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This year of 2014, therefore, sees two important commemora-
tions for the AECA – the 150th anniversary of the foundation of the
Eastern Churches Association, and the 100th anniversary of the foun-
dation of the Anglican & Eastern Churches Association in 1914, on the
brink of the outbreak of the First World War. The AECA has continued
to do its work faithfully throughout this period in promoting closer re-
lations between Anglican and Orthodox Christians. On a personal note,
I am proud to have served as its Chairman since 2001. Relations be-
tween our two families of churches have never been more important
than they now are. Like all families, there are occasional disagreements
– mainly about secondary church order questions, but the fact that we
rooted in the historic creeds and apostolic identities unites us in a con-
tinuing way, and for that we thank God. The details of the picture are
changing all the time. The past 18 months have been a good illustration
of this. In this short period, we have seen a new Archbishop of Canter-
bury, His Grace Justin Welby, a new Coptic Pope of Alexandria, H.H.
Pope Tawadros, a new Ethiopian Patriarch H.H. Abuna Matthias, and a
new Syrian Orthodox Patriarch, H.H. Patriarch Aphram II Karim. I
was privileged to represent AECA at the very moving funeral of H.H.
Patriarch Zakka of the Syrian Orthodox Church in Beirut. Behind the
scenes, the AECA has continued to promote closer relations between
our church leaders, and a small sign of this was received with favourable
mention of the AECA from His All Holiness Patriarch Bartholomew
when the Archbishop of Canterbury visited Constantinople/Istanbul
earlier this year.

This article has given some historical context to our work, but we
are not an antiquarian or backward looking association.8 The AECA
Executive Committee now has a majority of young members, both An-
glican and Orthodox, and has a growing and signi?cant presence in the
electronic media, especially on Facebook and Twitter. Anglicans and

8 Much of the historical research included in this paper has been published in my Narratives of
Identity: The Syrian Orthodox Church and the Church of England, 1895-1914 ( Cambridge Scholars Press,
2013)

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