Page:The Nestorians and their rituals, volume 1.djvu/22

xiv the Archbishop of Canterbury, and from the Lord Bishop of London, and to carry out the benevolent intentions of the two Societies as contained in the following instructions:

In the year 1838, the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, gave instructions to Mr. Ainsworth and Mr. Rassam, to make inquiry into the state of the Christians in Coordistan. The result of that inquiry has been communicated to the Society in a Report, transmitted from Mosul in 1840; by which it appears that the Christians both in that country and in Mesopotamia are in a state of very great depression, and that the Patriarch Mar Shimoon, of Julamerk, who is the temporal and ecclesiastical head of the Christians in independent Coordistan, as well as others of the Bishops and Clergy, were anxious to have a Clergyman of the Church of England to assist them in the education and improvement of their people.

It appears also by letters recently received from Mesopotamia, that a considerable number of the Chaldean Christians are very desirous of restoring the independence of their church, and that Mar Elîa of Alkôsh, who claims the patriarchate of the Chaldeans, has proposed to enter into amicable relations with the Church of England.

Under these circumstances it has been determined, with the sanction and approbation of His Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the Lord Bishop of London, to send the Rev. G. P. Badger on a special mission to Chaldea and Coordistan, accompanied by Mr. J. P. Fletcher as his assistant.

Mr. Badger will proceed to his destination as soon as convenient, travelling by way of Constantinople and Trebizond; and if practicable he will pay a visit to Jerusalem in order to put himself in communication with the Bishop of the United Church of England and Ireland in that city, under whose jurisdiction he will be placed.

The following are the points to which Mr. Badger will direct his attention.

1. To testify to the Bishops and Clergy of those countries the goodwill of our Church towards them, and the desire which