The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-04-04
FALL OF TURKISH CAPITAL ID BRING STRANGE PROBLEM What Religious Body Will Fall Heir to Mosque of
 St. Sophia
362 YEARS SINCE
 CROSS FLEW OVER IT
General Opinion Is That It Will Be English or Russian-Many East ern Ministers Invited to
 Speak in West

New York, March l3.-(Special.) .)-Th' fall of Constantinople, now scent certain, will lead to as strange a ques ton as ever confronted the world oi religious affairs. That question relates to the mosque of St. Sophia in thai city. Everybody knows the story of this great Christian cathedral, which was surmounted by the cross for so many years, and in which so many thousands worshipped God, and His son, Jesus Christ Everybody also knows that when Constantinople fell ss a Christian city the cathedral was changed into Mo- hammedan mosque and has remained such for Ss2 years.
 St. Sophia belongs to tare Turkish gov ernment and is administered by 1t Here the Sultan worships, Lis pew be ing a. high one, not unlike a Christian pulpit. This high seat situated well II front, Is surrounded by screen of moi too exquisite workmanship. When ths Turkish government departs, never tt return, the title to St. Sophia, as phys lcal property, will change hands just the same as the sublime porte and the po- iitical administrative buildings within and around 1t.
 After all of these years St Sophia will again become a Christian church, per haps a cathedral. But the question is, what religious body will own it? What services will be maintained ill 1t? II 1t is a cathedral once more, That church will it be a cathedral of? Whose bishop will have his official seat within 1t?
 The English are leading ill the attack upon Constantinople. Win St. Sophia become a cathedral of the church of Eng oD.4Ia r1 halI E,nUllnn. Trance is overwhelmingly Roman Cath ole but since 1903 it's government favors no church and its navy can lavor none. Russia is also reported to be helping. will St. Sophia become cathedral of the Russian church?
 No Longer Desired by Islam
 The idea prevails that city and coun- try now comprising European Turkey will be neutralized, as is Belgium. If it It's, there must still some religious body maintain services in St. Sophia, and the question is to be settled. What one? It is unthinkable that it should be neg lected as place of worship, and become s mere place for sightseers to visit. It is also said to be unlikely that Islam will want 1t. much less be longer per nlittcd to use it.
 No city in all the world is so well pro- vided with supreme funcdonaries of re- ligious bodies Other great cities have three or four bishops, but Rome itseli las only two, one of them the pope But Constantinople does not stop at two or even half a dozen. It is the set city of the Greek Orthodox Patriarch who is the head of the Greek church oi Turkey and Greece; the exarch of Bull garia, or head of the schismatics from the Bulgarian church, who are more num- erous than those of Bulgaria itself; the patriarch of the Armenian church; the vicar of the Roman Catholic church of Bulgaria and Greece; the patriarch of that Armenian church that adheres to the Roman Catholic church; the Vicars of the Maronite, Shaldean and Syrian Catholics, and the grand raDoi of the Israelites of Palestine. Syria and Turkey. Of course, there has also dwelt there the Sheik-ul Islam, who is next to the Sultan as the head of the 200,000,000 Mo- hammedans of the world. 3ut it is as sumed that he will depart when the Sul- tan does.
 Whoever succeeds to St. Sophia, it will be small task to strip the famous edifice of its Islamic furni 1ings. Mo hammedans are not fond of pictures ir their places of worship, much less ot florid ornaments, and so they have changed St. Sophia little in the way oi decoration and furnishing. rorty eighl hours would be enough to remove the distinctive features of it's interior as al present furnished. The cross would have to surmount it's great exterior once more and some weeks would be required tc remove the cheap daubs of paint usec to cover up Christian symbols, and 1T particular to clean out the filth. Chris