Comments on: Abp Iakovos opposed civil rights demonstrations in 1963 http://orthodoxhistory.org/2011/06/22/abp-iakovos-opposed-civil-rights-demonstrations-in-1963/ 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: Matthew Namee http://orthodoxhistory.org/2011/06/22/abp-iakovos-opposed-civil-rights-demonstrations-in-1963/comment-page-1/#comment-1485 Matthew Namee Tue, 28 Jun 2011 19:13:38 +0000 http://orthodoxhistory.org/?p=4587#comment-1485 Yeah, Fr. Vladimir Owens is a crazy story. Fr. Oliver and I have been researching him for years, and one of these days we’ll have to publish something. Fr. Vladimir turned out to be something of a con artist who took on various personas like a hermit crab. He was convicted of something-or-other in the ’70s or ’80s. Not sure what happened to him, but he did rise to a pretty prominent position in Moscow’s American Archdiocese for a while.

]]> By: Isa Almisry http://orthodoxhistory.org/2011/06/22/abp-iakovos-opposed-civil-rights-demonstrations-in-1963/comment-page-1/#comment-1484 Isa Almisry Tue, 28 Jun 2011 18:20:11 +0000 http://orthodoxhistory.org/?p=4587#comment-1484 “What about Orthodoxy and the black population? “Our doors are open to all who care to worship with us,” Archbishop Iakovos said, but then he added, “though of course it is difficult for one of a non-Orthodox background to come into our faith.””

Around this time, American Orthodoxy had another black priest, Fr. Vladimir Owens, who served in Spanish (!) in the Russian Orthodox Church.
Jet Dec 14, 1967
http://books.google.com/books?id=U7gDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA22&dq=negroe+orthodox+priest&cd=1#v=onepage&q&f=false
Ebony Jun 1968
http://books.google.com/books?id=HNoDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA115&dq=Vladimir+Owens&hl=en&ei=NRkKTq2eAvGFsAKi3aCSAQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCoQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=Vladimir%20Owens&f=false

I could swear I saw something on him in Life Magazine, around the same time.

Btw, His Eminence was right:Too often the demonstrators go home and say, ‘I did my part,’ but refuse to carry through. How many of them are willing to live with Negroes as neighbors, or give them a job or train them for a skill? In those areas lie the long-range benefits.” but that doesn’t preclude demonstrations, which evidently his eminence came to see.

]]>