Tag: Episcopalians

The first biography of St. Innocent, part 1

Editor's note: The first biography of St. Innocent of Alaska was not written by an Orthodox author, but by an Episcopalian, Charles R. Hale, in 1877 (a year before St. Innocent's death). Hale (1837-1900) was an Episcopal priest (and later a bishop) who had great affection for the Orthodox Church....

The Historical Reality of Greek Orthodoxy in America

Last week, I was privileged to speak at the Greek Archdiocese Clergy-Laity Congress in Atlanta. I gave the same talk on two days, July 5 and 6. Below, we've published the text of my lecture. A couple of things, up front: first, I didn't include footnotes, because this was just...

Protestant brides and Greek grooms in DC, 1906

Regular readers of this website have no doubt noticed that I am really interested in early American converts to Orthodoxy. There weren't too many, but the handfuls of people who did join the Church in the late 19th and early 20th century almost always present fascinating stories. The most notable...

Fr. Ingram Nathaniel Irvine on ecumenism in 1907

Recently, I happened to revisit an essay by Fr. Ingram Nathaniel Irvine, published in St. Raphael's Al Kalimat (The Word) magazine. I don't have the precise date, but I think it was written in 1907. The whole article is on the subject of "Church Unity" -- what, today, we would call "ecumenism."...

Ingram N.W. (Fr. Nathaniel) Irvine and Bishop Alexander Burgess

At Frontier Orthodoxy, Fr. Oliver has published another article on Fr. Ingram Nathaniel Irvine's career as an Episcopal priest. This time, he addresses a controversy involving Irvine, his Episcopalian bishop, and allegations of sexual misconduct. Irvine was tried by an ecclesiastical court, which found him not guilty of the charges. To...

Fr. Nathaniel Irvine and Bishop Talbot

Over on Frontier Orthodoxy, Fr. Oliver Herbel has just published a post about Fr. Ingram Nathaniel Irvine and his feud with the Episcopalian Bishop Ethelbert Talbot -- a feud which ultimately led Irvine to leave the Episcopal Church and convert to Orthodoxy. To read Fr. Oliver's post, click here. Last August,...

The Failed Mission of Fr. Stephen Hatherly

Yesterday, May 19, was the 126th anniversary of the arrival in America of Protopresbyter Stephen Hatherly, a convert priest from England. Hatherly served under the Ecumenical Patriarchate, and spent several months in the US, attempting to establish an Orthodox parish in New York. Last July, I wrote an article on...

The Reversal of St. Raphael

Last week, we discussed St. Raphael's involvement with the Episcopal Church -- his role in an Orthodox-Anglican dialogue group, and his June 1910 letter permitting Episcopalian clergy to minister to Syrian Orthodox people in limited circumstances. Later that year, one of St. Raphael's top assistants, Fr. Ingram Nathaniel Irvine, wrote...

St. Raphael and the Episcopalians in 1910

At the turn of the last century, relations between the Orthodox and Anglican Churches were quite warm. They cooled a bit in 1905, when St. Tikhon ordained the former Episcopal priest Ingram Nathaniel Irvine to the Orthodox priesthood, but even so, many on both sides of the dialogue felt that...

A Greek bishop in America in 1893 (Part 2)

Last week, I introduced Archbishop Dionysius Latas of Zante, a Greek hierarch who visited America in 1893. When we left his story, he had arrived in New York City and was en route to Saratoga Springs, where the Episcopalian Bishop Henry Potter had invited him. We'll pick up the story...