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The Times(19 Mar 1943) 5

Sir, – I had not interpreted Lord Quickswood’s letter quite as does the Bishop of Barking; and I hope that in this discussion the question of the “sincerity” of any of the parties to the South India scheme – a question which is liable to give rise to sudden and irrelevant heat – will not become an issue. 2 The question of the reality of sea-serpents can be discussed without reference to the sincerity with which some believe, and others disbelieve in their existence.

The Bishop of Barking does, however, introduce a new argument which is extremely plausible, and which must have been present to the minds of the framers of the scheme. It is that views as widely divergent as those embraced by the projected Church of South India are already represented within the Church of England. The question whether the unquestionably “variant views” held by members of the Anglican communion, and recognized in Doctrine in the Church of England, are as widely variant as those explicitly admitted by the South India scheme is one which I leave to others to debate. 3 And I only suggest the point that in the South India scheme we are concerned with variations not only of view but of practice. What I wish to ask is, whether there is not a world of difference between accepting a situation which was in existence before any of us were born, with which no one can profess to be wholly satisfied, and the affirmation as a principle that these differences are a matter of indifference? If, for example, those who maintain the doctrine of the apostolic succession deliberately unite themselves with those who consider the episcopate merely a “form of government,” then they are pledging themselves to the assertion that a doctrine is at the same time essential and inessential: which is, I submit, a great strain upon the mind. 4

Yours, etc. t. s. eliot Shamley Green, Surrey

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