Wainwright made major contributions to modern Methodist theology and Christian liturgy, and played a significant role on producing the text Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry, as a member of the Faith and Order Commission of the World Council of Churches (WCC).

[1] Born in Monk Bretton, Barnsley, Yorkshire, England, in 1939, Geoffrey Wainwright was an ordained minister of the Methodist Church of Great Britain.

In 2004 he gave the opening address on behalf of "the ecclesial communities of the West" at the Roman symposium to mark the 40th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council’s decree on ecumenism.

He was honoured by the publication of Ecumenical Theology in Worship, Doctrine, and Life: Essays Presented to Geoffrey Wainwright on his Sixtieth Birthday (1999).

He delivered a paper on "The Second Vatican Council: The Legacy from a Methodist Perspective" at the annual conference of the North American Academy of Ecumenists in Halifax in September 2012.