WAY OF RECEIVING CONVERTS

CIR.— May I, as a fairly
recent convert, and an exAnglican clergyman, be allowed to add my plea to those of Miss Freth and Fr. Burke for a new approach to the manner in which converts are received?
To start with, I think it is questionable whether the expressions used in the 1859 formula aye strictly accurate at all. If they are, then they can surely hardly be outmoded.
The fundamental difficulty seems to lie in the assumption that everyone except ourselves is in bad faith. But does the Church not teach that everyone, be they Christian, heretic or even non-Christian, provided they are in good faith, living up to what they believe, cannot be condemned?
If this is so. must we not rather acknowledge thankfully that the Holy Spirit has, in His inscrutable wisdom, seen fit to draw another soul to its true home, the Church? Now, all that was true in former belief will he inflnitely enriched, all that was false will fall away as useless.
This requires a positive, forward-looking assertion. It is no time to look back and condemn, but rather to look forward with faith. After all, if a convert has reason to believe he has sinned against the Church, will
this not be cleared tip as he makes • his confession and receives absolution?
It is quite often the case that a convert has to face many misunderstandings amongst friends and family, and great deprivations. It is little consolation to him to be told he need not understand the old formula as meaning what it says, especially in this age of literal accuracy.
I know from experience that this formula does not reflect the attitude of the best theologians and of our warm hearted, charitable clergy. It is as much a stumbling block to them as it is to so many would-be converts. And it seems very far removed from the aims of Pope John's aggiornamento and the new ecumenical outlook.
Of course, the clergy are presumably free to use only the modified formula. But my plea still stands. While anything of the spirit of the old words remains, we are surely hindering the work of the Holy Spirit.
Perhaps some of your readers would like to express their views on whether such expressions as "submission", "convert". "received into the Church", etc. can strictly he justified as "accurate but outmoded".
" Studio eu s."