OrthodoxAnglicanUnity1914to1921 (PDF)

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The Anglican and Eastern Churches: A Historical Record 1914-1921
London: Published for the Anglican and Eastern Churches Association by the
Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1921.
The Reunion Movement.
IN the past few years, largely owing to opportunities of closer intercourse created in
great measure by the war, a great advance has been made in what we may term, for
the sake of convenience, the Reunion movement. The presence in this country, one
after another, of Eastern prelates of high rank, has afforded an opportunity of
arranging a series of services in our London cathedrals, and elsewhere, at which we
have been able to see and hear these distinguished representatives of the Orthodox
Church.
These services all followed the same general outline. The visiting prelate was
received at the west end of the cathedral, with the customary greeting to an Eastern
Bishop, "Is polla ete, Despota." (Long life to the Lord Bishop). After the procession
to the choir, a sermon was preached, and after prayers and a hymn, a Litany was sung
in procession, translated from the Orthodox Litanies of St. John Chrysostom. The Te
Deum sometimes followed, with prayers for the Unity of the Church, and for the
Departed, and the Blessing was given by the Orthodox Bishop. A copy of these
services is included in this Report as a memento for those members who were unable
to be present on any of the occasions.
Besides this, Conferences have been held with some of the visitors, details of which
are published elsewhere; and a great advance has been made in understanding the
position of the two Churches, much preliminary ground has been covered, and many
fancied difficulties have been smoothed away.
Committees. Another valuable addition to the cause of Reunion has been the
formation in this country, and in different parts of the Eastern Church, of Official
Committees, to take cognizance of all matters affecting the relations of the Churches.
A great advance was made in the rapprochement between the Anglican and Eastern
Churches, when in December, 1919, the Archbishop of Canterbury appointed an
official Committee to take cognizance of Eastern Church affairs. This step was the
outcome of an expressed opinion of more than one Lambeth Conference, and it was
taken at a very opportune moment, in view of the importance of Eastern affairs in the
forthcoming Lambeth Conference, and the part played there by the official Delegation
from the Oecumenical Patriarchate. The new Committee took the responsibility for
the entertainment of the delegates, and other kindred official matters, for which in the
past our own Association had been the only available [3/4] intermediary. The
relations between the Committee and the Association have been of the closest
possible kind, and the personnel of the latter has been well represented on the former,
since amongst the members of the Committee are the President of the Association (the
Bishop of London) and four Episcopal Vice-Presidents, the Chairman and seven
members of the General Committee, and various other members of the Association;
and more important still the General Secretary--the Rev. H. J. Fynes-Clinton--was
unanimously chosen as the Secretary of the Archbishop's Committee.

In Constantinople, a Committee of the Holy Synod was appointed in February, 1920,
especially to consider relations with the Anglican Church, under the chairmanship of
the Archbishop of Cyzicus. Among its members are Germanos, Metropolitan of
Seleucia, and Principal of Halki (the training school, through which most of the
higher ecclesiastics of the Orthodox Church pass) and four other of the Halki
theological professors, with the secretary of the Holy Synod (the Bishop of
Irenopolis), and Professor Constantine of Robert College. The appointment of the
committee is a great proof of good will, and should mark a stage in the everincreasing entente between the Anglican and Orthodox Churches.
At Athens, a similar Committee has been formed, and a project has been put forward
by Archbishop Meletios, for the establishment of a Professorial Chair at the
University, for the study of the English Church, to be filled alternately by a Greek and
an Anglican. While one of the first acts of the newly established Russian National
Church Council was to form a committee for the same purpose; thus establishing an
official committee to supplement the labours of the already existing voluntary Russian
Society for Reunion, exactly in the same way as the Eastern Churches Committee in
England has followed on the work of our own Association.
The following instances of official interchange of ecclesiastical relations, have been
communicated to us, and are chronicled here, in order to indicate the extent to which
such interchange is taking place.
