Sisters in Christ, John Salter:

Sisters in Christ: Practical Ecumenism from contemporary documents, 1935-1951, edited by The Reverend A T J Salter, Urosevic Foundation, £6, obtainable from the Chairman of the Society

Sisters in Christ is a unique record of the correspondence between Mother Cicely of the Society of St. Margaret, Mother Superior of the Anglican convent of St. Saviour, Haggerston, East London, and the Abbess Roofina and her successor Abbess Ariadne of the Russian Convent in Exile of Our Lady of Vladimir, Harbin, Manchuria and Shanghai, China, over the years 1937 – 1951.

Their efforts and the efforts of their supporters to obtain a property near San Francisco for the Russian sisters, and to transport the sisters and their dependent orphans (children and victims of 1929 massacre by the Bolsheviks in Manchuria), were fraught with difficulties and vouch for the faith and perseverance of those involved and the warm friendship which developed between them.

It is rewarding reading, but what is sad is that it all took so long, and owing to the American visa regulations none of the orphans were actually conveyed to a safe home, though most of the sisters were.

Louisa Worsley

The Russian Orthodox Church of the Holy Annunciation at Harbin Quay. Built 1930 -1941 to replace a wooden structure destroyed by fire, it was closed in 1966 and blown up by the Red Guards in the Cultural Revolution in 1970