Episcopalians

Last week Episcopalians were slightly torn by unity. Before the Episcopal Church's 54th Triennial General Convention, meeting in Cleveland's Euclid Avenue Baptist Church (no Episcopal church was large enough to hold the 750 Bishops, priests and laymen), were two reports from the Joint Commission on Approaches to Unity. For six years this Commission has pondered with unflagging leisureliness the question of uniting Episcopalians with the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. The majority report (twelve signers) favored unity; the minority report (three signers) opposed it.

Most people expected 77-year-old Bishop William Thomas Manning to bounce up belligerently from his desk in the House of Bishops. For six years Bishop Manning has battled unity, recently dealt it a thudding blow in a sermon at New York's Cathedral of St. John the Divine (TIME, Sept. 20). Instead, Albany's Bishop G. Ashton Oldham rose to stroke the porcupine. Gravely he expressed his conviction that if either report were debated it would result in "an unpleasant and unedifying discussion." He suggested that the Bishops adopt neither report, but authorize the Commission to "continue its negotiations" with the Presbyterians. His resolution also stipulated that nothing definite could be done without "the counsel of the Lambeth Conference." This is a meeting of worldwide Anglican Bishops held every ten years. At his desk across the aisle, the Anglophile Manning nodded his grey head approvingly.

But Massachusetts' handsome Bishop Henry Knox Sherrill (just back from visiting U.S. military posts in the Aleutians) seemed a little worried. He feared that Presbyterians might think they heard the loud slamming of a door. He hoped that Bishop Oldham's resolution meant that Episcopalians "feel there are some prospects of such unity." Bishop Manning agreed. When the votes were counted Bishop Manning had won. Unity was as far away as ever. Said one Bishop to another in a stage whisper: "I hope we don't look too much like the cat that swallowed the canary."

Very different was the mood of the predominantly Low-Church House of Deputies (clerical and lay delegates), which met separately. Said one delegate: "Manning has his dander up and he has the Bishops cowed." There was talk of sending the Oldham resolution back to the Bishops, telling them to face the unity problem. But nothing happened. Chief reason: no Episcopalian wants a knockdown fight between Low-and High-Churchmen which would give the Church a bad press.

Later scholarly, urbane Presbyterian Moderator Henry Sloane Coffin addressed the Episcopal Convention. Said he dryly: "Our Church is committed to the principle of visible Church unity and never has sought to be merely a sect of the Holy Catholic Church."

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