From the U.S.A. The Bishop of Harrisburg laid the foundation of the second
Bulgarian church in America, and at the close of the Turco-Balkan war, the same
Bishop sang the Te Deum in this church, and then with the Bulgarian priest and some
of the congregation, proceeded to the Greek church, and there performed the same
office. In the Church of the Advent, Philadelphia, on a certain Sunday it occurred that
the first Mass was sung by the rector in Slavonic for the Serbians, the second by a
Roumanian priest, who [4/5] before he administered the Holy Oil, received the
signation himself first from the rector as acknowledging his jurisdiction. The third
Mass was for the Armenians. Just before this, a procession went from the church to
the new church built for the Ruthenians with a Russian priest bearing the Blessed
Sacrament from the Tabernacle of the Advent, where It had been reserved for these
people for four years. Episcopal churches have frequently been used for the services
of Greek, Russian, and Syrian Orthodox. On one occasion the Greek Archimandrite
preached in Trinity Church, Sacramento; while at a service held during the Provincial
Synod in St. Peter's Church, Springfield, there were present two American bishops,
two Greek priests, a Russian, a Syrian, and a Polish Old Catholic priest, who vested
and took part in the procession.
From the Colonies. In Halifax, Nova Scotia, at Easter, 1915, some members of the
Russian colony kept a watch in St. Luke's Hall from midnight. At dawn the Rev. V. E.
Harris intoned "Christ is risen." Mass then followed, during which six men received
Holy Communion, after which an address was given, the food was blessed, the Kiss
of Peace was exchanged, and the ceremony ended with the repetition of "Christ is
risen." A mission church has been provided for the Russians in this place, in which
the services are rendered mostly in Russian, whilst weekly classes of instruction are
held in the boarding houses. In South Africa in 1914, the Bishop of Pretoria
consecrated a new Greek church. In 1919, the Bishop of Southern Rhodesia, with

Bishops Gaul and Smyth, attended a celebration of the Orthodox Liturgy, at which
Professor Norton, of Capetown University, read the Epistle and Creed in Greek. The
new Archimandrite, Father Katsis, was also introduced by Professor Norton to the
Provincial Synod.
In Australia, St. George's Day, 1915, was observed by Solemn Evensong in St.
Saviour's Church, Redfern, at which the Syrian Exarch was present in the sanctuary,
read an Arabic letter, recited a prayer for King George in Greek, and took part in the
procession.
At Sydney, in October, 1916, a meeting was held to form a branch of the Association,
at which two Greek priests, the Revs. Seraphim Phocas and Demetrius Marinakis,
were present. Next morning Mass was said by the Bishop of Bunbury with the same
two priests present.
From the Far East. In Corea, Bishop Trollope assisted the Russian mission
financially, during a time of difficulty, with the warm approval of the Standing
Committee of the S.P.G.
In Honolulu, the clergy of the Episcopal American Church [5/6] received instructions
and authority to baptize, marry, and bury Greek and Russian Orthodox. In Hawaii, in
1915, the Archpriest, J. Korchinsky, conducted the first services (including the
Liturgy) of the newly-formed Russian Church, in the Trinity chapel of the Cathedral.
From Russia. At Petrograd, in 1915, a meeting took place between the Metropolitan
Pitirim and Bishop Bury, with the late Mr. Birkbeck present as interpreter. The two
prelates embraced three times on meeting, and Bishop Bury conveyed to the
Metropolitan the congratulations of the Archbishop of Canterbury on his election.
Archbishop Pitirim sent his compliments and best wishes to the Archbishop in return,
and presented Bishop Bury with his portrait. At Moscow, the Bishop attended service
in the Uspensky Sobor Cathedral, vested in full pontificals, and carrying his episcopal
staff; on arrival he was embraced by the Metropolitan who was the celebrant, taken to
the altar, and after the Liturgy shared the ceremonial breaking of the fast, and was
placed behind the Metropolitan in the retiring procession. At Omsk, in Siberia, in
1919, the Archbishop of the See gave permission for English services to be held in the
cathedral for British troops stationed there; while at Aleppo the Greek Archbishop
was present at a parade service, which included the Mass. He gave an address in
Arabic, and the blessing in Greek, and afterwards entertained those present to a
collation.

