THE CHURCH'S QUANDARY
By THE REV. J. C. HARDWICK
POST-WAR England may be admitted to fall short of the millennium, yet its condition compares favourably with that of most Continental countries. Most of all may the Church of England congratulate itself upon having preserved both its endowments and its Position as a State Establishment. In no other country in the world would it have been possible. Yet there is a likelihood that the next ten or fifteen years will see changes in its position.
Hitherto the Church has been used to look for attacks upon its endowments from the political Left — from Liberals and Socialists. But a novel feature of the present position is that the hostile criticism comes from the political Right—from the agricultural interests. A Royal Commission has already been promised by the Government to examine the subject of Tithe.
During the next election, when the National Party will need all the votes it can collect, especially in the rural districts to counterbalance the discontent in the derelict industrial areas, pressure will be put upon candidates to promise support for the suppression of Tithe. And if National candidates hesitate to give such promises, their Socialists opponents will steal a march on them. The loyalty of the Farmers' Union to the National Party is conditional. Farmers are realists and will support any party, Left or Right, which will serve their interests. Thus even if the present Government is returned to power, we need not be too sure that Tithe will be sacrosanct.
On the other hand, should the Socialists secure power, there arc several courses open to them, all fraught with disturbing possibilities for the Church.
1. They may carry through drastic measures of State Socialism on the lines laid down by Sir Stafford Cripps. In this case gilt-edged securities may be expected to slump, involving all the more recent Church endowments in depreciation.
2. They may embark upon a recovery plan on the Roosevelt model. This will involve currency inflation, which may halve or altogether eliminate Church endow- ments.
3. 111-considered social legislation may lead to a financial crisis more serious than the dress-rehearsal of 1931. This may provoke a Fascist putsch with a policy of national self-sufficiency involving the subsidizing of agriculture and the liquidation of Tithe.
Thus, whether Left or Right, is in the saddle during the coming years, Church endowments will be far from safe.
The question of disestablishment also arises. Hitherto disestablishment has been a minor plank, in the Liberal platform, useful where the votes of Nonconformists were concerned. But the demise of Liberalism has done no- thing to reduce the chances of disestablishment; this may easily become a live issue at quite short notice. The crisis might well arise through the country becom- ing involved in a European war. During the post-War years a pacifist attitude has become increasingly frequent amongst clergy, and not by any means only amongst the rank and file. Pacifism in peace is, to be sure, a different matter from pacifism in time of war, but there is ground for believing that a sufficiently large number of clergy would take up an anti-war attitude to make the State Church an insecure exponent of Government propa- ganda. And if the Church hesitated to play its part on the Home front, the Establishment would be heavily attacked. Loyal support of the State is the price expected from the Church for its position of privilege, and if the support were not given, privileges would be with- drawn.
But even if European peace is preserved, conflict with the State may well arise over the vexed question of sexual relationships. It is not merely a matter of divorce and remarriage. In this sphere some modus vivendi could be arranged upon the basis of compulsory State marriage and voluntary Church marriage. More serious is the question of birth-control. So long as Governments remain neutral in the matter no conflict need arise. But as soon as Governments begin to encourage Local Autho- rities to supply information and means for the purpose of limiting births, the clash will begin. That the women of the working classes desire the public supply of such information is not open to doubt. It was emphasized in a recent wireless talk by the wife of an unemployed Lan- cashire mill hand. In a Co-operative Guild Congress held recently in the North of England, a demand was even voiced for the legalizing of abortion. It is to be remem- bered that these women have the vote.
It is true that it is highly illogical for the Church at one and the same time to oppose both war and birth-control, since it is evident that one or other of them will have to be chosen if we are to maintain ourselves upon this island. But experience has taught us that the illogicality of an attitude is no obstacle to its being sincerely held by high- minded persons, such as are the majority of the clergy. After all, logicality is not the strong point of any of us.
Thus the quandary in which the English Church finds itself is a difficult one. Without any deliberate spoliation on the part of the State, its endowments may in the near future be considerably reduced ; and the parochial system, which is already in difficulties, be embarrassed still further. And in addition to this, conflict with the State over moral issues such as war or birth-control may force on the disestablishment issue. Doubtless the Church will find a way out of such diffi- culties, but this will not be by denying that they can ever arise..
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