Tag: AFR

The Mysterious Death of Fr. Paul Kedrolivansky

On today's episode of my American Orthodox History podcast on Ancient Faith Radio, I tell the story of Fr. Paul Kedrolivansky's suspicious death. For the whole story, you'll want to listen to the podcast. There are quite a few characters involved, and I thought it might be helpful to provide...

Theophany in American Orthodox history

The latest episode of my American Orthodox History podcast is up over at Ancient Faith Radio. In it, I discuss the feast of Theophany, focusing on several historical celebrations of the feast, including the famous annual celebration at the Greek cathedral in Tarpon Springs, Florida. In the podcast, I read...

Bashir, the Federation, and SCOBA

On today's episode of the American Orthodox History podcast, I interviewed SOCHA executive director Fr. Oliver Herbel on the subject of the "Federated Orthodox Greek Catholic Primary Jurisdictions," a 1943 attempt to create a national, pan-Orthodox organization. The Federation is to SCOBA what the League of Nations was to the...

Federated Orthodox Greek Catholic Primary Jurisdictions in America

In conjunction with the recent podcast concerning the Federated Orthodox Greek Catholic Primary Jurisdictions in America, I thought I would publish a special, extra entry for Frontier Orthodoxy. I still plan on writing two additional columns this month. For this entry, however, I wish to provide a basic timeline of...

The Origins of the “Myth of Unity”

Back in June, I gave a paper at St. Vladimir's Seminary entitled, "The Myth of Past Unity and the Origins of Jurisdictional Pluralism in American Orthodoxy." The unwieldy title notwithstanding, the premise of my paper was simple: that the commonly-held story of a unified American Orthodoxy which fragmented after the...

St. Tikhon’s Vision, 1905

In 1905, the Holy Synod of Russia was preparing for an All-Russian Council. In advance of this, the Synod asked all the diocesan hierarchs of the Russian Church to send in their opinions on various church reform issues. St. Tikhon was among the respondents, and a portion of his reply...

The Russian Diocese in 1905

In 1905, the Roman Catholic religious writer Andrew Shipman wrote an article on the Russian Church in America. It's an enlightening piece, a snapshot of the Russian Mission taken by an intelligent outsider. Given that the Russian Mission is the subject of my latest podcast on Ancient Faith Radio, I...

Podcast series on past attempts at unity

I thought I'd let all the readers of this website know that I've launched a bit of a miniseries on my Ancient Faith Radio podcast. For the next five or six episodes, I'll be interviewing experts (and SOCHA members) Fr. John Erickson, Fr. Andrew Damick, and Fr. Oliver Herbel. In...

Nashotah House conference

A few days ago, there was a conference called, "In the Footsteps of Tikhon and Grafton," held at Nashotah House, the famous Episcopalian seminary in Wisconsin. The conference included a number of well-known Orthodox figures, among them the OCA's Metropolitan Jonah and Bishop Melchizedek, and St. Vladimir's Seminary's Fr. Chad Hatfield...

The first convert priests… or… the first American apostates

On today's American Orthodox History podcast, I discuss the first two convert American Orthodox priests, James Chrystal and Nicholas Bjerring. You can listen to the podcast for the whole story, but I thought I'd give a brief summary here. Chrystal and Bjerring were exact contemporaries, both born in 1831. Chrystal...