Metropolitan Kallistos (Ware) of Diokleia
1934 – 2022
An Anglican schoolboy who wandered into a Russian vigil in London, was received into the Orthodox Church at twenty-four, and became the first Englishman consecrated an Orthodox bishop since the Great Schism.
Metropolitan Kallistos (1934–2022) was born Timothy Ware at Bath on 11 September 1934, educated at Westminster School and Magdalen College, Oxford, where he took a double first in classics and then read theology. He was brought up Anglican; the encounter that turned him came in his teens, when he stepped by chance into a Russian all-night vigil in London and found a church that seemed to him almost empty and entirely full.
He was received into the Orthodox Church in 1958, at twenty-four. In 1966 he was tonsured a monk at the monastery of St John the Theologian on Patmos, taking the name Kallistos, was ordained priest, and was appointed Spalding Lecturer in Eastern Orthodox Studies at Oxford — a post he held for thirty-five years. In 1982 he was consecrated titular Bishop of Diokleia, the first Englishman to be made an Orthodox bishop since the eleventh century; he was raised to metropolitan in 2007.
He wrote The Orthodox Church as a layman in 1963, at twenty-nine. It has never been out of print. Its companion, The Orthodox Way, followed in 1979. Between them they have done more to explain Orthodoxy in English than any other books of the century, and he spent the rest of his life as the person English-speaking enquirers wrote to.
The two booksReadHide
The Orthodox Church is a history and a description; The Orthodox Way is an account of the faith as something to be lived. Their durability comes from an unusual combination: they are written by a convert, who remembers what needs explaining, and by a scholar of the first rank, who will not simplify to the point of falsehood.
He revised The Orthodox Church repeatedly over five decades as the world it described changed — the fall of the Soviet Union above all — which is why a book from 1963 is still handed to enquirers today rather than being a period piece.
TranslatorReadHide
Less visible but arguably weightier is the translation work. With G. E. H. Palmer and Philip Sherrard he produced the English Philokalia, the great anthology of hesychast writing, over volumes spanning decades — the first time that body of text was available in readable English at all.
With Mother Mary he translated the Festal Menaion and the Lenten Triodion, the service books for the feasts and for Great Lent. English-speaking parishes have been serving out of those translations for fifty years. It is the sort of work whose success is measured by how little anyone thinks about it.
Oxford, and the questions he would not closeReadHide
He taught at Oxford from 1966 to 2001 and served the Greek parish there for over three decades. Generations of students, Orthodox and not, passed through his supervision, and a striking number of the English-speaking Orthodox clergy and academics of the following generation were formed by him.
He was known for holding open questions the Church has not settled, and for saying so plainly rather than pretending to a consensus that did not exist — on the possibility of universal salvation, on the place of women in the Church's ministry, on the relation of Orthodoxy to other Christians. Some found this an unbecoming latitude in a bishop. It is part of why he was trusted by people outside the Church, and it belongs in any honest account of him.
Historical SignificanceReadHide
If a person in the English-speaking world knows anything about the Orthodox Church, there is a fair chance they know it from Kallistos Ware. Two books written before he was forty-five have carried more enquirers into Orthodoxy than any programme of mission, and the service books and the Philokalia he translated are what English-speaking parishes and monasteries actually pray from.
He is not glorified and no veneration is implied here. He also held certain questions open that others would have preferred closed, and said so from a bishop's chair; that is recorded rather than smoothed. The plain fact of his life is that a schoolboy who walked into the wrong church by accident spent the next sixty-four years making a door for other people to walk through on purpose.
Timeline7 momentsReadHide
- 1934Born at BathTimothy Richard Ware is born on 11 September 1934 and brought up in the Church of England. source ↗
- 1958Received into the Orthodox ChurchAt twenty-four he is received into Orthodoxy, having first encountered it as a schoolboy at a Russian vigil in London. source ↗
- 1963The Orthodox ChurchPublished while he is still a layman, aged twenty-nine; it has remained in print ever since. source ↗
- 1966Monk, priest, and Oxford lecturerTonsured at St John the Theologian on Patmos with the name Kallistos, ordained priest, and appointed Spalding Lecturer at Oxford. source ↗
- 1979The Orthodox WayThe companion volume: the faith described as something lived rather than surveyed.
- 1982Bishop of DiokleiaConsecrated titular bishop — the first Englishman consecrated an Orthodox bishop since the Great Schism. source ↗
- 2022ReposeHe reposes at Oxford on 24 August 2022, aged eighty-seven. source ↗
Works & Further ReadingReadHide
Works by Metropolitan Kallistos (Ware)
- The Orthodox Church (1963) — Written as a layman; revised across five decades and still the standard introduction.
- The Orthodox Way (1979) — The companion volume on the faith as lived.
- The Philokalia (translator, with G. E. H. Palmer and Philip Sherrard) — The English translation of the hesychast anthology, volume by volume over decades.
- The Festal Menaion · The Lenten Triodion (translator, with Mother Mary) — The service books English-speaking parishes have been using for fifty years.
Related3ShowHide
This profile is a historical account compiled from the sources listed and remains subject to clergy and source review.