An Anglican church in Bucharest. The British Anglican Church in Bucharest and the Foreign Office Strategy towards Romania
An Anglican church in Bucharest. The British Anglican Church in Bucharest and the Foreign Office Strategy towards Romania

Summary/Abstract: This study explores – through British documents – the case of the restoration of the building which housed the Church and the Anglican community in Bucharest in 1950s. At the end of the Second World War, having understood that no free political activities would have been permitted by the new local government, London concluded that a cautious but concrete propaganda activity was the appropriate response to the new situation in the country. In this context, the Anglican Church of Bucharest was deemed as a valuable stronghold, prompting the British Foreign Office to support the refurbishment works of the building. The edifice allowed religious worship activities in a country where the state was committed to reduce the local society’s way of life to dictatorial standards. In other words, thanks to the Anglican Church, the Foreign Office thought that the Romanians would remember the existence of democratic values different from those advocated by the Communists.

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