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N the October number of The East and the West appeared a paper from the pen of Bishop Alan Gibsont under the title "Comity of Missions," to which the present writer would have added "I. South Africa." Not that the "Comity of Missions" is one thing in South Africa and another thing in China, but that the paper was based exclusively on South African experience. It is much to be hoped that, as Bishop Gibson himself suggests, several more papers on the same subject may be contributed, based on experience elsewhere.

The subject of "Comity and Federation" was one of those which was set before the Centenary Conference held in Shanghai in May, 1907. . . . It may not be redundant to attempt a brief survey of the tone of the conference, as regards the particular subject of Comity of Missions, and to consider how far the conference resolutions bearing upon this subject could appeal to English Churchmen throughout the world. Before proceeding to quote the resolutions in detail, one or two remarks should be made, partly to show the conditions under which they were passed; partly to draw attention to certain characteristics of the conference phraseology.

Confusing Phraseology

The "Centenary Conference" in the words of one of its own resolutions represented "all Protestant Missions at present working in China"; in the words of its Memorial to the Home Churches, it

Reprinted from The East and the West. † Bishop of Walfish Bay, South Africa.

represented all "the reformed Churches" which are at work in China. It included, therefore, representatives of the Anglican Missions, both English and American. It met to consider the problems of the future in the light of the experience of the past hundred years, since Robert Morrison first landed in China. It was thought that it would help to promote definiteness if a series of resolutions were drawn up by the committee in charge of each subject, and if such resolutions were to be mended to the members of the conference by the chairman or other members of those committees, and after discussion and slight emendation should be passed unanimously.

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We are not concerned at this point to discuss how far the representatives of the Anglican Missions were justified in taking part in such a conference. What calls for notice, is the obvious restrictions which the methods adopted by the conference imposed upon its members.

There lies before the writer the official copy of the resolutions as passed. Those which affect our present subject more especially are the resolutions on "The Chinese Church" and those on "Comity and Federation." The former occupy five pages, the latter two pages, of an octavo pamphlet; the former number ten, the latter eight, with abundant subdivisions. The time allotted for discussion-after deducting the official speeches introducing the resolutionswas about three hours in each case; much of it was naturally taken up with verbal criticism. The result was that, in a great many cases, resolutions were

recorded as passed which by no means secured unanimous support. Sometimes objectors gave utterance to their objections and then abstained from voting; sometimes a compromise was arrived at, for which they voted reluctantly. But two ruling forces were at work throughout-one, the desire to preserve as far as possible the appearance of unanimity; the other, the apparent obligation to pass the resolutions brought forward, or something like them.

It is not unlikely that the latter of these forces was felt to be irksome at times by all sections of the conference. Certainly, to many who were present, the length, the verbosity, and the detail of the resolutions presented for unanimous acceptance by a large and heterogeneous body such as the conference, seemed the gravest mistake of a generally well-managed meeting.

There is one other point to which attention must be drawn at the outset. The conference spent its first day's sessions discussing "The Chinese Church." This is incidentally defined in the first resolution under that head as "God's Church in connection with the Protestant Missions in China." Two lines below occurs "the Chinese Protestant Church"; and a few lines further on "to all members of the Church in China." Similarly the third resolution states that "we desire to plant one Church under the sole control of our Lord Jesus Christ . .

while freely

communicating to this Church the knowledge of truth and the rich historical experience to which the older Churches have attained, we fully recognize the liberty in Christ of the Churches in China planted by means of the Missions and Churches which we represent.

There is the same (perhaps inevitable) confusion, or double use, of terms in the "Memorial to the Home Churches" drawn up by the conference, which speaks of the "Church" and the "Churches" at home, and of the "Churches" and the "Church" in China.

We are far from complaining of this;

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we regard it as inevitable in any conference composed of such elements and yet imbued with such great ideals. But it needs to be borne in mind when we consider the meaning of the resolutions and the fact that the representatives of the Anglican Communion voted for those resolutions. Some of the criticisms of the conference's work which have reached the writer have gone very wide of the mark through misunderstanding this point.

