[To the Editor of the SPECT_ATOR.I. • a letter which
appeared in your issue of February 15th, from the Anglican Chaplain at Istanbul,-he gives an interesting. account of. his relations with.the Orthodox Church and its friendliness. to our own Anglican Communion ; but it might be a 1..ttle unfortunate if they were left to- find out from him- our position and the teaching of our Prayer Book. He makes a good deal of play with the word `.` Protestant "- and its absence from the book ; whereas surely the- spirit of the word is in it everywhere, the spirit of protest against Roman dogmas and practices, which, as he points. out, the Eastern Church, herself repudiates. Then, referring to the " Prayer . for .all Conditions of .Men," he says We first pray for the good, estate of the Catholic Church," and then (the italics are mine) by way of contrast.go an to pray that others " who profess and call themselves Christians may be led into the way of truth, and hold the faith in unity of
spirit," &e. .
I have often heard the words " who profess and call them- selves Christians " read in a tone of pity or contempt or both ; but I have never till now seen the prayer written out in full as Mr. Pollard suggests. Have I been wrong in thinking that the prayer gives us a definition of the Catholic Church " all who profess and call themselves Christians "- the emphasis being on the word " all " ? It is surely going beyond the meaning of the words to say that " here the English Church clearly differentiates between herself as genuinely Catholic, and others who have no claim to " that
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