THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH AND CHRISTIAN UNITY.
[To TEE EDITOR or THE •`SPAorAvroa."_, SIR,—At the recent General. Convention of the American Episcopal Church held in Richmond, Virginia, at which' the Bishop of London was present, a striking advance in the practice of Christian unity of spirit was made. ity a large majority in both Houses of the Convention, provision was made whereby, on the joint action of an incumbent and his diocesan, a Christian man froM any' religious Communion might be allowed to preach in an Episcopal pulpit. It is a far-reaching
and divinely prompted move, for it will dislodge a stumbling- block in the way of the growth of those cordial relations which all rational Christians feel ought, in the common Master's name, to exist between the Episcopal Church and other religious Communions. It involves no denial of any root- principle ; in faet, the more convinced a man is in his church- manship, the more ready ought he to be to welcome to our pulpits Christian ministers of other Communions who possess spirituality, scholarship, and experience. Surely in this twentieth century very much is to be gained from the extension of a broader Christian hospitality. All generous. hearted and open-minded Churchmen deplore the exclusiveness which does much to alienate popular sympathy from our dear old Church in this loved country of ours, and would heartily welcome a like Canon in the English branch of this same Pan- Anglican Communion.—I am, Sir, &c.,
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