Constantinople and the Lambeth Conference

Extract

Certain facts must be stated in the words of the first-hand authorities :

A.

‘Another welcome sign of East and West drawing closer together is found in the letter from the locum tenens of the Oecumenical Patriarchate at Constantinople unto all the Churches wheresoever they be, which was sent from the Phanar to the Archbishop of Canterbury.

‘Chief in importance, however, has been the visit of a special delegation from the Oecumenical Patriarchate to London for purposes of consultation with Bishops attending the Lambeth Conference on relations between the Orthodox and Anglican Communions.

‘This visit was the result of a formal invitation from the Archbishop of Canterbury to the locum tenens of the Oecumenical Patriarchate at Constantinople. To this visit we have reason to attach the highest importance.

’ The delegation, consisting of Philaretos, the Metropolitan of Demotica, Professor Komninos of Halki, the Archimandrite Pagonis of London, and the Archpriest Callinicos of Manchester, was welcomed by the President in full session of the Conference, and your Committee has had the advantage of more than one conference with it, at which important questions, doctrinal and practical, were discussed, and full consideration given to the matters specified in the letter from the Phanar referred to above, in which letter we would call special attention to the desire expressed for immediate cooperation in matters of social reform.’