Some Preliminary Consid

erations

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Before we consider the attitude of the conference toward the question of "Comity," it may be well to remind ourselves of some of the points made in Bishop Gibson's article. Bishop Gibson regards it as quite possible that "without any surrender of principle. might be enabled to (1) avoid overlapping with the terrible waste it entails; (2) maintain that discipline which is absolutely essential alike for the welfare of the individual and of the communion as a whole; and (3) eradicate bitterness and actual hatred among Christians themselves." He suggests as a means to these ends "mutual conference" for "practical purposes," especially to consider "the question of the comity of Missions." He believes that, as a result of such conference, it might be possible to establish "a common system of discipline" to a considerable extent, though probably not an entire agreement. He believes that on the subject of overlapping, etc., such a conference might pass such a resolution as this:

Where work is to be undertaken among heathen, missionaries shall not, without urgent cause, begin new operations in a locality where other Christians are already in the field;

and again,

It is no breach of Christian courtesy for a missionary to follow up his own people.

up by their missionaries, as far as
possible no actual station shall be
formed in close proximity to one
already in existence.

On the subject of the transferrence of Christians from one body to another, he suggests as possible such guarded resolutions as the following:

"Missionaries shall not deliberately proselytize among Christians." "It is no breach of Christian courtesy for a missionary to use every right and fair effort to retain his own members; nor is it any breach of Christian courtesy for a missionary to receive into the communion to which he belongs members of other denominations";

adding as a rider of primary importance,

In all such cases, certificate of ecclesiastical status and character, or letters testimonial, shall be demanded on the one side and given on the other.

We have quoted thus much of the bishop's article because we think it will serve as a foil to set off the quotations we are about to give from the resolutions of the China Centenary Conference. The bishop suggests "mutual conference." In China (as in India and elsewhere) we have had such conference, and that on a very large scale. We can study the results as expressed in resolutions; and we can at least form opinions as to whether it is worth while for Anglican Christians to take part in such conferences, or whether doing so is a mistake.

The Peking Committee on
Federation

In the Shanghai conference "Comity" appeared as a part of one of the subjects, the other and perhaps predominant partner being "Federation." This latter question had been the raison d'être of a small committee of Peking missionaries, which really did its work under the vigorous pressure of one enthusiastic

Free Churchman, Dr. Thomas Cochrane, M.B., of the L. M. S.

At the risk of seeming discursive, it may be worth while to say something about the work of what is known in China as the "Peking Committee on Federation," of which Dr. Cochrane was the chairman. It embraced originally two Congregationalists (English and American), one Methodist, one Presbyterian, and one Anglican. It took steps to find out the views of all the missions, and, in some cases, of most of the missionaries, working in China, on such points as the desirability of common terms for God and the Holy Spirit, and for churches and preaching chapels; the possibility of a union hymn-book; and the expediency of some form of federation of missions. The Anglican member of the committee never found any reason to regret having taken part in its deliberations, but rather the contrary; and if the committee did not itself effect a great deal, it paved the way for what might have proved, and still may prove, large developments. It discovered and made public the interesting fact that on the long-vexed "Term" question there is now something very near unanimity amongst the foreign missionary bodies; so much so that the Bible Societies will probably cease to print alternative terms as hitherto. It has produced a small and tentative edition of a nucleus of common hymns; and it carried through, in September, 1905, a federation conference in Peking attended by a good many representatives from places as distant as Shansi and Hongkong.

In the opinion of the present writer its real opportunity for doing more was forfeited by the attempt to do too much. Its ideas of federation, or at least those put forth in its name, were too elaborate and too advanced to secure acceptance, and it was not content with such cautious findings as Bishop Gibson suggests. However, it effected the consideration of the subject as a practical question by the Shanghai Centenary Conference of 1907; and a committee of that conference was formed to draw up a

report and resolutions to be submitted to the conference itself.

The Shanghai Conference and

the "Chinese Church"

It would be natural at this point to review the resolutions on this subject which were carried at the Centenary Conference; but the procedure of the conference itself necessitates another digression. The subject of "Comity and Federation" was put down for one of the closing sessions, the subject of "The Chinese Church" for the first day. When the resolutions on this latter point were published, many of those attending the conference rubbed their eyes and wondered who was responsible for taking nearly all the wind out of the sails of the federation committee. Whatever the cause, the resolutions in re "The Chinese Church" are so bound up with our subject that we must consider them first, before we pass on to those of the committee on "Comity and Federation."

