Anglicanism, Orthodoxy and

NICHOLAS BIRNS

The historic friendliness felt by Anglicans for the Orthodox found expression in 1677, when Bishop Henry Compton of London licensed a church for Orthodox refugees from Ottoman tyranny (Greek Street in Soho – though he did not care for the liturgy once he had a firsthand encounter with it). Serious Anglican-Orthodox dialogue in the early 17th century became stillborn when Cyril Lukaris, the patriarch of Alexandria, who corresponded with Anglican bishops, was censured for Protes­tant leanings. The fall of Lukaris associated Anglicanism with heresy for most Ortho­dox, though the “Non-jurors” who severed relations with Canterbury after 1689 found sanction within Orthodoxy, attempting to work through Peter the Great for a reunion of all “Catholic” Christians, although this ended when the Orthodox found out the Non-jurors did not hold ecclesiastical power in England. Dialogue intensified with the Oxford Movement of the 1840s with its emphasis on liturgy and Catholic­ity. Anglican churchmen like the hymnodist and translator John Mason Neale and the theologian William Palmer helped found the Anglican and Eastern Churches Associ­ation, which became an official forum for interchurch solidarity.

J. J. Overbeck went as far as to see Ortho­doxy as “the only true Church” and believed full ecclesiastical reunion could only be accomplished on Orthodox terms. Isabel Florence Hapgood translated the Orthodox Service Book into English, while, later, E. S. Almedingen wrote historical novels that familiarized juvenile readers with church his­tory. Athelstan Riley was also an important figure, virtually inaugurating a tradition of English pilgrimages to Mount Athos. Several autocephalous Orthodox commu­nions, such as the churches of Cyprus and Romania, as well as the ecumenical patri­archate itself, considered and issued state­ments on the validity of Anglican holy orders.

Anglican thinkers, seeing apostolic succession as the prerequisite for a mean­ingful ecclesiology, have tended to be more optimistic than Orthodox about the possi­bility of restoring full communion. The great appeal of Anglicanism to Orthodoxy was that it was seen as Catholicism not of a Roman papal type, and that it saw the discussion about restoring intercommu­nion with Western Christendom as a matter of dialogue, rather than potential hege­mony. The Russian theologian Aleksey Khomyakov was excited by the potential of an Anglican-Orthodox reunion; he was influenced by the writings of Yevgeny Ivanovich Popov, the first official Orthodox representative in England. Increasing Orthodox immigration and the US acquisi­tion of Alaska brought Orthodox priests into more frequent contact with Anglicans. The Syrian Orthodox Bishop (now saint) Raphael Hawaweeny of Brooklyn saw coop­eration with Anglicans as a way of serving the church needs of his people who lacked priests (despite his awareness of doctrinal differences).

The aftermath of the Russian Revolution brought many Orthodox emigres to the West and separated dialogue with the church from the question of relations with the Russian state. Orthodox membership in the World Council of Churches as well as the Fellowship of St. Alban and St. Sergius, a Protestant- Orthodox dialogue group, facilitated these links. Notable Anglican converts to Ortho­doxy such as Stephen Hatherly and Timothy (Kallistos) Ware served as a bridge between the communions. Fr. Alexander Schmemann taught at General Theological Seminary, where J. Robert Wright trained Episcopalian seminarians in Orthodox ecclesiastical his­tory and iconology. The Dublin Agreed Statement (1984) established key termino­logical similarities and differences between the two churches, while the Cyprus Agree­ment Statement (2006) concentrated on defining the Trinity as understood by the two communions, broadening the dialogue associated with the discussion of the Filioque.

In the aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Anglican Commu­nion abjured proselytizing in Orthodox “territory.” Despite continuing tensions over points of ecclesiastical doctrine and discipline still to be resolved, the 21st-century relationship is still able to build upon a foundation of basic concord and respect.

SEE ALSO: Apostolic Succession; Cyril Lukaris, Patriarch of Constantinople (1572–1638); Filoque

REFERENCES AND SUGGESTED READINGS

Elder, E. R. (2006) “Anglican-Orthodox Relations: A Long Overview,” in M. Dutton and E. R. Elder (eds.) One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans.

Litvack, L. (1994) John Mason Neale and the Quest for Sobornost. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Pinnington, J. (2003) Anglicans and Orthodox: Unity and Subversion (1559–1725). Leominster, UK: Gracewing.