough men of eminence to fill so many sees, and still more so whether there will be in the future. (f) The Assembly asked the Archbishop to appoint a Commission to in quire into the Property and Revenues of the Church. After 3 years work a Report was produced which is a mine of information on all aspects of ecclesiastical finance. The Commission suggested a wider use of the money controlled by the Ecclesiastical Com missioners, a more equitable distribution of the total amount available for the parochial clergy, and certain reforms in the ad ministration of Cathedral estates, the payment of episcopal sti pends, etc. Some of these recommendations have already been carried into effect : others are still being considered. (g) The Benefices (Ecclesiastical Duties) Measure of 1927 provides that when a charge of negligence is brought against any incumbent, the Bishop can appoint 7 persons, one of whom may be nominated by the accused incumbent, and if their enquiry results in proved neg lect of duty, more drastic steps can be taken than were formerly possible. Considerable objection was raised against this Measure on the grounds that "inadequate performance of duty" is an ex ceedingly vague charge, and that it is not necessary to state the grounds of complaint in detail before the Commission is appointed.
Certain other Measures have been before the Assembly for a long time, but have not yet resulted in definite legislation. Two of them are very contentious. One proposes extensive and far reach ing changes in the exercise of patronage : the other is concerned to reform the Courts Ecclesiastical. Reconstitution of the latter was recommended by the Royal Commission of 19o4. The trouble is that a large number of clergy will not recognize the competence of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council as the Court of Final Appeal in spiritual matters, and demands its replacement by a spiritual court. There is, however, little likelihood that the pro posals which have so far been made on either of these subjects will ever pass into law without considerable modifications. What ever criticisms can be made upon the working of the Church As sembly and its actual achievements, there is no doubt that since the Enabling Act the corporate consciousness of the Church has been deepened. The Assembly Press and Publications Board is ex tremely useful in increasing the general knowledge about Church affairs, a very necessary preliminary to the securing of adequate financial support. In 1923 the dioceses contributed to the Central Board of Finance 61 % of the apportionment invited from them : in 1925, 71%, 6 dioceses sending the full quota. The Diocesan Finance Boards are coming to regard their payment to the Central Board as a claim equal to that of their own diocesan needs.
In recent years, and particularly since the War, the sense of the scandal of divided Christendom has been much increased. Con sciousness of the weakness of divided Christian witness has been one of the aids of repentance. Some Protestant Churches have achieved federation ; the tendency to form new sects has disap peared. On the other hand, the hope of reunion with Rome makes it far harder to achieve it with other Churches. According to the Roman theory the Church cannot be divided ; those who break away are outside it and must return to it by way of repentance and submission. For Rome "reunion" has no meaning. Never theless efforts in her direction are increasing. Since the Lambeth Conference of 192o issued its "Appeal to all Christian People" they have been, on the Anglican side, more official in character. Bishop Gore, Dr. Frere (Bishop of Truro), Dr. Kidd (Warden of Keble College, Oxford) and others held a series of "conver sations" at Malines with certain Belgian and French clergy anxious for reunion. These "conversations" were under the chairmanship of Cardinal Mercier and, later, under that of his successor, Car dinal Van Roey. By Anglo-Catholics these attempts have been regarded with hope, by Evangelicals with fear and dislike, by Modernists with a languid interest devoid of hope. The later "conversations" were held with the "cognizance" of the Pope. But the differences between the Anglican Church and Rome are fundamental and afford as good an example of the law of contra diction as could be found, and they remain exactly what and where they were. The official Report of these "conversations" was published, after being in print and withheld for six months, in order (so the presumption must be) not to prejudice the calm consideration of the Prayer Book revision proposals. Almost at the same time came the Papal Encyclical De Vera Religionis Unitate Fovenda. It marks the end of all hope of reunion with Rome, and is as definite a condemnation of Anglo-Catholicism as was the Pascendi (1907) of Modernism. All assemblies for the discussion of reunion, such as were contemplated by the Lambeth Appeal, are forbidden to Catholics who, by taking part in them "will be giving countenance to a false Christianity quite alien to the one Church of Christ." The official organ of the Vatican, Osservatore Romano, declares that the Pope acknowledged the Malines "conversations" merely as an effort between private per sons. "They were not invested with any sort of mandate." The same authority adds that the resumption of them will not occur by the consent or encouragement of the Pope.