Space forbids us to do more than summarize them very briefly indeed. (They cover, as has been said, five octavo pages.) Dr. J. C. Gibson, of the English Presbyterian Mission in Swatow, was the chairman of the committee, and really the author of the resolutions. The dominant idea set forth in them is that of the oneness of all Protestant (i.e., exclusive of Roman Catholic) mission work. The work of the Greek Church of Russia in the North is at present hardly known outside Peking. The resolutions speak of "the Church in China"; they seek to minimize the effects of such differences as exist by dwelling on the large amount of agreement whch really obtains amongst us; they would limit Our "differences" mainly to "methods of administration and Church government"; insist on "our real unity in our common witness to the Gospel of the grace of God." Again, we are said to desire "to plant one Church" in China, to be as soon as possible set free from all control by members of "Churches" in foreign lands (i.e., foreign missionaries); and this ideal is

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urged upon "the Home Churches" for their acceptance. The fifth and sixth resolutions are particularly germane to our subject. The first great step toward unity is set forth as "the uniting of the Churches planted in China by different missions of the same ecclesiastical order," and a committee consisting of eight subcommittees, each representing one ecclesiastical order (as far as possible), is appointed "to further and co-ordinate all such action." It is "the earnest hope of this Conference" that these Chinese bodies (of different ecclesiastical orders) “may from the first prepare to unite with each other in the closest practicable bonds of Christian fellowship, either in organic ecclesiastical union or in a free federation" as God shall guide them.

Practical Statesmanship

If the ideal set forth was a bold one under existing conditions, no one can question the wise statesmanship of the practical step suggested. Dr. Gibson avoided the mistake of the Peking Committee; he did not try to effect too much, but contented himself with a really practical proposal. On the other hand, he plunged the conference into a veritable vortex by his attempt to define the limits of doctrinal agreement in his second resolution. Churchmen, and many others, would take exception to any limiting of our differences simply to "methods of administration and Church government." But this part was carefully worded, and might have passed very easily; but when it came to a "unanimous and cordial" declaration that this conference holds, etc., it was inevitable that the really strong doctrinal divergencies which exist should make themselves felt. The debate was intensely interesting-the word "Catholic," though finally expunged, found many unexpected defenders. The attitude of the leader of the great China Inland Mission was a revelation in itself; and the credit of healing a threatened breach of comity, not to say of charity, on the very threshold of the conference, lay perhaps with the youngest

of our Anglican bishops. But the wording of the resolution as finally passed was far from adequate; and perhaps we may go as far as to say that the whole thing might have been better left alone. It was one more instance of the danger of a "conference" (such as Bishop Gibson rightly recommends) attempting too much.

The Declaration of the Shanghai Conference

We must, however, quote the declaration as it stands:

That this Conference unanimously holds the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments as the supreme standard of faith and practice, and holds firmly the primitive apostolic faith. Further, while acknowledging the Apostles' Creed and the Nicene Creed as substantially expressing the fundamental doctrines of the Christian faith, the Conference does not adopt any creed as a basis of Church unity, and leaves confessional questions for future consideration; yet, in view of our knowledge of each other's doctrinal symbols, history, work, and character, we gladly recognize ourselves as already one body in Christ, teaching one way of eternal life, and calling men into one holy fellowship; and as one in regard to the great body of doctrine of the Christian faith; one in our teaching as to the love of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost; in our testimony as to sin and salvation, and our homage to the Divine Redeemer of men; one in our call to the purity of the Christian life, and in our witness to the splendors of the Christian hope.

Churchmen have been severely criticised for voting for this resolution; the expressions or words printed above in italics have been held to be seriously inadequate if not contrary to the faith we really hold. The present writer feels that this is just one of those cases where the preliminary considerations he set forth need to be borne in mind. He believes that, as things are, any attempts at such common declarations should be

either avoided altogether, or drawn up so as to leave no doubt in the minds of anyone that they are not the "minimum we are prepared to accept" but the "extent to which we agree." But he believes no less strongly that if Churchmen are right in attending such conferences, they must err, if it is erring, on the side of charity rather than of rigidity; that while they may rightly do their best to keep matters of dispute outside the limits of discussion, they may not rightly endanger brotherly feeling in order to assert the fulness of their own beliefs when their loyalty to those beliefs is not really brought into question at all.

The Gravestone of Over-Elabo

rate Organization

Let us now turn to the resolutions brought forward by the committee on Comity and Federation, whose chairman, Dr. Ament, of Peking, had been a member of the Peking Committee, and works under the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (Congregational). Eight resolutions were adopted, the last being in response to a suggestion made by the Anglican Conference held in April, 1907, of which more anon.

This committee contented itself with a lower ideal than Dr. Gibson's, the formation of a "Christian Federation of China," rather than the attainment of "the Chinese Church"; and whether for this reason or from some baneful influence attaching to the word "Federation"-it produced a scheme from which we can hardly hope to see great results. Beginning with a specious preamble about the objects of the proposed federation-"to foster and encourage the sentiment and practice of union

and