WALKS
42
CORRESPONDENCE RELATIVE TO
NEW SOUTH into existence. The members of each Church will claim to be members of the Church of England, and the clergy of each will be equally ready to qualify themselves for acting as clergy of the Church of England. The practical result would in this case be that the Church of England would recognize as fellow labourers in her service in England men who as members of rival Churches in a Colony had been there opposing and may be excommunicating each other.
No. 88.
Encl. 1
Kocl. 1
20 Nov. 1866. 20 Nov. 1866.
Encl. 3
14th Dec. 1866.
3. Other religious bodies may be referred to by way of example. The Wesleyans in a Colony are united to the Wesleyans in England by means of their common constitution, the Wesleyan Model Deed, and are strong accordingly. The Presbyterians have managed to drift loose from the Church of Scotland, and are weak and divided. This has been so much felt that they have lately sought in certain Colonies, Victoria and New South Wales for instance, to unite themselves into purely Colonial Churches, but so far as present appearances can be trusted these unions do not exist on any very stable basis. It will be recollected that other religious bodies, Congregationalists for instance, ignore union, and the proposed Bill has too much the appearance of introducing a Congregationalist element on a large scale into the Church of England to be satisfactory to those who are in the habit of observing the peculiarly feeble action of the Congregationalist body in a Colony, and of the efforts of some of their best members to invent means of united action which are not to be found in their ecclesiastical system.
4. In the case of a Colonial Church whose constitution may tie it down to complete unity with the Church of England, the provisions of the Bill raise a barrier to that unity, of which the Colonial Church may very justly complain. The Bill promotes what some may call the freedom of the Colonial Churches, but which freedom is nothing short of a liberty to separate from the parent Church, and would seem to be given from an unwillingness on the part of the parent Church to take the necessary steps to secure that union which it has been a principle hitherto to maintain
(Signed) ALEXI. GORDON.
108, Elizabeth Street, Sydney, 16th August, 1866.
No. 38.
COPY of a DESPATCH from Governor the Right Hon. Sir JoHN YOUNO, Bart., K.C.B., to the Right Hon. the Earl of Carnarvon.
(No. 83.) MY LORD,
Government House, Sydney, December 20, 1866.
(Received, February 18, 1867.)
Ar the instance of the Right Reverend the Lord Bishop of Sydney, I forward a letter addressed to your Lordship, and a petition for presentation to Her most Gracious Majesty.
2. I annex a copy of the Bishop's letter to myself covering these documents, in order that the expression of his opinion on the subject may be conveyed in his own terms.
I have, &c. The Right Hon. the Earl of Carnarvon,
(Signed)
JOHN YOUNG.
COLONIAL BISHOPRICS.
43
I have requested his Excellency Sir John Young to forward the petition to your Lordship for NEW SOUT presentation to Her Majesty the Queen.
Enclosure 3 in No. 38.
To the Queen's Most Gracious Majesty.
I have, &c. (Signed)
F. SYDNEY.
The HUMBLE PETITION of the Bishop, Clergy, and Lay Representatives of the United Church
England and Ireland within the diocese of Sydney, in the Colony of New South Wales, in Synod assembled,—
HUMBLY SHOWETH as follows:
1. Your petitioners beg to approach Your Majesty with expressions of their devotion and attachment to Your Majesty's throne and person.
2. Your petitioners, as members of the United Church of England and Ireland, desire to express their continued adherence to the said Church as the Church of their fathers.
8. Your petitioners have learned with regret that a Bill has been recently introduced into the Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, intituled "A Bill to remove Doubts as to the Effect of Letters Patent granted to certain Colonial Bishops, and to amend the Law with respect to Bishops and Clergy in the Colonies," having for its object, among other things, to authorize the consecration of bishops in and for the Colonies in a manner contrary to the recognized rules of ecclesiastical polity and the long-established ordinances of the said Church of your petitioners.
t
4. Your petitioners, having reference to the said Bill, beg to express their oarnest desire that no Legislation may take place which will authorize the consecration of bishops in and for the Colonies in a manner contrary to the recognized rules of ecclesiastical polity and the long-established ordinances of the United Church of England and Ireland, or which will in any way affect the relation of the members of the Church in this Colony towards the Church in the United Kingdom, or weaker the connexion between the Church in this Colony and the Church in the United Kingdom.
