scholarly journals Relationship between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople in the territory of the United States in the early XX century

Author(s):  
Philip Viktorovich Yuzlikeev

Due to the fact that the tradition of close relation between the Orthodox Church and the state has formed since the time of the Byzantine Empire, the reflection of foreign policy ambitions of the Greek government on the foreign activity of the Patriarchate of Constantinople seems absolutely justifiable. In the early XX century, North America was a center of Greek migration, and simultaneously, the territory of proliferation of the authority of the Russian Orthodox Church; therefore, the United States spark particular interest in this case. The Patriarch of Constantinople attempted to dispute the jurisdictional affiliation of the United States by issuing the corresponding tomos. This article is dedicated to interaction between the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople and the Russian Orthodox Church in the territory of the United States during the 1908 – 1924. The author explores the influence of Greece upon the relationship between the two Orthodox jurisdictions in North America. The activity of the Patriarchate of Constantinople in the United States is compared to political events of Greece. The history of Orthodoxy in the United States in the first quarter of the XX century is highly researched however, the actions of church organizations are not always viewed from the perspective of the foreign policy of the countries involved. The conclusion is made on the possible influence of the Greek governmental forces on the Patriarchate of Constantinople, which in turn, stepped into the jurisdictional conflict with the Russian Orthodox Church.

Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (12) ◽  
pp. 1036
Author(s):  
Sarah Riccardi-Swartz

This article explores the growing affinity for the post-Soviet Russian Orthodox Church by far-right Orthodox converts in the United States, highlighting how the spiritual draw to the faith is caught up in the globalizing politics of traditionalism and a transnational, ideological reimaging of the American culture wars. Employing ethnographic fieldwork from the rural United States and digital qualitative research, this study situates the post-Soviet Russian Orthodox Church in the international flows of conservativism focused on reclaiming social morals and traditional religiosity. In doing so, this article sheds light on how the post-Soviet Orthodox Church is viewed politically by a growing contingent of American religious and political actors who are turning to Russian Orthodoxy and Putin’s government during this New Cold War moment of tension between the United States and Russia. I argue that the allure of the post-Soviet Russian Orthodox Church for conservatives in the West offers us a window into how the institution is situated imaginatively within transnational politics, thereby providing us insights into the rapidly transforming culture wars fomenting globally.


Sabornost ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 177-186
Author(s):  
Mile Subotić

Metropolitan Theophan Fan Noli was a leader of the Church both in America and his native Albania. He was a pioneer in calling for a united Orthodox Church in America and in the use of English in services. Noli began his life of service in the Church in the United States organizing Albanian parishes. With the Balkan Wars and the independence of Albania, Fan Noli devoted more of his time to the cause of Albania. He was Prime Minister of Albania in 1924. After a change in political climate, Bishop Theophan was forced to leave Albania. He was able to return to the United States in 1932. Upon arriving he retired from politics and resumed his duties as bishop of the Albanian Orthodox Church in America. Bishop Noli considered his Albanian Church as a daughter of the Russian Orthodox Church in America and looked to it for the creation of a single Orthodox Church in America. He continued to lead his flock and to advocate Orthodox unity until his death in 1965.


2013 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 91-110 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jesse D. Murray

Addressing Russian Orthodox missions in the Alaskan periphery of the Russian Empire, this article discusses the flexibility of Russian Orthodox missionaries in adapting concepts of Orthodoxy and Russianness to the circumstances of their mission in Alaska and to their individual experiences there. Consulting a range of missionary writings from 1794–1917, including reports, journals, letters, and articles in church periodicals, Murray assesses varying interpretations and methods of promoting the civilizing mission, christianization, and russification over the long nineteenth century. Efforts in education and promoting moral standards were vital to the missions but always incorporated respect for the native culture. Recognizing the importance of this periphery even after the sale of Alaska to the United States in 1867, the missionaries continued to perceive the converted Alaskan communities as tied to Russian Orthodox culture and identity and their educational and moral efforts as essential to the construction of good citizens for the new political power.


