Church Public Opinion.

We suffer considerably from its non-existence. We must do all we can to create a definite Church Public Opinion. I do not, for a moment, mean that we should become a political party: with such we have, as Churchmen, nothing to do. As Christian citizens we have, of course, to see to it that in national and municipal elections we cast our vote for a man whose character is high, whose integrity is unas-sailable, and to whom the Honour of God and the welfare of our country is far dearer than the triumph of "Party." What I mean by a Church Public Opinion is: the creation of a body of thought thinking out the same big things, concerned with the same big interests, animated by the same big motives, caring about the same big ends. We tend, somehow, to get a bit too limited in our view, to connote by the term "Holy Catholic Church" our own particular Parish or District. It is all quite natural: we have to do so much for our Church in our particular locality; the local question, from the "very nature of the conditions, looms very large on our horizon. But it is worthwhile to let other things come into view also. We belong to a great Catholic Society: the things we do and say and think affect the whole Society generally and the Diocese particularly.

The Standing Committee has, this year as an experiment, ordered the circulation of this Charge throughout the Diocese. The real motive of such action is: the creation of a Church Public Opinion. Church people may agree or disagree with details in the policy their Bishop lays before them. Upon their agreement or disagreement, in the main, depends the possibility of it being carried into effective operation, within a reasonable number of years. As to it being the right policy, in broad outlines and on general principles, history will ultimately prove.

Meanwhile, the Bishop's charge is, this year, being circulated in the Townships of the Diocese, and the page 19 Clergy and Lay Representatives are urged to get the people in their neighbourhoods to read the Charge. We shall thus make efforts towards thinking on the same sort of lines, solving the same sort of problems, talking about the same sort of things, aiming at the same sort of end. If the Clergy and Lay Representatives will gather our Churchfolk together, on their return home, and discuss the Charge and the "Acta" of Synod, there is no doubt whatever that, before we meet again, we shall be far better able to view our position and to discuss our ideals than we can be if Synod ends with the conclusion of its debates. Synod ought never to end: that is, its "Agenda" and its "Acta" ought to be matters of real present interest to every Churchman in the Diocese.