Tag: primary sources


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."...

Isabel Hapgood: Syro-Arabians in the United States (1899)


Editor's note: Regular readers of this website are no doubt familiar with Isabel Hapgood, the Episcopalian translator of the Orthodox service book from Slavonic into English. (For more on Hapgood and her role in early American Orthodox history, check out my recent podcast.) Today, we're reprinting an article Hapgood wrote...

Valerian Gribayedoff, the pioneer of pictorial journalism


As his name suggests, Valerian Gribayedoff was from Russia. He was born in Kronstadt in 1858, the son of a colonel in the Tsarist army. He studied in St. Petersburg and then went to England, where he appears to have been acquainted with the exiled French Emperor Napoleon III (aka...

Bp. Basil (Essey) on the Episcopal Assembly


Today, SOCHA Associate Director and Wichita native Matthew Namee, in his capacity as an Ancient Faith Radio correspondent and podcaster, interviewed His Grace, Bishop Basil (Essey) of Wichita, the newly elected Secretary of the Episcopal Assembly of North and Central America. Bp. Basil is heading up the Secretariat for the...

Bp. Michael (Dahulich) on the Episcopal Assembly


The OCA's Diocese of New York and New Jersey Communications office has released an interview with their new hierarch, His Grace, Bishop Michael (Dahulich) on the recent Episcopal Assembly:I also think that Saint Luke, the first iconographer, who—when he paints the picture for us in the Book of Acts of...

Fr. Mark Arey on the Episcopal Assembly


Ancient Faith Radio has just aired a 56-minute long interview with Fr. Mark Arey, General Secretary of SCOBA and a key coordinator of the first meeting of the Episcopal Assembly. I haven't yet listened to the interview, but this is how AFR describes it: In our continuing effort to keep...

A Jewish convert to Orthodoxy in 1897


Leaving aside Native Alaskans and Uniates, conversions to Orthodoxy in America were quite rare at the turn of the last century. Yes, American women occasionally converted when they married cradle Orthodox men, and there was the odd Episcopalian convert, but even taking those into consideration, conversions were very uncommon. And...

Source of the Week: Bob Marley’s funeral program


Journey To Orthodoxy yesterday ran a piece about the conversion of reggae artist Bob Marley to the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church (a non-Chalcedonian church very similar to but not currently in communion with the [Eastern] Orthodox Church). It's worth a read. We thought it might also be of interest to...

The Mysterious Roots of Orthodoxy in Canada


No one knows for certain when and where the first Orthodox Divine Liturgy was served in Canada. The first documented Liturgy was served in June 1897 by the Seattle-based missionary Fr. Dimitri Kamnev (assisted by Vladimir Alexandrov, then a reader) in a field belonging to Theodore Nemirsky at Wostok, Alberta....

More eyewitness accounts from the Episcopal Assembly


The reader may be interested to take a look at some eyewitness accounts of the recent Episcopal Assembly published by the ROCOR from three of the Russian bishops serving in North America, Abp. Justinian (MP USA), Bp. Job (MP Canada) and Bp. Jerome (ROCOR). (One of the more notable elements...