Untitled - Electric Scotland

410 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP TAIT [CH. xv.
as to secure general uniformity of practice in such matters
as may be deemed essential."
Among the Commissioners were the Archbishop of
Canterbury, the Bishops of London and Oxford, the
Deans of Ely and Westminster, Lord Beauchamp, Sir
Robert Phillimore, Mr. Beresford Hope, Mr. J. G. Hub-
bard, Canon Gregory, and nineteen others twenty-nine in
all. Lord Shaftesbury was invited, but declined to serve.
The Commissioners began their sittings on June i^th,
and issued their first Report on August ipth. This
Report was confined to -the burning question of the
Eucharistic vestments, and the Commissioners recom
mendation was practically unanimous :
" We
find," they said,
"
that whilst these vestments are re
garded by some witnesses as symbolical of doctrine, and by
others as a distinctive vesture, whereby they desire to do honour
to the Holy Communion as the highest act of Christian worship,
they are by none regarded as essential, and they give grave
offence to many.
"We are of opinion that it is expedient to restrain in the
public services of the United Church of England and Ireland all
variations in respect of vesture from that which has long been the
established usage of the said United Church, and we think that this
may be best secured by providing aggrieved parishioners with an
easy and effectual process for complaint and redress."
Five weeks after the issue of this Report came the
meeting of the first Lambeth Conference, or
"
Pan-
Anglican Synod," and the unwonted muster of American
and Colonial Bishops, together with the Colenso contro
versies narrated in the last chapter, once more diverted
the attention of churchmen from the Ritual question. But
only for a time. When Convocation met in February
1868, the Bishop of London, at Archbishop Longley s
request, re-opened the discussions in the Upper House, by
moving the following resolution :-