At the beginning of the year the President of the Methodist Church in England followed in the footsteps of the former Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Fisher, and the Rev. Dr. Craig of the Church of Scotland, and paid a visit to the Pope at the Vatican. And it is not surprising that at the end of February a booklet entitled “Conversations between the Church of England and the Methodist Church” was published, giving an account of private and official talks which have been going on for the lengthy period of six years. The above visit to the Pope and the issue of this booklet appear to be part of an organised plan and procedure designed to affect the minds of the Methodists in particular and the public in general; as one of the instruments of Vatican policy seems to be the employment of propaganda and publicity to gradually accustom the minds of people outside the Roman Catholic Church and the Church of England to moves by church leaders for contacts with Rome and the Anglican Church, before any drastic decisions are taken involving such as the Methodists.
In reading an abbreviated report of the conversations we have referred to, the usual pattern stands out clearly. The Church of England concedes nothing as to its beliefs and practices and order, but the Methodist Church, for example, must needs conform to what is required by the superficial and mechanical dogma of Apostolic Succession held so tenaciously by the Church of England. It is stated in the report that historic changes are involved, including the appointment of Methodist bishops. Before this there is proposed that special joint services of reconciliation be held as between the two Churches, to be followed as soon as possible by the consecration of certain Methodist ministers as bishops. And after this, ordinations to the Methodist ministry would be performed by bishops. The present ministry in the
Methodist Church is thus declared to be invalid. This is exactly what the Church of England in conference endeavoured to persuade the Church of Scotland to introduce into the midst of Presbyterianism by “Bishops in Presbytery,” as our readers will remember. This of course was rejected by the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland; although since that decision Church of Scotland ministers have once and again conferred even with Romanist priests in the land of John Knox and the Covenants and have not been condemned by the General Assembly.
Among the representatives of the Methodist Church there were four dissenters to the report, who argued that it was hard not to draw the conclusion that the plan would mean the swallowing up or “absorption” of the Methodists by the Church of England. We make no unusual claims, but we could have told those Methodists before they ever entered into six years of conferences that that was what the Church of England would demand. Otherwise intelligent men are blind and utterly lacking in perception in such affairs until they are confronted with hard facts which have the stamp of Rome, viz.: “Return to the fold of the Pope and submit unreservedly to him.” The present Church of England is acting as an agent for Rome in its tactics to undermine Protestantism in this land of ours.
Of course we believe that there are religious leaders in the English Methodist Church who are determined to lead as many people into the Church of England as they possibly can. Instead of going over themselves right away into the Church of England, they remain where they are as ecclesiastical agents for the Anglican Communion and maybe for Rome too. And they do not care what trouble and discord they bring about by their activities. This seems to be a characteristic of such men, who are determined on superficial and mechanical union between churches. They seem to be indifferent to the discord arising among church people. Although it seems that the most of church people today are quite indifferent to what their church leaders and ministers do and say.
What we have written here does not imply that we hold any special brief for the Methodist Church in England as holding to the truth any more than the Church of England as to doctrine. It is the Rome-ward trend we perceive in these conversations and proposals that we would draw the attention of our readers to. We have need of divine power to enable us to stand fast in the liberty afforded by Christ to His People.