Tag: OCA

New York OCA Cathedral’s fight for religious freedom

If you've read the last two issues of our SOCHA newsletter, you know that Holy Protection OCA Cathedral in New York City is in the middle of a fight with the city's Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC). Here's how I described the situation in the most recent newsletter: In last month's...

Friday Links

I'm testing out a possible new feature here at OH.org -- links to recent articles that might be of interest to readers of our website. Please let me know what you think of this feature, and if you have any suggestions for links to include in future "Friday Links" posts....

ROCOR/OCA Episcopal Concelebration

Editor's note: The following article was written by Christopher Orr. Update (6/18/11): What follows is an updated version of the original article. On May 24, 2011 – the feast of the holy Equals-of-the-Apostles, Sts. Cyril and Methodius, Enlighteners of the Slavs and the name day of Patriarch Kirill of Moscow...

Orthodoxy & the Courts: ecclesiastical questions are unavoidable

Until the early 1980s, some OCA parishes in the Diocese of Eastern Pennsylvania used the Old Calendar. In 1982, then-Bishop Herman Swaiko of Philadelphia ordered all of his parishes to switch to the New Calendar. Predictably, this wasn't universally well-received. The majority of St. Basil Orthodox Church in Simpson, PA...

NY Times article on Moscow-Metropolia Supreme Court case

From the New York Times, November 25, 1952, page 31: U.S. COURT VOIDS ACT ON RUSSIAN CHURCH State Law to End Communist Sway in Orthodox Cathedral Here Is Upset by Ruling RELIGIOUS FREEDOM CITED 8-to-1 Decision Holds Action Violated 14th Amendment -- Jackson Lone Dissenter BY CLAYTON KNOWLES WASHINGTON, Nov....

Excerpt: Richard Pierce on St. Peter the Aleut

Editor's note: The late Dr. Richard A. Pierce was among the foremost historians on Russian Alaska, and his many books remain standards in the field. In 1990, he published Russian America: A Biographical Dictionary (Kingston, Ont., Canada: Limestone Press). Among the many entries in the book is one on St....

Guest article on St. Peter the Aleut

  Editor's note: The following guest article was written by Christopher Orr. Here are a few thoughts on the discussion about the historicity of the martyrdom account of St. Peter the Aleut kicked off by Fr. Oliver Herbel and continued by Matthew Namee on the Society for Orthodox Christian History...

Irvine transferred to St. Raphael’s jurisdiction

The following letter was found in Ingram N.W. Irvine’s file in the OCA Archives in Syosset, New York. The letter is undated (the pre-printed date line “190_” does not have a specific year) and appears under the letterhead of the North American Ecclesiastical Consistory, 15 East 97th Street, New York,...

Metr. Jonah on the Episcopal Assembly and the OCA

At the assembly of the OCA's Canadian archdiocese being held in July 2010, His Beatitude, Metropolitan Jonah (Paffhausen), primate of the OCA, spoke at some length about the Episcopal Assembly, particularly regarding the position of the OCA toward it. Especially considering the unique position of the OCA as it relates...

Our Best Chance Yet: an historical reflection on administrative unity

We've tried this before. Over the past century or so, there have been no fewer than five attempts to bring the various ethnic Orthodox jurisdictions in America into some measure of administrative unity. Next week, from May 26-28, we embark upon a sixth effort -- an effort which, compared to its predecessors,...