Two Against Rome

London newspapers were surprised at the Archbishops of Canterbury and York one day last week. It was splendid, thought the Press, to have called special Sunday services of "intercession." Every-one appreciated that the aid of God was required to help the British nation out of Depression. But it was shocking to have published a prayer couched in such crass terms of suppliance as these: "In the policy of our government for the restoration of credit and prosperity, Thy will be done. "Because we have been selfish in our conduct of business, setting our own interest and that of our class before the interest of others, forgive us our trespasses." The Morning Post loudly snorted: ". . . Current jargon of the platform . . . insensible to the dignity of the English liturgy. . . . Nothing could be better calculated to induce a spirit of national humility than the thought that such prayers could be authorized for use in public worship by the Archbishops of Canterbury and York." Most Rev. Cosmo Gordon Lang, 67, Archbishop of Canterbury, is, as his prayer suggested, a practical as well as a pious man. He calmly observed that the Depression prayer had merely been authorized. It had not been officially ap pointed for general use. Of the fact that Dean William Foxley Norris had an nounced that the prayer would not be used in Westminster Abbey, the Archbishop took no notice. He had bigger things afoot than praying for his country's pocketbook. The biggest thing that Dr. Lang has been working on is a cause of much concern to his great brother-in-God, Pope Pius XI. The Archbishop and the Pope have never met, doubtless never will; but if they should, they might well -- much as great rival bankers might discuss a merger each has been trying to perform before the other--discuss the matter of the old Orthodox Eastern Church and to which realm (Rome or England) it is to be united. In his encyclical of last fortnight, the Pope earnestly beckoned to his "su-preme chair of truth" all non-Roman sects, with special aim in the beckon to Eastern Christians (TIME, Jan. 4). Well-informed as he is, the Pope doubtless knew what was to be the gist of an official Anglican-Orthodox report which would be made public in a few days. This report, out last week, was the work of a commission of Orthodox prelates and Church of Englanders. It constituted a further, semi-final step in an Anglican-Orthodox rapprochement begun many years ago,* given impetus after the War and pushed on towards a finish at the Lambeth Conference of 1930. The object of bringing the Anglican and Orthodox faiths together again is nothing more complex practically, nor less majestic theologically, than to achieve that Unity towards which all sects are working. The Pope wants Unity, too, but expects all the sects to "return" to his fold on Rome's terms. The method by which Anglican-Orthodox unity and intercommunion have been sought is one of mutual respect. Each church has long performed acts of hospitality toward the other, such as inviting visiting prelates to officiate at services, or caring temporarily for stranded parishioners of the other faith. After the Lambeth Conference of 1930, where doctrinal differences were threshed thin, a commission to continue threshing was appointed. In its report of last week, signed by Rt. Rev. Arthur Cayley Headlam, Bishop of Gloucester, and the Metropolitan (archbishop) of Thyatiera, the Com-mission recommended to both churches a set of resolutions to the following effect:

Each church would retain its catholicity and independence.

Each would admit the other's members to communion, without demanding acceptance of all doctrinal opinion or performance of all liturgical practices.

Each would believe that the other holds all the essentials of the Christian faith.

Approval by the Orthodox Church at Ecumenical Council and by a Church Assembly in England will be necessary before the Anglican and Orthodox churches are officially wed. When that time comes, standing at the side of the Archbishop of Canterbury, two against Rome, will be the Ecumenical Patriarch in Constantinople. This high office, spiritual headship of some 120 million souls throughout the world, is held by the ascetic, bearded, polylingual Greek Priest Demetrios Maniatis who was elected by a majority of his brother metropolitans and invested as Photios II three autumns ago (TIME, Oct. 28, 1929). Born on Prinkipo Island near Constantinople (where now is exiled Red Leon Trotsky), Photios II was educated in Athens and Germany. He was consecrated as bishop in 1914, becoming Metropolitan of Philadelphia (Asia Minor) ten years later, then Metropolitan of Derkos.

Not since 886 had there been a Patriarch named Photios. And not since 787 (second Nicaean Council, before East and West split) has there been held an Ecumenical Synod of the Orthodox Eastern Church. Next June at Mount Athos, Greece's monastic republic (TIME, Dec. 30, 1929), will be held a prosynod to lay the groundwork for an Ecumenical Synod (probably in 1934) whereat the theological problems of twelve centuries, including Anglican unity, will be deliberated.

*The Lambeth Conference of 1888 declared: "The Church of Rome has always treated her Eastern sister wrongfully. She intrudes her bishops in the ancient dioceses, and keeps up a system of active proselytism. The Eastern Church is reasonably outraged by these proceedings, wholly contrary as they are to catholic principles; and it behooves us of the Anglican Communion to take care that we do not offend in like manner."

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