ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses how Nonconformist bodies are to be re-incorporated into the National Church. The Prayer Book, considered as a legal document, was drawn up on the assumption that any freedom or elasticity or spontaneity in conducting a service was sure to be misused-not through malice and wickedness, but through ignorance and stupidity. It is, in fact, founded on mistrust of intellectual or spiritual competence,-mistrust which tends to justify itself by reaction of the mechanical system upon those who are constantly subjected to its constricting influence. Permissively the Prayer Book can remain unchanged, with merely a substitution of "may" for "shall", and with the occasional iteration of words indicating a respect for historic continuity. The Lord's Prayer, with its brief and profound sentences, is not properly treated when subjected to the gabble of a choir. Every sentence involves thought. The single phrase "Thy Kingdom come" speaks volumes, and contains sufficient for a morning's worship.
