Page 19 - AECA.org.uk ¦ Koinonia 63

most important international forums for Orthodox theology.”6 It does
not “conduct any o?cial negotiations; its members are not committed
to any particular scheme of reunion. Its purpose is to help Christians to
acquire mutual trust and understanding”7, and thus prepare the way for
the future union between East and West. “The Fellowship shows the
one life of the Church overcoming division;”8 it is a sign of the future
unity, wished by everyone who is involved in the Ecumenical Move-
ment.

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew stated, during the Arch-
bishop of Canterbury’s recent visit to Constantinople (January 2014)
that: “These two societies have fostered countless ecumenical friend-
ships; and without such ecumenical friendships, on the direct and per-
sonal level, we cannot hope to build a ?rm foundation for Christian
unity.”9

The Inter-Christian relations between the Orthodox and the An-
glicans have been an ongoing reality, since the 17th century, where for
the ?rst time the West wished to study the Eastern Church. However,
the ?rst years of the relations were a result of individual and personal
friendships that existed and that were cultivated on an academic inter-
est between members of the two churches and not so much an initia-
tion from the whole body of either church. Nevertheless, since the sev-
enteenth century the idea had haunted Anglican minds from time to
time that there should be much less di?culty in bringing closer Angli-
can Churches back into fellowship and unity with the Eastern and Or-
thodox Churches, than in attempting a similar objective with the Ro-
man Catholic Church.

6 Gallaher, Anastassy Brandon, ‘Great and Full of Grace’: Partial Intercommunion and Sophiology on Sergii
Bulgakov, in William C. Mills (ed.), Church and World, (Orthodox Research Institute, Rollinsford,
2013), p. 81.
7 Zernov, Nicolas, The Reintegration of the Church, (London, SCM Press, 1952), p. 118.
8 Thompson, Patrick, “The Prayer of the Fellowship”, Sobornost, No. 17 (New Series), March, 1939,
p. 20.
9 Archbishop of Canterbury, http://www.archbishopofcanterbury.org/articles.php/5227/archbishop
-of-canterbury-meets-ecumenical-patriarch-bartholomew, accessed 30/01/14, 14.24.

17