CHURCH REUNION.

Press, Volume LXVII, Issue 20178, 5 March 1931, Page 6

CHURCH REUNION.

DECISION OP PATRIARCH. LETTER TO THE PRIMATE. , Graoic mil' ntnr (onacsfOKOKitT.) LONDON", ' The Archbishop of Canterbury has received an historic document from His All Holiness, Meletios 11., Pope anl& Patriarch of Alexandria, setting forth " the decision of the Holy Synod of the Metropolitans of the Apostolic and Patriarchal Throne of Alexandria to j*e- : cognise the validity of Anglican orders, held to he invalid "by the Roman Catholie Church. r - The statement withdraws its precautionary negative I to the acceptance, of, the validity of Anglican ordinations, and pronounces that if Anglican clergy should join the Orthodox' Church, they, would not be re-ordained. , Such a remarkable step towards reunion has come about through the Lambeth declarations, which have satisfied the Holy Synod in regard to the teaching of the Anglican Church in the matter of Apostolic Succession, "A real reception of the . , Lord's Body and Blood," and as to the sacrificial aspect of the Holy Communion, and the sacramental character of ordination. ,"We rejoice," says the Patriarch, "to see the middle wall of partition being t <thrown down more and more, and we congratulate your Beatitude that under God you have had the felicity of i taking the initiative in furthering that work." Meletios 11. was Archbishop of Athens during the Premiership: of "Veni-1 zelos. Throughout the war he was a .devoted friend of Great Britain and her Allies, and always an advocate of close relations 'between the Orthodox< and Anglican Communions.' ev Ho was elected . to the GEcumenical Throne of Constantinople after the Synod of Phanar had been freed from Turkish interference. After the horror of Jhe massacres of. Orthodox bishops and people in Smyrna and by the Black Seaj lie, was urged to leave Stamboul rather than suffer a similar fate on the return of the Turks. ■ He resolutely refused to leave his people. s . Twice he was brutally assaulted in Phanar, and once: carried away by .marauding i and hostile bands of Turks, but "it was not until his own Synod begged, him to withdraw . for; the peace j of the. Church, that he went on board

the British; gunboat, Golden Horn, and 'was taken in safety to Greece. Thgre he J lived.outside Athena'in a, cottage, a figure in ment, until,' on the s death -of 'the Synod of Alexandria elected' him, despite ' -the efforts -. of - jAnglophobe' enemies, and ha .reigns 4pw" bv£r tie Orthodox of Africa} J still, as ever, the stalwart friend of Britain, 'He came to Britain last' 1 year? to attend the Anglo-Catholie Congress,' and the Lambeth Conference, going upon his to: the KingJ Edward- the Confessor in" Westminster 7 Ajbbey to bless England. 1 '