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The Archbishop's Opportunity An impressive letter by the Dean of St. Paul's in The Times last week, urging that " before the killing begins " the Christian churches throughout the world should throw the weight of their common Christianity into the scale for peace, has been widely hailed as the essential word spoken at the vital moment. But as yet it is only a word. What the Dean appealed for was action, and if it is to have any effect it must be taken quickly and in a form that will impress the imagination and quicken the consciences of men of all faiths and races throughout the world. It must be that or nothing. Whether it shall be that depends primarily on two men—the Pope and the Archbishop of Canterbury. The natural course, which it is to be hoped he will see his way to take, would be for the Archbishop to make contact with the Pope and invite him insistently to head an appeal, framed in firm and fearless language, to Christians, Catholic and Pro- testant and Orthodox, in every land, in Britain and Germany, in Italy and France, in America and Russia, to remember that unity is of the essence of their faith, and that that faith involves the acceptance of certain fundamental principles of conduct in the life of nations as well as of individuals. The appeal might be made and fail ; that is no reason, or the worst of reasons, for refusing to make it.
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