Untitled - Electric Scotland

1 860-68] THE RITUAL COMMISSION
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That this House, viewing with anxious concern the increas
ing diversity of practice in regard to ritual observances, as causing
additional disquietude and contention, and perceiving with deep
regret that the resolutions adopted by the Convocations of
Canterbury and York have failed to secure unity, deems it ex
pedient for the peace of the Church ist, That the limits of
ritual observance should not be left to the uncontrolled discretion
of individual churchmen, and therefore ought to be defined by
rightful authority ; 2d, That some easy and inexpensive process
should be provided whereby, while the liberties of the officiating
clergymen and their parishioners are protected, the evils of unre
strained licence in such matters may be checked."
In making this motion, the Bishop called attention to
the evidence given before the Ritual Commission and
published in the Blue Book, as showing that the recom
mendations of Convocation in the previous spring had
fallen upon deaf ears.
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that with regard to certain persons
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I am afraid," he said,
who are promoters of these observances we must take it for
granted, through their own declarations in their evidence, that
they do not regard the decision which this House arrived at as in
any way binding. They apparently are unwilling to be guided
by their individual Bishops ; they are unwilling to be guided by
the collective voice of the Bishops expressed in their visitations ;
they are unwilling to be guided by the decision of the Provincial
Synod of Canterbury, or of the Provincial Synod of York, or by
the united opinion of those two Synods when their decisions are
compared together, . . . and I cannot really understand by what
they would be guided except by their own individual will. True,
it is stated that persons who think it
right to act in this way
I do not know
would be guided by a General Council. Well,
that a General Council is exactly the body which is to settle the
ritual of a particular National Church ; I think one of our Articles
seems to imply that each National Church has to settle these
matters for itself, and not that we are to wait till a General
Council settles them. I mention this to show that the kindly
intended advice which we gave in our collective and individual
efforts have proved a
capacities has not succeeded. . . . Our