Untitled - Electric Scotland

1 863-67] LETTKK TO MR. MACKONOCHIE 463
and acutely painful it is), we yet feel so strongly, and as one, that
we could not conscientiously accept the guidance of any priest
who would consent to be restricted in the exercise of his ministry
among us by conditions over and beyond his own ordination
needless trouble
vow, that it would only be giving your Lordship
for us to nominate another priest under the circumstances which
your Lordship judges necessary to his appointment .
. . We
therefore conclude that our only right course now is to sever
entirely our connection with [the Council over which your Lord
ship presides], and I have this day written to -, acquainting
him with this final decision. With grateful thanks to your Lord
ship for many and great kindnesses, I remain, my Lord Bishop,
your very faithful, humble servant, in our blessed Lord,
Although the Bishop
hood came thus to an end, he did not allow the sever
s official relation to this Sister
ance to interrupt his personal friendship with the Sisters.
Writing a few months later to the same lady on another
subject, lie says :-
u I trust you and the rest of the ladies lately connected with
- will not fail to remember that I entertain a grateful
sense of the services rendered by all of you.
" Much as I deplore the determination of yourself and the
other ladies to separate yourselves from us, and unable as I am
to justify that step, T feel it my duty to be ready at all times to
give you personally any advice or assistance in my power, and I
trust I shall never forget what you have done during so many
years in the diocese of London."
Two other letters from the Bishop must be quoted, as
showing his readiness to afford such indirect help as
might be possible, even to a community whose usages he
was unable officially to sanction :-
The Bishop of London to the Rev. A. H. Mackonochie.
"FULHAM PALACE, S.W., Aug. i6th, 1867.
"MY DKAR MR. MACKONOCHIE, I take the first moment
that I can command, in the midst of the work of closing the