Eternal Memory: THE REVEREND HAROLD EMBLETON, R.N. (retd.)

Fr John Salter writes in Chrysostom, Pascha 2012:


Fr Harold Embleton has died in his ninetieth year. A large part of his ministry in the Church of England was spent in the Royal Navy as a chaplain. It was while serving in Athens after World War II that he met his wife Sheila, who was Nanny to the children of the King, one of whom was to become King Constantine of the Hellenes and another Queen Sophia of Spain. It was while in Greece that Harold grew to love the Orthodox Church and became a keen member of the Anglican & Eastern Churches Association, becoming for many years its chairman of committee. His outstanding contribution to the Association was his inaugurating in 1981 the Constantinople Lecture to commemorate the 1600th anniversary of the Ecumenical Council of Constantinople. The first lecture was given by Bishop Michael Ramsey; and each year a distinguished scholar was invited to give the lecture.

Harold had known many of the great ecumenical figures of the past including Canon J.A. Douglas, the Assyrian Patriarch Mar Eshai Shimun XXI and his aunt Lady Surma d'bait Mar Shimun, and many others who were founder members of the Nikaean Club and leaders of the Greek, Russian and Serbian Churches in London.