Joint Action in Britain

"Such a measure for joint action has not happened since the Reformation," the Bishop of London told the radio audience.

Earlier that day the Church of England, led by the new Archbishop of Canterbury, the Roman Catholic Church, led by Arthur Cardinal Hinsley, and the various British free churches agreed to set up a joint standing committee to work out plans for common action in the social regeneration of England, issued a joint declaration :

"We agree that a compelling obligation now rests upon all Christian people in this country to maintain the Christian tradition ... in the handling of social, economic and civic problems now and in the critical post-war period. We are all profoundly impressed with the increasing danger that in our generation the Christian heritage, in which we all share, may be lost and that our country may increasingly slip into accepting pagan standards and ideals. . . .

"We feel that all Christians alike are bound ... to oppose the present tendencies to set Christianity aside and to treat it as a matter of private concern without relevance to the principles which should guide society. We agree that there is a large area of common ground on which, without raising ultimate questions of church order and doctrine which divide us, full cooperation is possible and is already taking place. . . .

"The Christian life is one lived in and through membership of a religious society.

"Our purpose is to unite informed and convinced Christians all over the country in common action on broad lines of social and international policy. . . . The crisis of civilization . . . makes it essential that all this work of Christian cooperation should be greatly intensified and extended."

The new joint standing committee will coordinate the activities of the Catholic Sword of the Spirit movement (TIME, May 19, 1941) and the joint Anglican-Free Church Religion & Life movement (TIME, Feb. 16).

Chairman of the joint committee is the Anglican Bishop of London, who cannily refrained from undue optimism about its prospects. Says he: "So far as it goes, it is a notable thing. It has still to be tested in practice. We know there are rocks ahead and that it cannot be all smooth sailing."

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