2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 41-61
Author(s):  
V. V. Pechatnov

Using little-known correspondence of the Ober-Procurator of the Holy Synod Konstantin Pobedonostsev with the bishop Nickolay (Ziorov) — head of Russian Orthodox Church in the United States in 1892–1898 — the article explores the everyday life of Russian clergy in America. This correspondence is deposited at the Russian State Historical Archive in St. Petersburg and has not been published or studied before. The author analyzes Pobedonostsev’s role in the diocese affairs. This examination is new both in the Church’s history and recently published literature on Pobedonostsev. Yet the Ober-Procurator’s supervision was of utmost importance for the Russian mission in the United States, faced with the crucial challenge of adapting itself to the alien cultural environment. Pobedonostsev was well informed about the situation with the Russian mission, helped to solve many personnel, financial and organizational problems, was a chief promoter of its interests before the Russian imperial government — Foreign Ministry, Ministry of Finance, the State Council, and the Tzar’s court. Pobedonostsev also stayed in touch with the US diplomatic mission in Russia and Russian diplomats in the United States. He was very close with bishop Nickolay who regarded the Ober-Procurator as his main benefactor and constantly turned to him for advice and assistance. Pobedonostsev strongly supported the bishop’s reforms of missionary activities in education, parish life, and propagation of Orthodoxy, as well as his efforts to defend the Russian Orthodox mission’s interests before American authorities. No wonder their extensive correspondence richly reflected the diocese’s life with all its problems and needs. The article highlights their close cooperation in recruiting qualified clergymen for American service, which was the key task for the mission that suffered from a shortage of reliable professional personnel. Pobedonostsev-Nickolay cooperation greatly contributed to the diocese progress, which later reached its peak under Nickolay’s successor bishop Tikhon (Bellavin). Their correspondence sheds new light on the personalities of both men united by their fervent devotion to the Orthodox Church and highly conservative views. It also presents a revealing case study of the interaction between Russian ecclesiastic and state authorities as well as their perception of American culture. The author’s main methodological approach consisted in text analysis of the archival documents juxtaposed against the context of Russian-American relations and the realities of American life.


2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (6) ◽  
pp. 62-171
Author(s):  
Drobotushenko Evgeny V. ◽  

The article analyzes a selection of materials of the foreign press, made by the Telegraph Agency of the Soviet Union (TASS) in 1943 on the reaction to the change in the attitude of the Soviet government to the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC). It is presented in one of the files of the state archive of the Russian Federation (SARF). In the collection mentioned, there are notes and articles of various editions of the countries of Europe, and also the States of North and South America, Africa, Australia. The claimed problems have not been seriously analyzed from the scientific point of view so far. The author notes that the negative and positive assessments of the transformation of the religious policy of the USSR were clearly divided into the two camps: the countries that supported the USSR in 1943 and the countries that had opposite views. The rhetoric of the press in the United States, Canada and England differed significantly from that one in Europe as a whole, and even more in Nazi Germany, Italy and Romania. The press of countries that were far away from the events, for example, the States of South America or Australia, reflected a neutral attitude to what was happening. Against this background, all actions of the Soviet authorities were assessed as superficial, temporary, and “fake”. According to the critics, they were forced. In reality, there was no question of freedom of religion in the USSR. In turn, the press of the allied countries relatively highly appreciated the changes in the policy of the Soviet state. It is obvious that the problems stated in the title of the article require further serious scientific analysis, which implies a large volume of work with foreign media of the time under consideration and with archival sources. Keywords: religion, Orthodoxy, freedom of religion, Patriarch, Council for the Affairs of the Russian Orthodox Church, mass media


