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William Palmer, a Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford, and dea-
con of the Church of England, was one of the ?rst to dedicate his life to
this cause, by travelling to Russia (1840) in order to defend and explain
the position of the English Church, whilst publishing various books on
both Churches. He is a signi?cant ?gure within the Ecumenical Move-
ment, “he was probably the ?rst Englishman to come to the Orthodox
Church and ask as a simple right and duty to be admitted to Holy
Communion,”22 not because he wanted to join the Orthodox Church, as
he later wished, but because he was a faithful who belonged to a branch
of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church; a view not accepted
by the Orthodox, who do not consent to the branch theory. During this
period, as is the case even today, despite having an o?cial dialogue and
a number of o?cial statements, there were certain misconceptions and
ideas, which a?ected the way monks, priests and the laity thought, in
order to justify past events and theological conclusions.

After countless talks and meetings with Orthodox bishops and
priests in Russia he wished to join the Orthodox Church and receive
communion. This, however, created a problem; the Russian Church did
not necessitate that the Anglicans have to be re-baptised, hence there
was no impediment in him becoming Orthodox. On the other hand, the
Greek Church did have an obstacle. The problem that arose was that,
despite his wish, he eventually did not become Orthodox, due to the
fact that he could not comprehend how two Churches which existed
within the same body, the Orthodox Church, had two very di?erent
views on this topic.

A number of reasons contributed towards the failure of these
?rst attempts, such as the reluctance of the Orthodox Church and the
Anglican Communion, the highlighting of dogmatic di?erences, the
“excuse”23 for schism in the introduction of the Filioque in the Creed
and the unreadiness by both parties to achieve the important goal of

22 Ridley, Katharine, “A Pioneer in Reunion – William Palmer”, Sobornost, No18 (New Series), June
1939, p. 9.
23 Ibid., p. 17.

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