Clarity about Unity

By Fr. Herbert Kcldany
Roman Catholics and Unity by Enda McDonagh: Anglicans and Unity by David M: Paton; Presbyterians and Unity by J. K. S. Reid; Congregationalists and Unity by Erik Routley; Baptists and Unity by L. G. Champion; Methodists and Unity by Rupert E. Davies; General Editor: the Bishop of Bristol. (Mowbrays, 5s. 6d. each.) DR. TOMKINS in the brief introduction which appears in each of these frank and instructive paperbacks writes as follows: "Humanly speaking, the goal of Christian Unity is ludicrously impracticable but God never commands the impossible. We believe that unity is His command, and that in our time He is giving to us the encouragement of seeing things happen which our fathers would have considered impossible. God is leaving us in no doubt that the world which he has made is ineluctably one world."
The six distinguished writers all state that they do not write as official representatives of their several communions. This may account for the candour and clarity with which the various approaches are set out, and to the over-all impression that there is, at least in the more informed circles, a real "wind of change" at work in all alike. This may be still at a relatively early stage of velocity, but it has potentially the force of a cyclone, despite the mistakes of the past.
It was wise to print these books separately rather than in one fat volume. The reader can buy a copy of that one which most interests him. Fr. McDonagh, writing from Maynooth, summarises the Catholic approach brilliantly. Mr. Paton reviews a complex spectrum of organisation and opinion candidly, and the other authors are equally instructive.