THE GREEK AND ANGLICAN CHURCHES.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR." J
Sin,—In the notice of my book, "Imperial and Royal Corona- tions," which you published in your esteemed paper on June 21st you were good enough to note with pleasure my good wishes for friendship between the Greek and Anglican Churches. You added, however : "On our side there need be no diffi- culties as long as we do not surrender our liberties. But are there none on the other? Would not a bride of the Anglican Communion be required to renounce, not to say anathematise it, were she to marry an orthodox Greek P " Allow me to say that I see no reason for any surrendering of liberties. It has already been pointed out in the well-known "Answer of the Great Church of Constantinople to the Papal Encyclical on Union" that in the period covered by the seven Oecumenical Councils the Church of Britain, like the other Churches of both East and West, was totally independent and self-administered. Why, then, in the happy event of a reunion, should the Anglican Church surrender its liberties and inde- pendence? As regards marriages, a bride of the Anglican Communion is not required to renounce, and much less-to anathematise it, when about to marry an Orthodox Greek. What is required in Greece, as well as in Constantinople and in Russia, is the obligation to bring up the children as members of the Greek Church, and nothing else. Royal marriages, however, are regulated by raisons d'etat, and it is on this ground that a Russian Emperor must belong to the Russian Church, in the same way as an Italian Queen must belong to the Roman Church.—I am, Sir, &c.,
EIISTATHIIIS METALLINOS, Archimandrite. -
Greek Church, Higher Broughton, Manchester.
[We are sorry to have fallen into the error corrected By our correspondent, and delighted to find that it was an error.—ED. Spectator.]
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