Eastern Visitors to England.
One of the most striking features of the period covered by this Report, has been the
succession of visits paid to this country by Eastern Prelates and others of high rank.
The significance of these visits will be seen when it is realized that representatives of
practically every Eastern Church, except the Coptic, met with us in friendly
intercourse during the war. The various visits of Father, now Bishop Nicolai
Velimirovic, with his colleague Father Janic, have been chronicled elsewhere.

The Rev. Fr. Cicerone Jordachesco, a Roumanian priest in Paris, visited this country
several times, and was present at one of our anniversary meetings. A Conference was
held in Oxford with him and Father Janic, at which matters of importance between the
Churches were discussed. Our Roumanian Secretary, the Archimandrite Scribau, has
also visited us.
Besides the visits of the Serbian Bishop Barnabas, of Monastir, and the Archbishop
Barsaum of the Syrian Church, we had for the first time in England, in 1919, a
representative of the Serbian Church in Austria-Hungary, the Vicar-Bishop Hilaire
Zeremski, of Karlovitz, who was accompanied by Father S. Michaeldic, Archpriest,
and Dr. I. Ziric, Archdeacon of the Diocese. Amongst other doings in London they
visited the Archbishop of Canterbury, inspected the work of the S.P.C.K., and were
present at a meeting arranged by the Association in Sion College. His visit was
marked by the first Pontifical celebration of the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, in an
English church in this country; since he celebrated in the Church of St. Augustine,
Queen's Gate, in London; and again in the Church of the Cowley Fathers, at Oxford,
on the occasion of his visit to that town. While there he stayed with the Cowley
Fathers, where a Conference was held on one night of the visit. He visited several
Colleges, and St. Stephen's House, where the Serbian students were living then; the
party were entertained to lunch at Christ Church, and attended a reception at
Magdalen. On the Sunday of the visit the Bishop attended High Mass at St. Barnabas,
giving a short address and the Episcopal Blessing, holding in his hands the symbolic
triple and double lights. In the afternoon he was received by the Archdeacon of
Oxford, where he met and conversed with the Bishop of the Diocese. In the evening
he attended Evensong at St. Margaret's, again giving an address and his Blessing. His
impressions of his visit may be fitly summed up in his own words: "In the midnight of
Serbia's martyrdom I never dreamed that this [7/8] wonderful opportunity would be
given me of visiting England, and seeing and realizing all that has been granted to me;
I can only pray that it may not stop here, but that this may only be the beginning of a
greater end."
His Beatitude Zaven, Patriarch of the Armenian Church in Constantinople, was
first representative of that Church of so high a rank to visit England; though not
spiritual head of the Armenian Church, he is the civil head of all Armenians in
Turkish Empire, owing to the requirement of the Turkish law that a civil head of
Christian nationalities must reside in Constantinople. He came to this country in
spring of 1920 to plead the cause of his persecuted people, and was accorded
honour of being received by His Majesty the King.

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About the same time arrived also the Archbishop of Trebizond, the head of the Greek
Church in Pontus. He took a great interest in visiting English institutions and
churches. Occasion was taken of the coincidence of the visits of the Archbishop of
Trebizond, the Armenian Patriarch, and Archbishop Barsaum, to arrange three events
of great importance. The three Prelates were officially received at Lambeth by the
Archbishop of Canterbury, and at Fulham by the Bishop of London. On March 9th, a
Solemn Service of Intercession on behalf of our Christian brethren in the East (for
their liberation from Turkish oppression, from affliction, and danger of death) was
arranged by the Association in the Cathedral Church of St. Saviour, Southwark: it was
attended by the Archbishop of Canterbury, who gave a message of welcome to the
three Eastern Prelates. The sermon was preached by the Rev. J. A. Douglas, and

subsequently published under the title of "Death's Ride in Armenia and Anatolia." On
March 12th a Conference was held with the Archbishop's Eastern Committee in the
Jerusalem Chamber at Westminster Abbey, Bishop Gore being in the chair and Dr.
Ryle, Dean of Westminster, and several other priests and laymen being present.
