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of Hungary, and another Church for the Rumanians of the Bukovina; while those in Bessarabia were presumably under the Russian Church. The reunion of the great bulk of the Rumanian nation into one may possibly now take place. Both the Rumanians of Transylvania and the Rumanians of the Bukovina have voted for their inclusion in the Rumanian kingdom. Bessarabia has already been united with it; and we may have reasonable grounds for believing that these arrangements will be carried out by the Peace Congress. It is the wish of the Rumanian Church that, when this is accomplished, the separate Churches should be united as one organised body; and their purpose is then to initiate a scheme of Church reform which, we may presume, will follow the lines now being proposed in Greece. In Transylvania and in the Bukovina there is also a large Uniate Church, the future of which must be a matter of great interest. Will it remain separated from the rest of Rumania and united with Rome, or will there be a tendency to join the United National Church? There is, moreover, we understand, a prospect that, when this large national body is created, it may claim, like Russia and Serbia, to be a separate Patriarchate.

There is the same desire for religious and national union in Serbia. The latter seems now to be in a fair way of accomplishment. The peoples of all the separated members of the Jugo-Slav race appear anxious to join themselves together in one nation. There is indeed a republican element; there are dangers there as elsewhere of an anarchical movement; but the magnificent conduct of Serbia throughout the war and the loyalty of the dynasty of Karageorgevitch form the natural centre round which the reunited people can gather. The religious situation here is not quite so simple as in Rumania, for the great body of the Croats and Slovenes belong to the Roman Catholic Church. However, after he increase of its territory in the Balkan War, but before the great war began, the Serbian Government showed visdom and justice in dealing with the Roman Catholic habitants of the country. It made a concordat of a avourable type with the Pope; and this evidence of political wisdom may make us believe that a Government which inherits such traditions will be fitted to deal

both with the Roman Catholic and Mahommedan habitants of the new countries.

But we are concerned at present with the Ortho Church. The bulk of the Jugo-Slavs are and alv have been orthodox; and it must be remembered thɛ the times of Serbian greatness, the empire of Step Dushan had become a separate patriarchate. It is posed, we believe, to revive this patriarchate, and unite all the various branches of the Serbian Churc one organised body. Our hopes for Serbia do not here. The exigencies of the war and the suffering the people have produced a situation which may F far-reaching influence. Some thousands of Serb have for the last three years been educated in country. The Serbian Theological Seminary has transferred to England and has occupied the build of the Anglican Theological College at Cuddes Serbian children are being educated in English scho and there are Serbian students at Oxford and Cambric while those theological students who have finished t course at the Cuddesdon Theological Seminary b passed on to Oxford, where they are attending lecti given there by the Faculty of Theology, and are w ing for the degree of Bachelor of Letters. Through the war the services of the Serbian Church have t regularly carried on in St John's College Chapel. large number of Serbians will go back to their c country, it may be hoped, full of admiration for Engl and of what England has done for them, well acquair with the English secular and religious life, and anxi to resuscitate their country and reform their Church.

But it is in the Greek-speaking portion of the Ort dox world that the reform movement has become m prominent and has already begun to be effective. So thing has been done; and far-reaching proposals for further advance are in contemplation. It will be membered that, at the time of the political disturban which preceded the deposition of King Constantine, 1 then Metropolitan of Athens played a not very edifyi part. A public service was held in the Cathedral Athens at which M. Venizelos and all his followers we publicly cursed; and this display of political and religio animosity was accompanied by the revival of ceremon

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more befitting a pagan community than a Christian Church. After the political revolution had taken place and M. Venizelos had returned to power, it was not unnatural that this somewhat reactionary prelate should have been deposed; and in his place an appointment of a remarkable character was made.

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Meletios Metaxakis was better known, until last March, among the unredeemed Greeks than among the Greeks of the Kingdom. He was Chief Secretary of the Holy Synod of the Patriarchate of Jerusalem, and is considered in Greek Church circles to have played a great part in reviving the life and culture of that diminished fragment of the Greek Orthodox communion. He revived the patriarchal printing-press; he breathed new life into the famous theological college of the Cross; he founded numerous Greek elementary schools throughout Palestine; and he freed the finances of the Church of Mount Zion 'from the claws of Armenian and Jewish usurers.' To him was due also the foundation of the important theological periodical Nea Sion.' Unfortunately, we are told, German and Russian political intrigues interfered with the good work that was being done, and Meletios was forced to retire. He was then elected Metropolitan of Kition in the autocephalous Church of Cyprus. That Church had been torn asunder for over ten years by a fierce wrangle about the election of the Metropolitan of the Island; and Meletios arrived at a difficult moment. According to all accounts, he succeeded in introducing a new spirit of conciliation and progress, by his blameless moral life, his administrative ability, and his enthusiasm. His interests were not confined to purely ecclesiastical matters, and he always showed great zeal in improving the education of the clergy and in social and political reforms. In his paper the Ecclesiastical Herald' he continuously set forth his views, apparently with marked success. He was also an unwearied builder and renovator of churches, and showed financial ability in ridding them of their debts.

