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Book Review

WILLIAM TAYLOR

Embassy, Emigrants, and Englishmen: The Three Hundred Year History of a Russian
Orthodox Church in London. Christopher Birchall. £29.95. Holy Trinity
Publications, 2014. 712 pp; paperback. ISBN: 978-0-88465-336-3.

2016 WILL BE a “big year” for
Orthodoxy – globally and locally.
G l o b a l l y, t h e p l a n n e d p a n -
Orthodox Synod should take
place, either in Constantinople or
Rhodes, and locally, the Russian
Orthodox Church will celebrate
300 years of continuous presence
in London. Plans are already be-
ing made to mark this signi?cant
anniversary, and AECA is playing
its own role in helping to plan
appropriate commemorations. As
part of the commemoration
comes the publication of this im-
portant book, which documents
the Russian Orthodox presence in
London in 712 pages of detailed
description.

Fr Birchall takes us
through the origins of the church
in 1713/14 with a delegation sent
originally from the Church of
Alexandria, and this delegation’s important contacts with the Non-Juror Bish-
ops in England, and on through the eighteenth century, noting the particularly
important contribution made to the establishment of the Russian church in
London by Prince Boris Kurakin, Imperial Russian Ambassador to the Court of
St James. The mid nineteenth century saw the establishment of the Russian
Embassy Chapel at Welbeck Street – this is particularly well documented and
illustrated. This (deconsecrated) Chapel, now part of the Society of Radiolo-

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