The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1904-03-02
THE GREEK
CHURCH
Its Influence in
Russia Told
Paper Read by Mrs.
Andrews to the
W. B. N.
interesting Address by President
of the Woman's Board on
a Timely Topic.

noon at central mon church, was we'll
attended. The members were happy to
again greet their president, Mrs. George
P. Andrews, who has been absent from
two meetings, owing to severe indis-
position
The opening exercises were under the
guidance OF Rev. Mr. Naili, late of Hilo,
who dweIt on the value of prayer as
a source of power and influence when
other. active service is denied Mr..
Naili also made some very interesting
remarks on church service at the close
of the meeting. Rev. and Mrs. Naih
expect to leave for San Francisco on
the Siberia.
Mrs. Soares gave report OF mis-
sionary work among the Portuguese.
The special paper ior the afternoon
was that by Mrs George P. Andrews
on "The Greek Church and its Infiu-
ence in Russia" and was read by her
daughter, Miss winifred Andrews
The paper was as follows:
What is Russia? Whence came she?
OF what is she composed? Her relig-
ion, what of it?
What is she? Now, colossal power
but few generations ago she was
land-Iocked State. She stretches from
the Baltic to the Pacific and from the
Arctic to the Black Sea, ultimately she
will open upon the Mediterranean and
the Persian Gulf Already she is three
times as large as the United States ana
txz-ar
Whence came she? She came from
the same cradle that first nursed us
that of the Aryan family of Central
Asia. She is Finnish or Swedish In
origin probably, her very name is de-
rived from their word Ruotse or sea-
farers.
OF what is she composed? We all
know that she is made up of a medley
of races, Oriental, Asiatic, European
and Jewish.
What is her political complexion we
must ask, knowing what an intimate
bearing that has on a peoples most
sacred feelings. OF that we are well
informed. as the Great White Gear is
one of the few autocrats left among
civilized governments and Russia is
country where bureaucracy is ram
pant.
Finally, what of her religion and how
has it shaped her population? That
question brings US close to the subject
of today. though to call it a religion
is a missioner because 1t is more truly
but a sect; the earliest representative
in the world of that religion which we
have called our own. since the time of
the apostles. Unlike the Protestant
and Papal communions 1t can trace a
Iora
guage is still that in which the gospels
were written. It's melodious ritual
reaches back to the days of Constan-
tine, it's origin to the time of st. John
and of Ephesus. Constantinople was
once a museum and storehouse for the
ravished treasures of Greece, there the
Greek poets lived again in their disci-
pies, the priests Of the Greek church,
who were men highly cultivated and of
rare ability.
Many of you doubtless remember
hearing about the great Arian and
Athanasian controversy. Arius the
Unitarian combatted the idea that the
Son was of the same substance, as the
Father-very god of very god-which
was the creed of Athanasius. The
dispute waxed warm at the Council of
Nfcea in 325, but was decided when the
Emperor Constantine adopted the or
thodox view which defeated Arius the
Unitarian Much hung upon this de-
cision, for it ended in dividing Chris
tendon. The DEGREES of this first gen.
eraI council have been followed by the
Greek church alone, with its married
clergy. its Scriptures read in the ma
tionaI language, its priests who never
aspire to political supremacy and its
Acknowledgement of the authority of
the sovereign in the selection OF Patri-
archs and Bishops, and this has gone
on through fifteen centuries.
The Russian church in early DAYS |
borrowed from the Grecian mysteries
to give eclat to the splendors of Its |
worship. Soft music and gay pro-
cessions formed a part of its ceremony !
and even yet there one perceives traces !
of these usages.
After this came the Goth and vandal
into Europe They penetrated Italy. |
sacked Rome and humbled her bishops /
into submission to the Eastern church, |
which thenceforth gave laws to the .
world and asserted its supremacy till
the 9TH century.
Then came the Moslems who were
Arabians and Bedouins and finally
tho Saracens, all bent on crushing
Christendom. and they did crush Jeru-
salem Damascus, Thyatira and Sar-
dis: sweeping over Egypt they left 1t
a waste and even threatened Constan-
tinopIe. The Sclavs OF Russia and
the Goths of Middle Europe felt their {
doono was near. but they managed to
stave off the terror this once.