He took his oath of allegiance to the Kingdom of Greece the day that he was enthroned as Metropolitan of Athens; and in a sermon preached on the occasion he outlined a far-reaching scheme of reform. This scheme, which he has already begun to carry out, includes the

better organisation of the Church. So early as 1914, great step was made towards a satisfactory arrangemen of ecclesiastical affairs by the establishment of a mixe commission of clergy and laity for revising and collatin ecclesiastical regulations. The conclusions they reache were published under the title of A Draft Constitutio for the Orthodox Church of Greece.' By this draft th members of the Synod which administers the Greel Church were increased from six to twelve; the diocese were re-modelled and reduced from seventy-four to forty six; the powers of the royal commissioner to the Syno were defined, so as to obviate friction; and various othe reforms were taken in hand. Many hopes were als aroused by the prospect of a General Synod of all Greel dioceses, which was to have followed; but the outbreal of the European War interrupted the work of reforn and diverted public attention.

More important is the work which has been, or i being, done with regard to the parochial clergy. Unti recently the position of the parochial clergy of Greece was deplorable; they were without regular salary and depended for subsistence on scanty perquisites. Endowed with a poor stock of theological knowledge and a good many superstitions, the parson shared his time between his plough and a mechanical performance of the Church's rites. For some time past serious efforts have been made to improve his lot, and have already given solid results. Thirty years ago, bishops with a degree could be counted on the fingers of the hand; to-day an im perfectly educated prelate is hardly to be found. In a short time it may be possible to say the same of the parish priest. It is no longer the case that there are too many ordinations. A fund for ecclesiastics established in 1910 receives steadily increasing contributions, and has done a good deal towards securing a regular salary for the parochial clergy. Moreover, a sort of Ecclesiastical Commission has been appointed, which uses for general Church purposes the surplus revenues of the monasteries.

Much has been, and is being, done for the education of the clergy. The Theological Seminaries have been converted into ecclesiastical educational training-schools, modelled on the school which the present Metropolitan

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established in Cyprus. Graduates of these schools can me combine the functions of priest and teacher, and thus in earn a regular salary which secures for them a tolerable and decorous existence. Since the accession of the present Metropolitan, no candidate is eligible for ordination unless he has a diploma of a theological school. If he has a degree, but not in theology, he must attend a theological school for a specified length of time, and ce will receive an allowance from the Church to enable him to do so. A prominent part has been played in this movement by the Rizareios Schole under its able director Chrysostom Papadopoulos, by the theological seminaries of Arts and Tripolis, and the recently-founded trainingschool in the Monastery of St Anastasia near Salonika.

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The superstitions also which formerly prevailed for among the Greek clergy are rapidly dying out. The ecclesiastical law forbids the burning of Judas in effigy on Good Friday as offensive in feeling to the Jews; and the Holy Synod has abolished excommunication. It will be remembered also that, at the time when the late King Constantine was seriously ill, a wonder-working image was brought to his bedside. This outbreak of superstition revolted the religious sense of many of the clergy. An article was written in a Greek newspaper by the present Metropolitan, condemning this improper and superstitious use of Icons; and the practice has also been condemned by the Holy Synod. It is also proposed to do away with the wearing of long hair by priests.

A problem which is exercising many minds in Greece is the use that is to be made of monasteries in the future. In Old Greece, before the Balkan Wars, there were 167 monasteries for men, with 1743 monks, and 10 for women, with 225 nuns; to which of course have to be added the monasteries of the new provinces, especially those on Mount Athos, pre-eminent for their richness in manuscripts and relics of the past. The aim is that monastic life should be made useful for the community.

But there is one acute problem still before the Church; and that is the relation of the bishops to the parochial clergy. It is well known that in the Eastern Church, while the parish priest must be a married man and no hone can be ordained to that office until he is married, the bishops are, by old custom, unmarried, and so for the