2020 ◽  
pp. 149-180
Author(s):  
Радомир (Роман) Владимирович Булдаков

В настоящей публикации представлен ранее нигде не публиковавшийся Протокол Пензенского епархиального съезда духовенства и мирян, который проходил с 25 апреля по 1 мая 1917 г. Он отражает общее настроение рядового духовенства и мирян Русской Православной Церкви начала XX в. на примере конкретной епархии. Пензенский Съезд проходил одновременно с аналогичными Съездами многих других епархиальных центров, чьи постановления получили своё развитие на Всероссийском Съезде духовенства и мирян в Москве и далее на Поместном Соборе Православной Российской Церкви 1917- 1918 гг. Вопросы, рассматриваемые участниками Пензенского Съезда, касались как общецерковных проблем, так и внутренних дел самой епархии; часть постановлений вошла в состав решений Поместного Собора. Количество вопросов, поднятых на Съезде, превышает два десятка и относится к самым разным сферам церковно-государственных и церковно-общественных отношений, а также к внутренним преобразованиям самой Церкви, одновременно олицетворяя общую тенденцию к Её обновлению и являясь следствием этих перемен. Но среди них важнейшими, по мнению делегатов Съезда, считались вопросы об отношении к происходящим в стране политическим событиям и о поэтапной реформе церковной организации, начиная с прихода и заканчивая уровнем Поместной Российской Церкви. This publication presents the previously unpublished Protocol of the Penza Diocesan Congress of the Clergy and Laity, which took place from April 25 to May 1, 1917. It reflects the general mood of ordinary clergy and laity of the Russian Orthodox Church at the beginning of the 20th century by the example of a specific diocese. The Penza Congress was held simultaneously with similar Congresses of many other diocesan centers, whose resolutions were developed at the AllRussian Congress of Clergy and Laity in Moscow and further at the Local Council of the Russian Orthodox Church in 1917-1918. The issues considered by the participants of the Penza Congress concerned both general church problems and the internal affairs of the diocese itself; some of the decisions were included in the decisions of the Local Council. The number of issues raised at the Congress exceeds two dozen and relates to the most diverse spheres of church-state and church-social relations, as well as to the internal transformations of the Church itself, at the same time embodying the general tendency towards Her renewal and being a consequence of these changes. But among them the most important, in the opinion of the Congress delegates, were the questions about the attitude to the political events taking place in the country and about the gradual reform of church organization, from the parish level to the level of the Local Russian Church.


2021 ◽  
Vol 56 (3) ◽  
pp. 7-38
Author(s):  
Maria Avanesova

The Russian Orthodox Church has become a significant actor in Russia after the fall of the Soviet Union. This text is dedicated to its role in Russiaʼs foreign policy, specifically to the topic of the Russian interest in problems and protection of Christians, which is one of the most essential parts of the cooperation between the state and the Church. Analyzing primary sources (state and Church documents), the author shows when and under what circumstances this topic became relevant to both actors, what role the Russian Orthodox Church played in this regard and how the topic of protecting Christians is used by the Russian regime today. The study shows that the interest in protection of Christians did not arise simultaneously on both sides and that it is connected mainly with situations where a threat for Christians is posed by unfriendly actors.


Author(s):  
Alexander Kitroeff

This chapter recounts the arrival and settlement of the Greek immigrants and culminates in the creation of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese in 1922. It talks about the first churches the Greek immigrants established that provided them with a sense of community and security and underscored their ties with the Greek homeland. It also looks into the decision of immigrants to not become absorbed in the Russian Orthodox Church. This chapter explores the settlement of the Greek immigrants that was laden with difficulties, ranging from the uneven quality of the immigrant priests to divisions that reflected the political polarization that had occurred in Greece. It also discusses the dynamic metropolitan that was sent to the United States by the Greek government that restored order by creating a centralized governing body with authority over Greek Orthodox affairs all over the United States.


2020 ◽  
pp. 227-238
Author(s):  
A. A. Valitov ◽  
D. Yu. Fedotova

The events of February 1917, presented on the pages of the church periodicals of Western Siberia, is examined in the article. The relevance of the study is due to the fact that for the first time in Russian historiography the political upheavals of this period have been analyzed on the basis of materials from regional diocesan records. The authors note that the diocesan records are an important historical source. A detailed analysis of the content of articles of Omsk, Tobolsk, Tomsk periodicals (“Diocesan Gazette”) on the presentation of the political events of February 1917 in them is carried out. The novelty of the research lies in identifying the attitude of the regional clergy to the revolutionary events in the period from February to April 1917. The presented results of the comparative analysis can be grouped according to the chronology and significance of the events that took place. The article concludes that it was during this period that one could hear the opinion of the Russian Orthodox Church on political changes in the country. It is noted that of particular interest were the issues of the relationship between the Church and the Provisional Government, this topic remained the most acute after the fall of the monarchy. It is shown that the representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church wanted to restore historical justice and receive autonomous government and independence from the secular authorities.


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