On this day in 1963 the election of the new parish council for the ROCOR cathedral in San Francisco did not take place. The history of the church conflict within the Russian Orthodox community in San Francisco has only been studied recently by the Russian scholar Andrey A. Kostriukov. I have not studied it but have a few general comments on the background of this particular conflict. The Russian emigration went through the revolution, civil war and World War Two in Europe and China. This traumatic experience resulted in the high level of politization and conflicts. The episcopate of the Russian Church Abroad in the 1950s and 1960s was divided. At the same time the hierarchical principle of governance was enforced while the representative aspects, inherited from All-Russian Council of 1917-1918 were reduced. The fact that the rector of a cathedral was not a priest, but a ruling diocesan bishop might also complected the situation. After 1963 Pascha letters were sent to the Synod accusing St. John, Archbishop of San Francisco in sympathizing with the communists, connections with the Moscow Patriarchate, etc. All this happened at the height of the Cold War, and such accusations adversely affected the reputation of the saint. In May, Bishop John was summoned to a meeting of the Synod; by that time, a new session of the Synod had begun, and the hierarchs close to St. John no longer participated in it (their rotation ended). At the meetings, the issue of unrest in San Francisco was discussed; the archbishop was kept behind the doors for four hours while the issue of managing his diocese was being resolved. By majority vote it was decided to transfer him from San Francisco. When St. John returned to San Francisco with this news, there the indignation at the synodal decision became widespread; a petition with many signatures was sent to the Synod asking not to remove the beloved archpastor. The opposing side responded by making every possible effort to ensure that the Synod’s decision passed. In his report to the Synod, Archbishop John wrote: “There was a danger of mass fights. I held people back as best I could, my presence restrained this zeal beyond reason, but to my deep sorrow, everything that was done to establish peace in my flock for four months was destroyed in one day with one blow.” The first hierarch of the Russian Church Abroad Metropolitan Anastassy called the bishop and spoke with him on the phone for an hour. Thanks to the intercession of the first hierarch as a result of this conversation Archbishop John’s administration of the diocese was extended for another six months. But the furies did not subside. On July 9, 1963, re-elections of members of the parish council and the warden were to take place; members of the old parish council, opposed to the bishop, were categorically against the elections, realizing that the number of supporters of Archbishop John was almost twice as large as them. The only way for them to keep their places was to file a civil lawsuit against the hierarch. The court ordered construction of the cathedral to be stopped until the end of the trial. Endless legal proceedings began. The bishop's opponents brought to court the bishops who were opposed to the bishop. Archbishop Vitaly (Oustinoff) of Montreal and Canada arrived in San Francisco. He met more than once with the opposing party and their lawyers and, according to Archbishop John, “presented to the court a statement from the Synod, which did not recognize the election of a new parish council.” Nevertheless, the same man, but this time the ROCOR’s first hierarch presided over St. John’s canonization thirty years ago. Thus recognizing his sanctity. The court were St. John had to appear ex officio as a chairman of the board became another instance in the history of the Russian church diaspora of devaluation of episcopal authority. Source: Monk Benjamin (Gomarteli),"Letopis' tserkovnykh sobytii nachinaia s 1917 goda," [Timeline of Church Events Beginning from 1917] Part V: 1961-1971. |
