A Greek Pilgrimage
By THE BISHOP OF DERBY
THE Festival and Pilgrimage in honour of St. Paul which has just been concluded in Greece is of more than ephemeral importance. It must be held to have signalised in the most emphatic way the decisive adherence of the Orthodox Churches outside the Iron Curtain to the ideals and hopes of the Ecumenical Movement and of the World Council of Churches. Invitations to participate were in fact sent to all Churches belong- ing to the World Council, and the majority of them responded by sending a delegation. Apart from the representatives of the Orthodox Patriarchates of Constantinople, Antioch, Jerusalem and Alexandria, of the Churches of Egypt and Ethiopia, of the exiled Orthodox Russians in Paris, and of the Church of Yugo- slavia, the Anglican Communion was represented by Bishops from England and Ireland, from South Africa and from the United States of America, Lutheranism by distinguished clergy from Sweden, Norway and Denmark and by the Finnish Bishop of Tampere, and the Reformed tradition by Professor William 'Manson from Scotland and by members of the Reformed Churches of Germany, Switzerland, Holland and France. Bishop G. B. Oxnam represented the Methodist Episcopal Church of America.
The Church of Rome (which had been invited) was not repre- sented officially ; but four individual Roman Catholics came, and joined fully in the pilgrimage, with the knowledge and by the permission of their superiors. It, was a truly ecumenical company. There was no compromising of principles and no slurring of doctrinal differences. It was simply that for the time being such matters were not being raised. The members of the pilgrimage met one another as fellow-Christians linked by the bond of a common allegiance to Christ and the common acknow- ledgement of a profound spiritual debt to St. Paul, to com- memorate the nineteenth centenary of whose arrival in Europe and of whose labours upon Greek soil was the primary purpose of the celebrations.
The members of the pilgrimage, some hundred and fifty in number, after assembling in Athens, embarked on the Greek steamer ' Aegaeon ' and travelled by sea to the various places in Greece named in the Acts as having been visited by St. Paul— Philippi, Thessalonica, Berea, Nicopolis, Crete, Rhodes, Cen- chrea, Corinth and Athens. The procedure in each case was the same. The entire population of the place would be assembled for the arrival of the Festival ship, the local Archbishop and clergy and the civic authorities of the town at their head, - with flags flying, bands playing, crosses and icons carried, and troops forming a guard of honour. Speeches of welcome having been made, there would be a procession formed, headed by the bishops, to the nearest cathedral or church, where a religious ser- vice would be held—either a Solemn Liturgy according to the Greek rite or what was described as a Greek Te Deum. Refresh- ments and (if time permitted) a brief period of sight-seeing-Would follow, and the pilgrims would then re-embark for the next port of call. Oil board the steamer religious services were from time to time held in accordance with the Orthodox, Anglican and Lutheran rites ; there were discussions and lectures, and there was abundant opportunity, afforded by days spent at sea; -for fraternisation and social intercourse. In addition to official dele- gations from Churches, the company included also contingents of " Youth " from different nations, informally recruited for the pilgrimage through the Y.M.C.A. or the Student Christian Move- ment in- the countries concerned. • Tbe fascinating beauty and the historical interest of the places visited do not need to be stressed. Most impressive was the eager welcome everywhere afforded to the pilgrims and the unmistak- able popular interest which was everywhere aroused. The Greek nation has by no means as yet fully emerged from the economic and other difficulties resulting from the war, but there was a sense of recovery irk the air, and of profound thankfulness to God for what was regarded as the still recent deliverance of the country from the menacing nightmare of Communist domination. The demeanour of the crowded congregations in the churches and elsewhere certainly conveyed the impression that the Greeks are a religious people, and that the hold of the Orthodox Church upon the allegiance and the affections of the rank and file of the nation is strong.
Most unforgettable of all was the solemn silence, maintained through a service lasting an hour and a half, of the standing multitudes of people who lined, many files deep, the great boule- vard which winds up to the Athenian Acropolis, and which served as the place of assembly for the congregation at a great open-air service of Vespers, with sermon by the Archbishop, which was herd on the Greek St. Paul's Day at sundown and conducted (within sight of the multitudes and with the aid of microphones and loud-speakers) from the Areopagus Hill, the passage from the Acts descriptive of St.. Paul's visit to Athens being read as the lesson, and the Greek original of the hymn, " Hail, gladdening Light," being sung at the actual moment of sunset.
Nor must it be assumed that the widespread religious zeal thus outwardly manifested was the index simply of a half-superstitious religion of merely external conformity. There are, on the con- trary, in the Greek Church movements of genuine and deep spiritual life—a " Zoe " Movement, active amongst the young, and led by the members of a " Zoe " Theological Brotherhood ; a Christian Union of Professional Men, and (it is understood) various others. The Christian Union of Professional Men of Greece issued last year a version in English of a volume bearing the title Towards a Christian Civilisation. It is a manifesto on behalf of a Christian activism such as is familiar enough in the West, and it certainly deals in a fresh and modern way with a large number of contemporary problems. Its preface, written during the continuance of the late civil war, and before the out- come bad been decided, ends with a striking passage as follows : " These pages come from a country wherein the agitation and the uncertainty—sometimes the agony—of the world have been concentrated. Our country is often described by her friends as this unhappy country.' We know, however, that our happiness (or unhappiness) depends on whether the Christian spiritual foundation of life is going to be stabilised or not, whatever the issue of the external political events may be. And, although we are writing in times when the shadow of death appears only too frequently over our Country, our voice is not the desperate voice of a people cry- ing out to the world Morituri to salutamus.' On the con- trary, it is a voice which, in the midst of the present agony, seeks to be the echo of the great truth told by the Lord : If a man keep My saying, he shall never see death.' " It will be agreed, I think, that a Church whose educated lay members are capable of writing in such terms in the hour of their country's anguish is to be accounted a living Church, nourished and fed by the true Vine ; a Church with a mission still to be accomplished and a witness still to be borne ; a Church with a contribution• still to be made to the greater Christendom which in God's providence is one day destined to be brought into being " that they all may be one."
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