382 



GREEK CHURCH. 



cordance with the precepts and usages of our church, 

 shall continue to pervade all the relations existing 

 between the members of the Orthodox Church and 

 those of the Protestant Episcopal Church in Amer- 

 ica, and particularly in the Territory of Alaska. 



As to the hypothesis of a reciprocal participation 

 in the solemn performance of the Sacrament of the 

 Eucharist, the Eastern Church firmly adheres to 

 the principles and convictions so clearly stated in 

 the messages sent in 1T23 by the orthodox patri- 

 archs of the East, in reply to the Anglican bishops. 

 It considers a previous agreement in faith as abso- 

 lutely indispensable to the practical mutual partici- 

 pation in the sacraments, inasmuch as the first is 

 the only possible groundwork or basis for the last. 

 In order to attain this most desired end, a thorough 

 study and investigation of the differences in the doc- 

 trine of both churches would be absolutely requisite ; 

 and, to promote this, a great principle of coopera- 

 tion will undoubtedly be found in the spirit of 

 peace and charity which animates both churches, 

 the Orthodox as well as the American, and in those 

 prayers for the peace of the whole world, and for 

 the- union of the holy churches of the Lord, which 

 arise to the God of truth and mercy from the Ortho- 

 dox churches, and which are most certainly shared 

 in the American churches. 



Having been authorized by the Most Holy Gov- 

 erning Synod, I assume the duty of presenting their 

 answer to the House of Bishops of the American 

 Episcopal Church, and beg you to accept the assur- 

 ance or the highest esteem of your brother and co- 

 servant in Christ Jesus. ISIDORE, 

 First Presiding Minister of the Governing Synod of 



all the Eussias, and Metropolitan of Novgorod 



and St. Petersburg. 



According to an account given of the Greek 

 Church of Turkey, by an English clergyman 

 long familiar with Eastern Church affairs, an 

 increased importance is now attributed to the 

 study and the preaching of the Bible. He 

 says: 



In sermons, letters, speeches, this is the topic 

 which is dwelt upon more frequently than I have 

 ever before known. A new movement in this di- 

 rection seems to have taken its first impulse from 

 the sermon preached by the former Protosyncellus 

 of the Oecumenical Patriarch, on the occasion of the 

 enthronization of the latter. The preacher inno- 

 vated (in the eyes of some offensively) by discard- 

 ing compliments, and reminding the chief pastor of 

 the dangers and the defects of the Great Church 

 over which he was appointed to watch. " Thou 

 canst not but see that the Word of God doth not 

 dwell in us richly." That was the key-note of his 

 strain. That preacher has been recently sent to 

 Choritza, in Western Macedonia, as archbishop 

 and one good effect of this appointment has been to 

 call forth from the organ of the Armenian Church 

 an exclamation of delight, because a truly spiritual 

 pastor has been appointed to tend that flock. It is 

 to be hoped that such expressions of sympathy, be- 

 sides showing a true bond of union between believ- 

 ers of communions unhappily still separated, may 

 also rouse the old Armenian Church to a godly jeal- 

 ousy. 



The Church of Greece in 1874 received a 

 new head, by the election of the Archbishop 

 of Messenia as Metropolitan of Attica and 

 President of the Holy .Synod (see GREECE). 

 Of other new episcopal appointments, the A ion, 

 of Athens, of August 5th (17), says that "after 

 long and careful consideration, royal decrees 

 were day before yesterday issued, by which 

 were designated, out of nine candidates pro- 



posed by the Holy Synod, three persons to fill 

 vacant sees. Stephen Argurides, aged about 

 fifty-five, a select preacher, a graduate of the 

 Eizarean School, was appointed to the See of 

 Massenia; the Archimandrite Callinicus Ter- 

 zopoulos, aged about forty-five, a graduate of 

 the Hieratic School, to the See of Argolis ; . to 

 that of Patras, Averkios Lampyres, aged fifty, 

 for a long time past Secretary of the Holy 

 Synod. The latter spent four years in Ger- 

 many, pursuing his studies, after graduating at 

 the Theological School of the university. 



The Greek Church of the Servian nation- 

 ality in the kingdom of Hungary had, in 1874, 

 to choose as its head a new Patriarch of Car- 

 lowitz. According to the Hungarian constitu- 

 tion, each religious denomination of the king- 

 dom administers its own church affairs, the 

 legislative function being exercised by an au- 

 tonomous church congress. Formerly the 

 Servian Church Congress, which elected the 

 patriarch, was composed of twenty-five cler- 

 gymen, twenty-five military men, and twenty- 

 five other laymen. The commissioner of the 

 Government was generally an influential gen- 

 eral, who, with the aid of twenty-five military 

 members of the Congress, always knew how 

 to secure the election of the candidate of the 

 Government. The abolition of the military 

 frontier, and the organization of the Greek 

 Church of the Roumanian nationality into a 

 separate ecclesiastical province, had caused a 

 great change in the composition of the Church 

 Congress, to which Article IX. of the laws of 

 1868 guarantees, among other autonomous 

 rights, that of electing the patriarch. As it 

 now consists exclusively of representatives of 

 the Servian nationality, its actions are closely 

 connected with the tendencies of the Servian 

 nationality in Hungary, and were therefore 

 watched with great eagerness. The Congress 

 again, as in former years, consisted of seventy- 

 five delegates, twenty-five clerical and fifty 

 laymen. Among the latter there were this 

 year only three military men, but on the other 

 hand ten doctors of law, who had graduated 

 at the Universities of Vienna and Pesth, and 

 were the prominent leaders of the Congress. 

 The Hungarian Government had made great 

 efforts to prevent, at the elections for the Con- 

 gress, the success of the candidates of the na- 

 tional Servian party, and to secure the nom- 

 ination of a man of moderate views on the 

 nationality question. As the national Servian 

 party generally favors the extension of the 

 rights of the Church Congress and a develop- 

 ment of the church constitution on the broad 

 basis of self-government, the Hungarian Gov- 

 ernment found it in its interest to ally itself 

 closely with the hierarchical party which de- 

 sires to clothe the bishops with as large pow- 

 ers as possible. The result of the elections 

 was, however, unfavorable to the Hungarian 

 Government. Of the seventy-five deputies, 

 only three belonged to the strictly hierarchi- 

 cal party, ten others to a compromising middle 



