of allegiance, acknowledging the Queen's Supremacy as Governor of the Church; the Oath of obedience to the Archbishop; also those parts of the services for Ordering of Priests and Deacons which refer especially to the Church and State at Home.
With the exception of the Bishop of Christchurch, none of our Bishops have Letters Patent from the Crown, nor have they any legal status in the Ecclesiastical Courts in England. We have set up our own Ecclesiastical Courts and, by mutual consent, are subject to them. No external authority can interfere with their decisions, unless it can be proved, on appeal to the Civil courts of the Colony, that the terms and conditions of the mutual consent between the Church and her office bearers have not been adhered to.
Much debate ensued. A select committee dealt with the matter, and its report having been adopted, was embodied in a Statute, which provides:—
For the necessary alterations in the Services for Consecration of Bishops, and the Ordering of Priests and Deacons; the acceptance of the Revised Table of Lessons; words to be added to the 21st of the Thirty-nine Articles, viz.: "It is not to be inferred from this Article that the Church in the Colony is hindered from meeting in Council, without the authority of the Civil Power." And to the 37th Article: "It is not to be inferred from this Article that the Civil Power has authority in this Colony to determine purely spiritual questions, or to hinder the Church from finally determining such questions by its own authority, or by Tribunals constituted under its own authority."
It was also provided that the Church in the Colony, which is, in the Constitution, designated as a Branch
