The League of Loyalty and Order / The Westminster Group

Minute books of the League of Loyalty and Order and the Westminster Group. A small collection of printed material produced by the Westminster Group, including leaflets and a meeting programme.

The League of Loyalty and Order was founded early in 1927 as an ad hoc body to campaign for the Prayer Book Measure: "it was clearly stated at the outset that the League only existed for the purpose of securing the passage of the Measure into law." (Minutes, 15 June 1928). It had much in common with the Church Reform League, which was already campaigning in Parliament on behalf of the Measure, and there were suggestions from time to time that the two bodies should combine. Many of the LLO members, however, considered that the main aim of the Church Reform League (CRL) was disestablishment, or at least independence, and preferred to concentrate their energies on the specific issue of the Prayer Book (i.e. Minutes, 6 July 1928)

The Measure was twice rejected by the Commons, in December 1927 and June 1928, mainly because the MPs were alarmed and bemused by the vigorous opposition of both Evangelical and Catholic extremists. It was decided, on constitutional grounds, that the League could not continue, but complete disbandment was seen as an admission of defeat. An 'Interpreter's Council' was proposed, to collect and transmit information and statistics on the Church of England, to support the Bishops, and generally to act as a non-party group to further the Church's interests. By November 1928 the Council was taking shape as the Westminster Group. A number of former LLO leaders became founder members of the new Group - Professor Percy Dearmer, the Revd. A.S.V. Blunt, Canons Hepher and Monroe. Others, such as Sir Harry Verney, Lord Daryngton and Lt. Col. H.L. Oldham, took little part in the new Group. A number of former nominal members of the LLO were more enthusiastic about the Group and soon became leading figures: F.C. Eeles, Lord Selborne.

The Group set itself a two-fold task, press publicity and Parliamentary campaigning (Minutes, 14 November 1928). It aimed to watch the press and reply to "Roman and anti-Christian attacks" and to "strive to give publicity to uncontroversial Church events" (Minutes, 2 July 1930). Attemps were made to keep a balance of churchmanship on the committees, though by non-members the Group was considered Evangelical.

Relations with the Church Self-Government League (as the CRL was then known) remained close: in 1935, for instance, the Annual Report and Statement of Accounts was printed in the CSGL Chronicle, to save expense. In 1936 the publication of the Church and State Report brought the two groups even closer together, and it was decided that the time was ripe for amalgamation. The final meeting of the independent Westminster Group was held on 13 October 1937, and the new joint body began life as the Westminster Group and Church Reform League. From c.1947 the organization was known simply as the Church Reform League.

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