(To as. ED1T011. Or ass " SPECTATOR:1
Sin,—Is it quite so difficult, as some of your correspondents appear to think, to reconcile the demands of Church order with those of Christian charity in the matter of the adminie tration of the Holy Sacrament ? On the side of order, it is surely clear from the rubrics that no one comes to the Com- munion ass fully qualified member of the Church of England unless he has received confirmation. I speak of the will and intention of the Church, as the Prayer Book declares them, not of what on other grounds might be legally decided to be a parishioner's rights. Where infant baptism is the rule some such service as confirmation, with its opportunity of intelligent self-committal to the Church's standards, is surely a plain necessity. But, on the side of charity, there is nothing, so far as I can see, in the rubrics to prevent, and there is certainly much in the New Testament to encourage, the
cordial welcome of unconfirmed Christians at the Holy Table. Only they come as guests, not as members. By all the higher considerations of fellowship and brotherhood, they are at one with us in the Breaking of Bread, and we are glad it should be so. But on grounds of technical order they have not the right to claim the full privilege of the Church's membership, for which, in our own Articular Communion, certain condi- tions have been laid down. Surely the distinction between a member and a guest is in this connexion not imaginary, nor in any sense derogatory to the status of those who elect to serve God lormally in other associations.
So far as to theory. In practice, I may add, there is equally little difficulty. For seven years I had charge of a parish in Central London. There, and equally here in a remote agricul- tural village, I have plainly declared what I believed the true solution. As a result, I have had the privilege, in each parish, of counting unconfirmed Christians among the regular com- municants, nor do I know that the stricter sort of Church folk were ever scandalized by my modest liberality. May I add, in conclusion, that the Prayer Book seems to me to assign to the individual parishioner—not to the parish priest—the duty (except in the case of notoriously evil life, &c.) of deciding whether or no it is right that he should receive the Sacrament; and also that those who are now revising our Prayer Book would supply a real need if they were to include among their additions a form, more suitable than the Order of Confirmation, for the admission to fall membership in the Church of England of persons of adult years P The laying on of hands would be a natural and fitting element in
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