Comments on: Plans for a New York church in the 1870s http://orthodoxhistory.org/2009/11/11/plans-for-a-new-york-church-in-the-1870s/ The Society for Orthodox Christian History in the Americas Wed, 08 May 2013 13:30:30 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 By: OrthodoxHistory.org » Blog Archive » Inside Bjerring’s chapel http://orthodoxhistory.org/2009/11/11/plans-for-a-new-york-church-in-the-1870s/comment-page-1/#comment-351 OrthodoxHistory.org » Blog Archive » Inside Bjerring’s chapel Tue, 17 Nov 2009 13:04:22 +0000 http://orthodoxhistory.org/?p=1271#comment-351 [...] They talked for years about building a great Orthodox church in the city; the Russian government even bought land on Lexington Avenue, but it all came to naught. The Russians pulled their money, and the Danish priest joined the Presbytery. Makes me wonder what exactly happened to all those treasures in the chapel. Rumor has it that some of them turned up in a pawn shop, of all places! It’s quite a shame how things turned out, and one has to wonder if this is the end of Orthodoxy in New York. [...]

]]> By: Isa Almisry http://orthodoxhistory.org/2009/11/11/plans-for-a-new-york-church-in-the-1870s/comment-page-1/#comment-346 Isa Almisry Mon, 16 Nov 2009 11:37:14 +0000 http://orthodoxhistory.org/?p=1271#comment-346 From a book for private distribution, “His Imperial Highness the Grand Duke Alexis in the United States of America during the winter of 1871-72″”
After describing the arrival into port of the Grand Duke, and his welcome, it goes on:
“No sooner had the procession disbanded and the sight-seers dispersed to their homes than the Grand Duke, left free to act from impulses of his own heart, went at once, with his staff, to the Russo-Greek Church at 951 Second Avenue. They left the Clarendon Hotel about ten minutes past four o’clock. Weary and tired as the imperial party must have been after their long voyage and their reception yesterday, still the religious faith and customs of Russia and of the imperial family of that empire are so strict that the Duke and his retinue hastened to return thanks for their safety, and to receive the priestly blessing at the hands of the only
Russo-Greek clergyman in the country. Rev. Father N. Bjerring.

As His Imperial Highness entered, the Rev. Father Bjerring gave the benediction with the cross, and blessed the Duke and party with holy water, and continued the services for more than half an hour, at the close of which the priest addressed the Duke as follows : —

‘^May it please your Imperial Highness : It is with the sincerest joy of heart that I venture, in the deepest humility, to bid Your Imperial Highness a happy weloome in this little chapel, and this welcome I venture to offer not only as a priest of the Orthodox Church,
but also as a citizen of the United States. As everywhere in the world where there are orthodox Greek Christians, so also the professors of the orthodox faith in this land look to the borders of Russia, as the Bethlehem of the body politic, from whence the illumination of the apostolic faith spreads itself in unalloyed purity. It is a great idea, yes, the greatest idea, for man ; not a fantastic idea, but a living reality, which assembles the hearts of orthodox Christians around the Russian centre, whether they be dwellers in the Eastern or in the Western hemisphere. This great idea is not what some are pleased to call Pan-Slavism. No; it is an immeasurably greater idea: it is what I would designate Pan-orthodoxy. The existence of this chapel, the first in New York, is owing to orthodox Russia ; and as a grain of mustard-seed spreads itself in gradual growth, so I hope, with God’s grace, that the care of the Holy Synod for its spiritual children here
will not be in vain. But all the more jubilant are our hearts to-day for the presence of an imperial member of that distinguished house-
hold which by its piety has inscribed itself in brilliant lines in the annals of history.

*’ May Your Imperial Highness be a thousand times welcome. May Your Imperial Highness find many delights in this land, and may the
God of love preserve and defend Your Imperial Highness. This I pray in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.
Amen ! “^

The service concluded with a prayer and with the customary rite of wishing the imperial household many happy years. The Duke immediately thereafter shook hands with Father Bjerring, thanked him for his kind
words of welcome and invited the reverend clergyman to pay a visit at his hotel this morning before his departure for Washington. The party thereafter entered their carriages and returned to the Clarendon. ”
http://www.archive.org/stream/hisimperialhigh00unkngoog/hisimperialhigh00unkngoog_djvu.txt

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