As a part of his conversion into the , Overbeck requested permission from the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church to begin a Western Orthodox church in England. Initially, Philaret was hesitant about Overbeck's request, but did not rule out the idea entirely. Overbeck outlined his rationale for a Western Orthodox Church in his 1866 book "Catholic Orthodoxy and Anglo-Catholicism", a largely polemical work describing why the established Western churches should be rejected. In 1867 Overbeck began to edit "The Orthodox Catholic Review", a periodical for the advancement of Western Orthodoxy.