Details and a full list of those taking part are published elsewhere in the Report.
In 1919, and again in 1920, we were honoured by a visit from his Beatitude the
Archbishop of Cyprus. His visits were of peculiar interest and importance, inasmuch
as he is the head of an autocephalous Church of Patriarchal rank, independent since
the fifth century on account of its Apostolic foundation by St. Barnabas. He came to
England on a political mission connected with the freedom of his island home, but he
took every opportunity of informing himself about the Church in England. Among his
other [8/9] engagements he attended Evensong at St. Paul's Cathedral and
Westminster Abbey, and assisted at High Mass at St. Matthew's, Westminster, vested
in crown and mantya and bearing his episcopal staff. He was also present at a meeting
of welcome in Sion College, arranged by the Association, visited the houses of the
Cowley Fathers at Westminster, and the Sisters of the Church at Kilburn, and during
his later visit he took part in the opening procession and High Mass of the AngloCatholic Congress at St. Alban's, Holborn, and was present during one of the
Congress meetings in the Albert Hall.
Of equal importance in the ecclesiastical sphere was the visit in 1918 of Archbishop
Meletios, late of Athens, coming not only as head of the Church of the Kingdom of
Greece, but also officially to visit the Church of England and to establish close
relations with us. He was welcomed at Liverpool by the Rector and others in the
Parish Church of St. Nicholas with a service, during which the Rector read an address
and the Archbishop gave the Blessing. In London he was present at a Solemn Service
in St. Paul's Cathedral, the first of a series arranged by the Association, at which Dr.
Bury, the Bishop for North and Central Europe, representing the Bishop of London,
preached, pointing out in the course of his sermon that the Archbishop's name,
Meletius, was by a happy omen the same as Mellitus, the first of the long line of
Bishops of London. The Archbishop was received by the Archbishop of Canterbury,
and presented with an address of welcome from the President of the Association (the
Bishop of London), the priest-members, and other clergy, in the hall of Sion College.
(The text of the address is printed in full in No. 79 (January, 1919) of "Bible Lands,"
the quarterly paper of the Jerusalem and the East Mission.) At Oxford he received the
honorary degree of D.D., attended Evensong at Christ Church Cathedral, and
afterwards addressed a meeting in the Chapter House. During his visit to Oxford a
Conference was held with him and his suite, at which some forty Anglican
representatives were present, the subjects for discussion being Baptism and
Confirmation. A further visit of His Grace to this country, in the spring of this year,
enabled him to be present and speak at a Mass and service in St. Martin's-in-theFields on March 1st, arranged for the intention of the Restoration of St. Sophia. No
prelate has evinced a warmer interest in the details of English Church life and the
many institutions of all kinds which he visited.
The visit of Archbishop Dimitri, of Belgrade, was in point of time the earliest of this
succession of visits, taking place in the spring of 1916, but it is mentioned here as of
special importance, since [9/10] he is the head of the Serbian Church and is now
elected Patriarch of the Re-united Church of Jugo-Slavia. He came to this country in

April, and was present at service in St. Paul's Cathedral and Westminster Abbey at
Eastertide. He visited Windsor, Clewer, and, of course, Oxford, since naturally he was
peculiarly interested in the work being done there by the Association for the Serbian
theological students; he also inspected some of the Refugee Settlements, and the work
of the Serbian Relief Fund. The Metropolitan was welcomed in London at Sion
College in Easter week by a gathering of English clergy, invited by the Association,
under the presidency of the Bishop of Willesden as representing the Bishop of
London. An address and a gift of books were presented to the Archbishop, who
replied in Serbian with much eloquence and animation, and honoured the Association
by becoming one of its patrons. Fr. Nicolai also delivered an address, a full account of
the proceedings and speeches being printed in the Church Times of May 5th, 1916.
