In such matters authority naturally and necessarily goes along with the cure of souls; the priest of the parish must perforce provide for the spiritual needs of his parish.  If he finds those needs satisfied with the rendering of Morning and Evening Prayer—­well and good; but those who do not find the needs of their parish so satisfied must seek to satisfy them by the providing of other spiritual means.  And in seeking thus to provide for the spiritual growth of souls committed to his care, the priest, on the principles of the Anglican formularies, is justified and entitled to make use of the means in use throughout Catholic Christendom.  He is quite justified in calling his people together for a prayer meeting, if in his judgment that will be for their spiritual good; or if his judgment is different, he is equally justified in inviting them to join him in saying the rosary.  He may incite to greater devotion by a shortened form of Evening Prayer or by popular Vespers.  I do not think that there is anything in the Christian Religion or in the formularies of the Anglican Church that forbids him to have moving pictures or special musical services.  Nor is there any reason why, if it be in his judgment promotive of holiness, he should not provide for his parish such services as Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament.  There can be no legitimate criticism of a service on the ground of its provenance.

It is a common reproach against the Anglican Communion that is “does not know its own mind.”  It would be much truer to say that there are many members of it who have been at no pains to ascertain whether it have a mind or what that mind is:  who have been content to confound the mind of the Church with the mind of the party to which they are attached by the accident of birth or of preference.  I do not for a moment contend that the party (to use an ugly but necessary word) to which I am attached stands, in all things, in perfect alignment with the Anglican Formularies.  There are circumstances in which it appears to me to be necessary to appeal from Anglican action to the mind of that larger Body, the whole Church of Christ throughout the world, to which the Anglican Church points me as its own final authority.  In so doing I do not feel that I am disloyal, but that I am actually doing what authority tells me to do.  These are cases in point.  I do not believe that a local Church can suppress and permanently disuse sacraments of the universal Church.  The Anglican Church by its suppression of the sacraments of Unction and by its almost universal disuse for centuries of the sacrament of Penance, compelled those who would be loyal to the Catholic Church to which it appealed to act on their own initiative in the revival of the use of those sacraments.  I do not believe that the local Church has the right or the power to forbid or permanently disuse customs which are of universal currency in the Catholic Church.  I do not believe that it has the right to neglect