Comments on: Fr. Kyrill Johnson, 1897-1947

By: OrthodoxHistory.org » Blog Archive » Fr. Kyrill Johnson: The Prestige of the Oecumenical Patriarchate

Thu, 19 Aug 2010 13:02:28 +0000

[...] note: On Monday, we introduced Fr. Kyrill Johnson, who converted to Orthodoxy in the 1920s and spent most of his career in the Antiochian [...]

By: OrthodoxHistory.org » Blog Archive » Fr. Kyrill Johnson: Review of a Protestant translation of the Divine Liturgy

Tue, 17 Aug 2010 13:01:59 +0000

[...] note: Yesterday, we introduced Fr. Kyrill Johnson (1897-1947), a 1920s convert who spent most of his career in the Antiochian Archdiocese. What [...]

By: tmokhiber

tmokhiber — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 17:11:07 +0000

oh, ok. I guess I had bad info all around.Your site is great. Keep it up!!

By: Matthew Namee

Matthew Namee — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 17:05:34 +0000

I’m not sure what you mean. Gelsinger died a priest. Before his death, he was tonsured a monk, becoming the Hieromonk Theodore. He lived his final days at Holy Transfiguration Monastery in Brookline, MA. (At the time, this was a ROCOR monastery, but it has since become the headquarters of HOCNA, a noncanonical body.)

By: tmokhiber

tmokhiber — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 16:57:29 +0000

Thanks for the quick response. Do you have anymore info on Michael Gelsinger, like why he did not die as a priest, etc?

By: Matthew Namee

Matthew Namee — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 16:56:29 +0000

Incidentally, the first all-English “convert” parish in America was Holy Transfiguration in New York, led by Fr. Patrick Mythen (mentioned in the article above, and discussed in detail in previous articles). However, the first church in America to use English as its primary language of worship was Holy Trinity Chapel in New York (1870-1883).

By: Matthew Namee

Matthew Namee — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 16:54:14 +0000

Gelsinger was indeed a monumental figure in American Orthodox history. We’ve discussed him a bit in the past (see the “tag” for him on the right), and we’ll continue that discussion in the future.

To answer your question: no, the Niagara Falls parish was not the first to offer the Divine Liturgy in English. There were English-language Liturgies in America dating at least to the early 1870s, and in England, even before that. The first English translation of the Liturgy, as far as I know, was done by Philip Ludwell III (the Orthodox convert from colonial Virginia) in the mid-1700s. Gelsinger’s translations were very important and are still used today, but neither he nor Isabel Hapgood (an earlier and perhaps more famous translator of liturgical texts) produced the first English translations of the Divine Liturgy.

By: tmokhiber

tmokhiber — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 16:47:38 +0000

that should have been “first” parish~sorry:)

By: tmokhiber

tmokhiber — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 16:45:54 +0000

Interesting articles. I was wondering if you had more info on Michael Gelsinger? He was once priest at our now Antiochian parish in Niagara Falls NY (St. George). I believe that we were the fist parish to offer the Liturgy in English because of his translations. Would you be able to verify this?
Thanks,
Todd Mokhiber

By: greggo

greggo — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 16:25:27 +0000

thanx. please keep up the good work