Not least in interest, and greatest perhaps in pathos, was the presence amongst us in
exile of the Lady Surma, the sister of the late Catholicos of the East Syrian,
commonly called the Nestorian Church, to which the Archbishops of Canterbury have
for so many years sent a mission of help and instruction. The young Patriarch, who
had been educated with his sister by the English priests, was murdered when pleading
with the Kurdish Chief for the safety of his people. His young brother, a boy of
thirteen, succeeded him as Patriarch and Chief of the remnant of his people, who are
in exile under British protection, after the massacre of about one-third of the whole
race. Lady Surma, of high culture and gracious personality, amazing in a persecuted
mountain tribe, but living proof of what the ancient Christian faith produces in the
midst of the barbarous rule of the Turk, pleaded with winning eloquence in many
meetings the cause of her people threatened with extinction, and is an earnest
advocate of reunion between the English Church and her own, which is regarded by
many of our best theologians as to-day practically exculpated of any technical heresy,
which it may have held in early centuries. Lady Surma has been specially permitted
by the Archbishop of Canterbury to receive Holy Communion during her residence in
London.
The most important official visit that has ever been paid directly to the English
Church by an Orthodox prelate was that of the Metropolitan of Demotica, since he
came at the head of an official delegation sent at the invitation of the Archbishop of
Canterbury, by the Patriarchate of Constantinople to the Lambeth Conference. [10/11]
The other members of the delegation were Professor Komninos of Halki Theological
College, and two priests resident in England, the Great Archimandrite Constantine
Pagonis, and the Arch-priest Constantine Callinicos, heads respectively of the Greek
Church in London and Manchester. They arrived on July 1st, 1920, and were met at
the station by some Bishops and representatives of the Archbishop and of the
Association. They were received by the Archbishop at Lambeth on the following
Saturday, and the next day attended the opening service of the Lambeth Conference at
Westminster Abbey, being seated on the right hand of the Dean in Choir. In the
evening they attended Evensong at St. Paul's Cathedral. On Tuesday, 6th, they paid a
visit to the Community of St. John the Baptist, Clewer, on their Festival Day, and then
to Windsor Castle and St. George's, dining in the evening with the Archbishop at
Lambeth. On the 7th they were officially introduced by the Archbishop to the full
Session of the Conference in Lambeth Library, speeches being made of welcome and
greeting on each side. That evening they attended the dinner given by the Lord Mayor
to the Bishops, accompanied by the Rev. H. J. Fynes-Clinton, Secretary of the Eastern
Churches Committee, who with Mr. Athelstan Riley was officially attached to them

for their visit, the former escorting them on their various visits throughout the time.
On the 8th Mr. Athelstan Riley gave them dinner in the Athenaeum, with a company
of distinguished guests, including the Archbishop.
Among other engagements they attended an "At Home" given by Lord Salisbury,
inspected the South Kensington Museums, and were received by the clergy at
Brighton and Chichester, and attended the Festival of Lancing College, thus having
the opportunity of seeing something of a cathedral, a central parish, a theological
college, and a public school. On the 19th they had a full day's discussion with the
Commission of the Lambeth Conference dealing with the Eastern Churches, and this
was continued on the 21st. In the evening of the 21st they attended a reception of the
Association at. Sion College (details of which may be found in No. 3 of the "Christian
East"); on the 23rd a reception by the Vice-Chancellor and some of the Professors of
the London University, Kensington. On the 22nd the delegates were received by His
Majesty the King at Buckingham Palace. Visits were also paid to the Cowley Fathers
at Westminster, to the Tower of London, and the Zoological Gardens, and to the
Scouts' Jamboree at Olympia, where they inspected the Greek Scouts. Sir Samuel
Hoare invited them to meet some members at tea in the House of Commons, and His
Excellency Mr. [11/12] Gennadius gave them luncheon; and they also had the
opportunity of meeting many of the Bishops socially at tea at Lambeth and on other
occasions. On Sunday, the 25th, the Metropolitan attended and spoke at the Russian
Liturgy at St. Mary-le-Bow, and on August 1st the Metropolitan celebrated a
magnificent Pontifical Liturgy and Te Deum in the Greek church, Bayswater, in
thanksgiving for the capture of Adrianople. On Tuesday, the 3rd, they went to Oxford
and visited the Cowley Fathers, Magdalen, and Oriel Colleges, the Bodleian Library,
and St. Sava's Serbian Hostel. On Thursday, the 5th, a service was arranged in
Southwark Cathedral on similar lines to the others, at which the Metropolitan and
other members of the delegation were present, attended by the General Secretary and
the American General Secretary as Deacons of Honour. There were also present the
Bishops of Southwark, Woolwich, Coventry, and Harrisburg, U.S.A., the Armenian
Archbishop of Smyrna, a Polish Old Catholic Bishop from America, and a Russian
Archimandrite. The Bishop of Southwark and the Metropolitan both addressed the
congregation, and the latter gave the Blessing. On the 8th they attended the closing
service of the Conference at St. Paul's Cathedral, the Metropolitan being vested in his
mantya.
