Page:The Nestorians and their rituals, volume 1.djvu/323

Rh more to assist Kas Michael, as their spiritual necessities may require. In connection with this congregation it should be our care, as it is a measure greatly desired by the well-disposed Chaldeans themselves, to establish a school wherein their children should receive such instruction as may fit them to become useful members in the Church of their forefathers.

"The idea has occurred to me more than once of opening our own chapel to the Chaldean congregation; but there are several reasons arising out of the political condition of the Christians in the Ottoman Empire, as well as the desirableness of making it appear to all that we aim at no final amalgamation of the two Churches, Anglican and Chaldean, or of subjecting any of the Eastern communities to our ecclesiastical obedience, which convince me that such a step would be imprudent, and tend greatly to defeat the object which we have in view.

"I have said little in my former communications respecting the Jacobite Syrians at Mosul; but since the arrival of Kas Botros our intercourse with them has been more frequent. The result, so far, has been a distinct offer on the part of the rector of one of the two parishes into which the town is divided, to receive the decrees of the council of Chalcedon, and to erase from their offices all passages against the orthodox faith and language. Upwards of a hundred families, one priest, and several deacons, are ready to follow the example of their rector when the Church at home shall pledge herself to afford them that assistance which they will require in their new position. In this case there will be no necessity for fitting up a chapel, as the right of the congregation to the parish church will hardly be disputed. … It therefore remains for the Church to authorize us to reconcile these Jacobites, and to give us whatever directions she may deem necessary for our future labours among them.

"I am still in communication with Mar Shimoon, the patriarch of the Nestorians; but such is the present disturbed state of the Christians in the Tyari, occasioned by the late and continued efforts of the Hakkari Emeer to rob them of their little remaining independence, that no fixed plan of operation can be successfully attempted among them, until their political condition is more favourable. We are not inactive, however, with