The origins of the Diocese of Sourozh lie in the Parish of the Dormition in London, which from 1716 existed as the Russian Embassy Church. In that year, Archimandrite Gennadius rented a house in Exchange Court, an alley leading off The Strand and converted the large drawing room into a church. The Anglican Bishop of London, John Robinson, agreed to allow Orthodox worship at the church, with the stipulation that the services remained private, that English people were excluded and that singing should not be loud "lest common crowds cause any harm". The first service was held in November 1716 on the Feast of the Presentation of Mary. Although small, the congregation included Russian diplomats, and Russian and Greek merchants, there being no Greek church in London until 1838. Over the following century, a dozen English families also joined the church, as did Colonel Philip Ludwell III, a wealthy American colonist who was received into Orthodoxy in 1738. Another notable English member was the linguist John Paradise, a Fellow of the Royal Society.