CHURCH REUNION

Hokitika Guardian, 6 March 1931, Page 6

CHURCH REUNION

j DECISION UE PATH I A hi 11. j LETTER TO THE PRIMATE. ! LONDON, January 17. I The Archbisiiop oi emuerhury hits ivt.,vr,i an Historic document trotn Ills All Holiness, Mcleltos lc. 5 Cope amt Pa trim oi oi Alexandria, setting iorth ti.e decision of .the Holy Synod ol tin* .Metropolitans of the Apo-iotic and Patriarchal Throne u) Alexandria to recognise me validity o] Anglican ordi rs, held to he invalid by the Roman Catholic Church. 'The statement withdraws its precautionary negative to the acceptance ofi the validity of Anglican ordinations, and pronounces tual it Anglican clergy should join the Orthodox Church, they would nop be. re-ordamed. 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 oi Apostolic Succession, "it real reception of the Lord's Body and Blood,” and as to the sacrificial as_ eet of the Holy Communion, and the sacramental character of orrlintit :tni. “We rejoice,” -ays the Patriarch, ‘■to -t'e the middle wail of partition being thrown down more and more, and we longrtDulat-e your Beatitude that under God you have had the felicity of taking the initiative in tur-

[ ! tbeiing that work.” , j Aleletios 11. was Archbishop of j Athens (.luring the Premiership of I Wnizelos. Throughout the war he was a devoted friend of Groat Britain and j her Allied, and always an advocate of close relations between the Orthodox and Anglican Communions. He was elected to the (Knimenieal I Throne of Constantinople after the Synod of Phanar had been freed from Turkish interference. After tin* horror of the massacres of Orthodox bishops and people in Smyrna and by the i Black Sea. lie was urged to leave Stain- | houl rather than suffer a similar fate , on the return of the Turks. He resolutely refused to leave Ids people. Twice he was brutally assaulted in : Phanar. and once carried away by j marauding and hostile hands of Turks, j hilt it was not until his own Synod i Ihegged him to withdraw for the peace) of- the Church, that lie went on board j

the British gunboat. Golden Horn, and "as taken in >nl’ety to Greece. There lie lived outside Athens in a cottage, a magnificent figure in retirement. until, on the death of Photiws. the Synod o! Alexandria elected him, despite the efforts of Anglophobe enemies, and he reigns now over the Orthodox of Africa, still, as ever, the stalwart friend of Britain. He came to Britain last year to attend the Anglo-Catholic Congress, and the Lambeth Conference, going upon his arrival to the shrine of King Edward the Confessor in Westminister Abbey to bless England;