Activities of Father Nikolai Velimirovich in Great Britain during the Great War
Authors: Markovich Slobodan 
Published: March 2018

Nikolai Velimirovich was one of the most influential bishops of the Serbian
Orthodox Church in the twentieth century. His stay in Britain in 1908/9
influenced his theological views and made him a proponent of an
Anglican-Orthodox church reunion. As a known proponent of close relations
between different Christian churches, he was sent by the Serbian Prime
Minister Pasic to the United States (1915) and Britain (1915-1919) to work on
promoting Serbia and the cause of Yugoslav unity. His activities in both
countries were very successful. In Britain he closely collaborated with the
Serbian Relief Fund and ?British friends of Serbia? (R. W. Seton-Watson,
Henry Wickham Steed and Sir Arthur Evans). Other Serbian intellectuals in
London, particularly the brothers Bogdan and Pavle Popovic, were in
occasional collision with the members of the Yugoslav Committee over the
nature of the future Yugoslav state. In contrast, Velimirovich remained
committed to the cause of Yugoslav unity throughout the war with only rare
moments of doubt. Unlike most other Serbs and Yugoslavs in London Father
Nikolai never grew unsympathetic to the Serbian Prime Minister Pasic,
although he did not share all of his views. In London he befriended the
churchmen of the Church of England who propagated ecclesiastical reunion and
were active in the Anglican and Eastern Association. These contacts allowed
him to preach at St. Margaret?s Church, Westminster and other prominent
Anglican churches. He became such a well-known and respected preacher that,
in July 1917, he had the honour of being the first Orthodox clergyman to
preach at St. Paul?s Cathedral. He was given the same honour in December
1919. By the end of the war he had very close relations with the highest
prelates of the Church of England, the Catholic cardinal of Westminster, and
with prominent clergymen of the Church of Scotland and other Protestant
churches in Britain. Based on Velimirovich?s correspondence preserved in
Belgrade and London archives, and on very wide coverage of his activities in
The Times, in local British newspapers, and particularly in the Anglican
journal The Church Times, this paper describes and analyses his wide-ranging
activities in Britain. The Church of England supported him wholeheartedly in
most of his activities and made him a celebrity in Britain during the Great
War. It was thanks to this Church that some dozen of his pamphlets and
booklets were published in London during the Great War. What made his
relations with the Church of England so close was his commitment to the
question of reunion of Orthodox churches with the Anglican Church. He
suggested the reunion for the first time in 1909 and remained committed to it
throughout the Great War. Analysing the activities of Father Nikolai, the
paper also offers a survey of the very wide-ranging forms of help that the
Church of England provided both to the Serbian Orthodox Church and to Serbs
in by the end of the Great War he became a symbol of Anglican-Orthodox
rapprochement. general during the Great War. Most of these activities were
channelled through him. Thus, by the end of the Great War he became a symbol
of Anglican-Orthodox rapprochement.