The delegates were entertained by the Eastern Churches Committee at King's College
Hostel, where many of the foreign Bishops were also staying. After a few days' rest at
the country house of Lord Cozens-Hardy, the delegates bade adieu to the Archbishop,
who was leaving London on August 12th. On many days throughout this period
Conferences were held between the delegates and the members of the Eastern
Churches Committee, when they discussed various theological questions and the
general problem of mutual relations and co-operation. Certain questions, also, which
had been put by the delegates to the Lambeth Conference Commission, were referred
by it for discussion and answer to the Eastern Churches Committee. Less formal
"conversations" also were held between the delegates and English theologians,
members of A. and E. A. Committee, and others, which resulted very happily in a
fuller grasp of the point of view on each side concerning many doctrinal questions.

The final visit that remains to be narrated is in some ways the most eventful of the
series, since on March 2nd of this year there arrived in London His Holiness Mgr.
Dorotheos, the Metropolitan of Brusa and Locum-Tenens of the Oecumenical Throne
of Constantinople. During the vacancy no election to the See has taken place, because
the Greeks, feeling the intolerable burden and, [12/13] as we must all recognize it, the
iniquity of having to submit the names of the candidates for the See to the Sultan, who
by no means desired the appointment of the best and strongest man as Patriarch, have
postponed election until the Powers may free them from this law, and they may have
freedom of appointment. The Metropolitan, who was the ecclesiastical head of the
whole Orthodox Church and the civil head of the Greeks in the Ottoman Empire,
came to this country, accompanied by Archdeacon Germanos, Second Secretary of
the Holy Synod, and two lay delegates of the National Council of the Patriarchate, in
order to represent the cause of the Unredeemed Greeks in the Turkish Empire before
the Peace Conference in London.
He was received by the Archbishop of Canterbury on the next day, and was
entertained in the evening at the Atheneum by Mr. Athelstan Riley, with a
distinguished circle of guests, including the Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Robert
Cecil, Lord Bryce, and Sir Robert Newman. Father Fynes-Clinton put himself at the
disposition of the delegation, and was arranging various opportunities of meeting
members of the clergy, of Parliament, visits, and conferences. He was introduced to
His Majesty the King by the Archbishop of Canterbury, and had promised to speak at
a public meeting on March 17th in Sion College, arranged by "The World Alliance for
Promoting International Friendship through the Churches," the Primate presiding; but
he had contracted a chill, and Archdeacon Germanos read his speech.
This, alas, was the beginning of a unique tragedy. In spite of doctor's orders, he
insisted on going out to keep an appointment for an interview with Lord Curzon at the
Foreign Office, to fulfil, as he said, his mission in the terrible crisis of his people. This
increased the illness of a body already enfeebled by ascetic privations; a failing heart
received a final shock in the continuous news of fresh outrages by the Turks upon the
Greeks of Asia Minor left undefended by their own army at the command of the
Christian (!) Powers. The outrage and cruel murder of the mother, aunt, and two
nieces of the Metropolitan's old friend the Archbishop of Chataldja were imprinted on
his mind, and his death drew near.
