South India: “Reunion by Destruction”

Abstract

The Church of South India (CSI) exposed the paradox of inter-denominational reunion exacerbating Anglican disunity. This disjunct caused Temple one of his greatest challenges as he attempted to pacify those opposed to the Scheme, while offering moderate encouragement to those promoting it. More remarkable still was the fact that the actions on the other side of the world were felt to be so menacing for the Church of England. Only two years before the Scheme was published, Temple had argued that international denominations were more important to Christianity than united national churches. Nevertheless, Temple supported the Scheme when it was published because it shared much in common with his complementarian theology. Sachs has claimed that the Scheme epitomised what Temple believed was “the realisation of Anglican intention for unity”, while Iremonger argued that it “made more possible the fulfilment of one of his lifelong dreams—the union of the best in both the Catholic and Protestant traditions within the bounds of a single Church”. There was more to the CSI than this, however, as it was the first bridge across the episcopal and non-episcopal divide and the Scheme did not include any act of reconciliation which could be interpreted as episcopal ordination. It was this aspect of the Scheme that was to be most offensive to Anglo-Catholic sensitivities. In the last years of his life, Temple did his best to pacify those most aggressively opposed to the Scheme, opposition that often bewildered him, but he failed to subdue the conflict.