This interesting and important new book offers the first dedicated scholarly investigation into major movements of ecumenical contact among Anglicans and Orthodox between the First World War and the Second World War. Bryn Geffert draws on substantial archival work in English and Russian to write what he calls ‘the story of efforts toward rapprochement by two churches and their ultimate failure to achieve formal unity of intercommunion.’ . . . Above all, this is a cautionary tale about the difficulties inherent in connections among churches with very positive intentions but no ability to speak with one voice.” —The Living Church
“Geffert examines political entanglement and territorial aims as well as complex theological issues with clarity and precision. The conclusion contains insightful reflections on the ecumenical longue durée and relations among the principle Christian traditions during the Cold War and beyond.” —The Russian Review
“This is a nostalgic book. It describes the time when Western Christians were encountering the Orthodox Church often for the first time, meeting refugees from Russia after the Communist Revolution and extending invitations for conferences and church celebrations to each other. This book describes these early encounters in the period between the wars . . . the encounter of Eastern and Western Christianity described in this book has been rich and creative, usually warm and friendly, and has contributed much to the life of the churches.” —Theology
“This detailed study of Anglican-Orthodox relations in the early years of the ecumenical movement not only traces their development but also analyses the motives which impelled each side to seek closer relations. This illuminating study of the complex dynamics of inter- and intra-church relations is of contemporary relevance as well as of historical interest. Members of the International Commission for the Anglican-Orthodox Theological Dialogue who have not yet read it should certainly do so. . . .” —The Journal of Ecclesiastical History
“The history of the contacts between Orthodoxy and Anglicanism for the last century-and-a-half is competently recounted in Geffert’s interdisciplinary account. The work is a model of bibliographical organization. . . . The narrative is engaging and clear, with an occasional Russian word in parentheses to convey the flavor of a pungent remark.” —Journal of Ecumenical Studies
“Geffert is to be congratulated for the massive amount of research that has gone into this history of the ecumenical efforts toward rapprochement between Anglicans and Orthodox in the period of the 1920s and 1930s, especially in the years between World War I and World War II . . . the great strength of this book lies in its investigation of countless secondary sources. . . .” —Anglican Theological Review
“The author is to be congratulated for the massive amount of research that has gone into this history of the ecumenical efforts towards rapprochement between Anglicans and Orthodox in the period of the 1920s and 1930s, especially in the years between the two great world wars.” —Anglican and Episcopal History
“Geffert’s work superbly illustrates a moment when institutional alignment seemed possible, but failed. Despite the outcome, his book deserves close attention for the sources it probes and the era it depicts.” —Church History
“[Geffert’s] meticulous study, based on archival and published sources, provides a thorough treatment of factors inclining interwar Orthodox and Anglicans to dialogue. Nevertheless, the myriad reasons given for the impossibility of Orthodox-Anglican church unity necessarily overwhelmed ambitions of closer east-west church ties.” —The Slavic Review
“Geffert’s book will become required reading for anyone seeking to understand the complicated web of relationships with the Orthodox that developed between the wars. It is also a timely reminder to historians of the ecumenical movement that ‘nontheological factors’ in church divisions are not completely dead, not least where church appointments depend in some measure on the civil power.” —The Journal of Modern History
[Geffert’s] meticulous study, based on archival and published sources, provides a thorough treatment of factors inclining interwar Orthodox and Anglicans to dialogue. Nevertheless, the myriad reasons given for the impossibility of Orthodox-Anglican church unity necessarily overwhelmed ambitions of closer east-west church ties.
Geffert’s book will become required reading for anyone seeking to understand the complicated web of relationships with the Orthodox that developed between the wars. It is also a timely reminder to historians of the ecumenical movement that ‘nontheological factors’ in church divisions are not completely dead, not least where church appointments depend in some measure on the civil power.
The Journal of Modern History
Geffert’s work superbly illustrates a moment when institutional alignment seemed possible, but failed. Despite the outcome, his book deserves close attention for the sources it probes and the era it depicts.