Among his last words he told us of his hope that he had done something to advance
the aim that he had always so much at heart, of bringing into close union the two
Churches. After his preoccupation with the primary humanitarian end of his mission,
he had determined to devote himself to making acquaintance with English Church life
and personalities for this purpose. One notable event in [13/14] this direction, at least,
he achieved. On March 10th the Locum-Tenens and his suite were entertained to
luncheon at Lambeth; amongst the notable gathering present there were, by a curious
coincidence, 'the heads of the Orthodox Church and the Church of England, and a
high representative of the American Episcopal Church in the person of the Bishop of
New York, who was present, as well as the Archbishop of York. In the afternoon the
Locum-Tenens presented the Archbishop with an historic, ecclesiastical emblem, of
great value and beauty, known as an Encolpion, bearing the crowned doubleheaded
eagle of the Patriarchate, originally made for the illustrious Patriarch Joachim III., and
worn by five successive Patriarchs as the emblem of their office, which the Holy

Synod of Constantinople had resolved to present to the Archbishop of Canterbury.
The presentation was made in the Chapel of Lambeth Palace, the Archbishop being
fully robed, and attended by his chaplain carrying his Primatial Cross, in the presence
of several Bishops, priests, and laymen. Extremely friendly sentiments were
exchanged by the two Prelates, expressive of the close relations and mutual esteem
existing between the two Churches. Our Greek friends remarked that it was a very
significant fact that the last episcopal signature ever penned by the Metropolitan was
in the visitors' book at Lambeth; and his last portrait shows him seated by the side of
the English Primate, who is wearing the Patriarchal insignia.
In the evening of Friday, March r8th, the acting head of the whole Orthodox
Communion passed peacefully away at the Ritz Hotel, after receiving the Last
Sacraments from the Archimandrite Pagonis. The body was removed to the Greek
church in Bayswater, and at the funeral, which took place on Tuesday the 2znd, the
great wish of the Metropolitan was fulfilled. The Primate in precedence of the whole
Anglican Communion, stood robed with his Primatial Cross by his side under the
dome of the church, which embodies in its likeness the St. Sophia at Constantinople,
whose restoration to Christ is still the unsatisfied and yearning desire of every Greek
and Anglican. The Archbishop was placed in the Episcopal Throne, having the Bishop
of London on his right, with the Rev. H. J. Fynes-Clinton as his Chaplain, and Dr.
Gore, chairman of the Eastern Churches Committee, and the Rev. J. A. Douglas on
his left. On a seat in front was Lord Stanmore, representative of His Majesty; and
among those present were, most happily, the new Minister of King Constantine, M.
Gounaris, as well as the late Minister of Greece, M. Caclamanos, and the Hon.
Minister, Dr. Gennadius.
[15] Amongst a crowded congregation of Greek and English mourners there were
present Viscount Bryce, Dean Inge, the Serbian and Roumanian Ministers,
representatives of the Foreign Secretary and the Foreign Office, of various Eastern
Societies, and of our own Association. The service was conducted by the Great
Archimandrite Pagonis, assisted by the Archimandrites from Paris, Manchester,
Liverpool, and Cardiff, together with four deacons who are at present studying at
Oxford. The Archbishop of Canterbury established an unique precedent in the history
of the relations between the two Churches by reading the Gospel in English, after
which Dr. Pagonis delivered a short address and the priests present approached one by
one to kiss the Primate's ring. The departure of the Archbishop after the service,
continuously stopped in his progress down the aisle by those who wished to kiss his
hand and receive his blessing, was impressive in the extreme.
On March 28th there arrived in London the Metropolitan of Seleucia, Archbishop
Germanos, the President of Halki Theological College, to take home the body of the
Locum-Tenens. After an early Service of Prayer in the crypt of the Greek church on
April 2nd, the body was taken to Folkestone, accompanied by Archbishop Germanos,
the Greek priests, the delegates, and the Rev. H. J. Fynes-Clinton, appointed by the
Archbishop of Canterbury to escort it to the limits of British territory. The British
Government marked its respect and sympathy by sending a destroyer to Brindisi to
take the party to Constantinople.
All concerned felt most deeply that in this sad and disappointing event our hearts have
been drawn into closer sympathy than they could have been by ordinary intercourse,