THE CLAIM TO ST. SOPHIA

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 246, 11 July 1919, Page 7

THE CLAIM TO ST. SOPHIA

CHRISTIAN CHURCH OR MOSQUE f The English Church Union did a more popular thing than is its wont (says the "Christian World") when it held a meeting to demand the restoration of the great church of St. Sophia in Constantinople to Christian worship. Mr. Athel-' stall Riley, who presided, expressed the belief that if all Christian bodies had been invited to co-oporate the -Albert Hall could have been filled. ' As it was. _. the hall of Cannon 'Street Hotel was '■ crowded,.and the speaking was of a very high order. The architectural glory and the unique history of. this ■ "most lovely I building in tho world" was well set forth by Mr. Riley, and Dr. Burrows, of King's College, and an exceedingly strong case was made out for depriving the unspeakable Turk of a "church Which became n mosque by conquest and should naturally become a church again by re-, conquest." It was pointed out that tho Christian history of St. Sophia extended. over 916 years and iis .Mohammedan occupation over just a little less than half that time, also that the present ■ population of Constantinople includes a *• decided majority of Christians. But the speech of the evening was that' of tho. Bishop of Oxford. Dr. Goro recalled tho great days of the Bulgarian atrocity agitation, which many high Churchmen like himself were among the foremost denunciators of Turkish oppression.