“The number of churches built with the aid of the Russian Government for the Russian residents in foreign countries, is to be increased by one in New York. It was reported that $2,000 have been subscribed by Russian and Greek residents in that city. The $18,000 which are wanting will bo provided by tho government, who are also to find the salaries of the officiating priests, and defray the entire expenditure of the establishment. To free the members of this clerical mission from the restraints incidental to an official capacity, it is proposed not to place them nnder the exclusive control of tho Russian Ambassador at Washington. Divine service in the new church will be conducted in Greek and Russian.”

This is sandwiched between
“GREEK CHURCH. The most important event in the recent history of the Greek Chnreh is the increasing interest in establishing closer connections with the Anglican churches of Europe and America. This, in particular, is reported to ho the case in Russia. The Bishop of Moray and Ross (of the Scotch Episcopal Church), who visited Russia on a special mission in 1866, refers in his charge to the clergy of his diocese to the feeling of the Russian clergy and laity with regard to this subject, as follows:

I did not converse with a single Russian who did not introduce the subject himself, and converse upon it in the most friendly and sensible manner. To understand each other—to learn and know the doctrine, discipline, and worship of our respective churches— to master such works as represent truly and with authority the tenets of our churches, and to abstain, in the mean time, from all acts which could irritate or compromise either. This was the desire, and these were the feelings of all those with whom I conversed. And I cannot bring my remarks to a close in a more touching manner than by quoting the words of the Grand Duke Constantine, the emperor’s brother, which he used in the course of a conversation I had with him in an interview with which he honored me. Speaking of the union of the churches, he said: “It is a subject of which I have long and often thought, and in which I take a lively interest. It is one,” he said, “in which I think all ought to take an interest, and which all should endeavor to promote; for I am sure it must be pleasing to our Saviour Jesus Christ to see any attempt being made to accomplish the object of his last prayer, that we ‘ all may be one’” Vol. Vi.—25…
Moro indefinite is a statement of Bishop Whitehonse, of Illinois, in a communication to his diocese, who, after having spoken of his associations with the Lutheran bishops of Sweden, thus speaks of the Russian Church:

During my long stay in Russia, and especially iu Moscow, I have enjoyed oportunities for a similar acquaintance with the Russo-Greek services, and occasions of full and intimate conference on the state and relations of our respective churches. In those respects I owe every thing to the unwearied kindness of his eminence, the Bishop of Leonide, Vicar of the Metropolitan, which left nothing more to desire in personal and official recognition.”

And

“It is a curious circumstance that tho Greek Church has of late begun to gain some converts in the countries of Western Europe. The best known of these converts is Abbe Guettee, the author of a ” History of the Church of France ” (the largest work on the subject), a ” History of the Jesuits ” (three volumes), a refutation of Renan’s Vie de Jesus, and many other works. Abbe Guettee, while a Roman Catholic priest, had decidedly Gallican views, and all his works had on that account been censured by Rome. Six years ago he founded, in conjunction with tho Rev. Archpriest WassiliefF, titular head of the Russo-Greek Church in Franco, and especially attached to tho Russian Church in Paris, a weekly publication entitled L’Union Chritenne, and having for its object tho union of the nonRoman churches holding the doctrine of apostolical succession. His latest work, undertaking to prove a schismatic character in the papacy, was published in 1866, and translated at once into English and Russian.

Another work in defence of the doctrines of the Greek Church was published in England by the Rev. J. J. Overbcck, like tho former one, a member of the Roman Catholic communion.”

Whitehouse was the Episcopalians’ bishop in Chicago 1852-1874, whose Cathedral was half a mile away from the Greek community growing around where Capt. Nicholas Peppas settled on Kinzie in 1857 (and remained there for over 50 years) and within two miles of the later sites of (the first) Annunciation in the 1890′s. I suspect that Rev. Whitehouse may have had a part in the obtaining of a Greek priest from the Russian Church.

Overbeck, of course, is the father of the WRO and the alter ago of Fr. Hathely.

http://books.google.com/books?pg=PA385&dq=%22Divine+service+in+the+new+church+will+be+conducted+in+Greek+and+Russian.%22&ei=lkKMTZGeDuK30QGO_NyqCw&ct=result&id=v3XXAAAAMAAJ#v=onepage&q=%22Divine%20service%20in%20the%20new%20church%20will%20be%20conducted%20in%20Greek%20and%20Russian.%22&f=false