Your petit orers therefore most humbly pray that Your Gracious Majesty will withhold your sanctio from any bill which will enable bishops to be consecrated in and for the Colonies in a manner contrary to the recognized rules of ecclesia tical polity and the long-established ordinances of the United Church of England and Ireland, aid also from any legislative enactment which will in any way affect the relation of the members of the Church in this Colony towards the Church in the United Kingdom, or weaken the connexion between the Church in this Colony and the Church in the United Kingdom.
And your petitioners, as in duty bound, will ever pray, &c.
Dated at Sydney, this Fourteenth day of December,
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-six.
(Signed)
F. SYDNEY, Bishop of Sydney, and Metropolitan. President of the Synod of the Diocese of Sydney.
WALER.
Enel, &
No. 38
>
&c.
&c.
&c.
No. 39.
No. 39
Back. 1 in
No. 18
SIR,
Enclo. 2 in No.8.
Enclosure 1 in No. 38.
To his Excellency the Governor in Chief.
Bishopscourt, November 20, 1866.
By desire of the Diocesan Synod of Sydney, I have signed a petition to Her Gracious Majesty the Queen, and transmit the same to your Excellency, to be forwarded for presentation.
In sending the petition to Her Majesty's Secretary of State for the Colonies, your Excellency may, if you see fit, state that the petition was unanimously adopted by a very large and influential body of clergy and lay representatives of the Church of England, who are all actuated by the warmest feelings of devotion and loyalty to the Crown, and of strong attachment to the United Church of England and Ireland.
1 myself regard the legislation proposed in Mr. Cardwell's Bill, so far as it enables one bishop in a Colony to consecrate another without the Queen's licence, as uncalled for and dangerous, as well as contrary to all usage and precedent.
I have, &c. (Signed)
My Land,
Encl. 2 in No. 38.
F. SYDNEY.
To Her Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for the Colonies.
Sydney, New South Wales, December 20, 1866.
By desire of the Synod of the Church of England in this diocese, I transmit to your Lordship a petition to Her gracious Majesty the Queen, unanimously adopted by the Synod at its first session, on the 14th day of December in the present year.
The petition has reference to the Bill introduced by Mr. Cardwell to amend the law with respect to bishops and clergy in the Colonies, and the prayer of the petition is to deprecate any Imperial legislation which may tend to sever the ties between the Church in the Colony and the United Church of England and Ireland in the mother country.
COPY of a DESPATCH from the Right Hon. the Earl of CARNARVON to Governor the Right Hon. Sir JOHN YOUNG, Bart., K.C.B. (No. 6.)
SIR,
Downing Street, August 22, 1866.
I HAVE been apprised by the Archbishop of Canterbury that it is desired to erect a new diocese in the Colony of New South Wales, As, however, in the recent case of the Bishop of Natal, the Judicial Committee of Privy Council have declared that Her Majesty has not authority to create dioceses in Colonies possessing Representative Institutions, I have been unable to recommend that the usual Letters Patent should be issued.
I have been advised, however, by the Law Officers of the Crown that a mandate may properly be issued under the Royal sign manual and signet, authorizing the Arch- bishop to proceed to the consecration of a person who will exercise episcopal functions in New South Wales, but leaving the ecclesiastical authorities of that Colony to determine as they can with the clergyman so consecrated the geographical limits to which his duties are to be contined.
Such a warrant has accordingly been issued in favour of Dr. Samuel Robinson Waddelow, who I understand is to be consecrated by the Archbishop in Canterbury Cathedral on the 24th instant.
I have, &c. (Signed) CARNARVON,
Governor the Right Hon. Sir John Young, Bart., K.C.B.
&c.
&c.
&c.
F 2
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference
C.O.885
3 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
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