Posted by Leo
on 11/23/2008, 8:22 pm
In this article, the author remarks (he includes a quote from the GOA's Orthodox Observer newspaper):
'Even more egregious is what follows:
The myth of a unified Orthodox Church in the Western Hemisphere prior to the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 needs to be debunked by serious historical and factual research.
'Of course, this cannot happen because there is no “myth” of a unified Orthodox Church in North America prior to 1917. Indeed, it is instead a historical fact, already remarked as such by many writers and theologians, and indeed recognized as such by the Ecumenical Patriarch Joaquim III himself in 1903.'
Is he referring to the following referenced in the official OCA history?:
'Not untypically, in 1902, Fr Vladimir Alexandrov received a letter from the Ecumenical Patriarch Joachim III thanking the Seattle priest for his "zealous missionary work among the Greek people" [7].'
The footnote for this sentence there cites page 94 of the book Orthodox America 1794-1976: Development of the Orthodox Church in America, Constance J. Tarasar and John H. Erickson, eds. (Syosset, NY: The Orthodox Church in America, Dept. of History and Archives, 1975).
I'd be really curious if anybody could supply further details of Joachim's or Constantinople's "recognition ... of a unified Orthodox Church in North America prior to 1917." I interpret "not untypically" to mean that this letter to Fr. Alexandrov was not the only example of its kind.
At the same time, a few paragraphs above, the OCA notes:
'In 1892, the Greek immigrant "Society of Athena" of New York City sought to establish a specifically "Greek Orthodox" parish church in New York City. (An earlier, "Greco-Russian Chapel" in New York, under the auspices of the missionary diocese, had closed in 1883.) Rather than request a priest or assistance from the "Russian" bishop in San Francisco, the Society’s lay trustees petitioned the more familiar Holy Synod of the Church of Greece for help. These trustees’ desire for an "ethnic" parish and their refusal to recognize the administrative or canonical authority of the missionary diocese were to set fateful precedents for later Greek immigrant parishes, and for Orthodoxy in America as a whole. Between 1892 and 1920, more than 150 new Greek parishes followed the lead of this New York community and incorporated apart from the missionary diocese. Roughly half looked to the Church of Greece for assistance, the others to the Greek-speaking Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople.' {Emphasis added.}
Furthermore, there's the matter of the 1908 "transfer" of C'ople to Greece of jurisdiction over the ethnic Greek diaspora (transferred back to C'ople by the leadership of Abp MELETIOS Metaxakis of Greece shortly after he became Patriarch of C'ople). It seems that during the 1910s the number of "independent" (ie, Greece/C'ople) Greek parishes surpassed those actually or nominally still part of the Russian-led Diocese here (ie, Alaska Native, Russian, Rusyn, Serbian, multi-ethnic, some Greek, Antiochian, Albanian) ... not counting the "independent" Romanians, Bulgarians, and the Canadian Ukrainians who had recently seceded from the Russian-led Diocese (1918-19).
I'm not posting to challenge the author, but to find out about this "recognition" and discern where if at all it fitted into the known (if underplayed) context of the pre-revolutionary Church here, ie, a diverse MP Diocese as well as ultimately an equal number, and then more, of parishes not submitting to it, out of ignorance, unfamiliarity, fear, politics, rejection, overwhelmment, etc etc etc ... and led to the establishment of additional, overlapping dioceses, some dependent on overseas Patriarchates, others independent / 'uncanonical.' IOW, before 1892, yes, there was only the MP Diocese, which entered the Lower 48 in 1870-72; but as the Orthodox immigrant flood, well, flooded, that became less and less the case at a rate of something like a new parish or mission a month into the 1920s ... not counting the attempts that failed.
Many thanks,
Leo
PS: I've found the whole article in the September paper. The file is a huge PDF, so I'll spare you. See below.
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