Welsh Journals

the best professional qualifications. The candidate for any post secures his list of committee men, divides them into their respective denominational compartments, and forthwith tries to bring every imagin- able sectarian influence to bear upon them, and the most proficient manipulator of the denominational wires will secure the post. That this is so is notorious. The churches, which should elevate and dignify our public and national life, have become them- selves the fount of corruption. (8.) In the near future all the churches in Wales will be Free Churches." They will occupy a position of equal rights and privileges as far as the state is concerned. These are some of the reasons why the existing religious situation should be honestly and fearlessly re-examined. If the present position can in any way be justified-then it should continue. If, however, it cannot be upheld, either by appeal to Christ, to the New Testament, or to efficiency if, moreover, it be clear that it is alien to the spirit of Christ, and that it severely handicaps Christian work in all its forms, then it is folly and sin to allow things as they are to remain undis- turbed. Narrow prejudices and vested interests ought to give way to the higher claims of the will of God. There are some favourable indications in Welsh religious life which ought to receive brief mention. The free inter- mingling of denominations in religious worship exchange of pulpits, once rare now frequent united prayer meetings the use of a common hymnology and religious literature; co-operation in Free Church Councils the growth of a sense of unity round new centres of thought, or religious experience, or practical acti- vity, e.g. the "Keswick Convention," which meets annually at Llandrindod; the Social Service School, which meets during the summer at the same place the Welsh section of the Swanwick Fellowship, which met last year at Porthcawl. In all these and possibly in other cases, denomin- ational distinctions have succumbed for the time being to other considerations and interests. In English towns, where there are Welsh communities, different denomin- ations co-operate to their mutual benefit, thus shewing that all feeling of opposition of principle has disappeared, giving way to a common interest in Religion and Nationality. This is just what is wanted on a larger scale. The question of the Episcopal Church needs special treatment. Political ques- tions will, it is to be feared, be an obstacle to a better understanding between that Church and the other sections of the Christian Church in Wales for a time. Later on, inasmuch as Episcopalians in Wales are more Evangelical than Catholic, real co-operation in some form or other will become possible. Much depends on the outcome of the present controversy which has arisen as a result of the Kikuyu Conference. It does not fall within the limits of this article to discuss the form that this desired unity should, and might take. (That thought is being given to this question is evidenced by the suggestive article by the Rev. John Williams, Bryn- siencyn in the current number of the Beirniad 91). This much is certain- as Dean Henson says-" the unity of the future will not be the recovery of some- thing that has been lost, but the advance to something that has not yet been gained. The better state to which we aspire must include the distinctive gains of Denominationalism, viz. liberty, for the individual conscience, and variety of ec- clesiastical system, corresponding with the variety of human life.'