Archpriest Dmitry Grigorieff passed away on this day in 2007. If we are being honest, there are perceptions among people in the Russian Church Abroad of the Orthodox Church in America (OCA) as a kind of “Orthodoxy lite”: services following the “new” liturgical calendar, the absence of All-Night Vigils on the required days, pews, and priests in collars will be cited as proof of the OCA’s inferiority to the ROCOR. I am sure there are prejudices against the ROCOR within the OCA, too, but having studied at St. Vladimir’s Seminary, I cannot recall coming across a patronizing attitude toward the ROCOR either there or among other OCA people I know. The OCA Archpriest Alvian Smirensky was a good friend of mine for many years. He spent his first 11 years in Harbin and came to America in 1940. In 1958, Metropolitan Leonty (Turkevich) ordained him a priest. Fr. Alvian studied at St. Vladimir’s Seminary at the same time as the future Archpriest Dimitry Grigorieff. Fr. Dimitry was born in 1919 in England. His father Dmitry was Vice-Governor of Archangelsk and escaped there with the retreating British troops. The family finally settled in Riga, where Dmitry Grigorieff (Jr.) began to attend seminary in 1938. However, the Soviet occupation of the Baltics in 1940 forced Dmitry to flee on his British passport. He ended up in Australia and served as a steward in the British merchant fleet. His mother and sister stayed in Lativa forever. In 1969 Dmitry Grigorieff became a priest attached to St. Nicholas Cathedral in the national capital. In 1985, Fr. Dmitry became the rector of this church. Like another prominent member of the OCA – Bishop Gregory (Afonsky) of Alaska – Fr. Dmitry wrote a book on the history of the Orthodox Church in America from 1917–1934, in which he polemicized with Bishop Gregory Grabbe. Fr. Dmitry died in December 2007. Seven months before, on May 17, the ROCOR had been reconciled with Moscow Patriarchate – an event he always wanted to see. | 
