Greek Catholics Converts to Orthodoxy - Fascinating New Doctoral Paper!

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I am reading the dissertation because my granfather left the Wilkes -Barre coal mines for the Pittsburgh steel mills in 1906.

Peace
 
Defend_the_Keys said:
My understanding is that some Greek-Catholic communities in the USA went to the Russian Orthodox Church as well as the newly formed Russian Orthodox Greek Catholic Church that eventually morphed into the OCA (Orthodox Church of America). All Russian Orthodox churches in North America eventually became ROCOR (Russian Church Outside of Russia) after the communist took over Russia, so some of the Carphato-Rusyn parishes ended up with them.
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No, most of the RO churches in Alaska are OCA. And most of them predate the Toth Schism. ROCOR were the minority of parishes - and those were established AFTER statehood… The Irony is that the Cathedral is one of the newer parishes.

A few rejected the OCA’s autonomy declaration and attempted to maintain ties to the Bishop of Magadan.

And that’s not counting the various groups of Old Believers up here.
 
Defend_the_Keys said:
I assure you that no criticism was aimed at ANY Orthodox Christians (other than Tsar Nicholas)! My comment was directed at the Tsar of Russia, a temporal leader, who held no position of authority within the Orthodox Faith.

I assure you that I would not deem a criticism of the Austro-Hungarian monarch as directed toward the Catholic Faith as I have quite a few of them myself!
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The Tsar had a great deal of very direct authority in the Orthodox faith from the time of Peter the Great (Westernizer) to the dissolution of the Moscow Patriarchate.
 
St. Nicholas of Myra BCC in Anchorage is really the mother church for the Orthodox Churches in the region since it was the only Eastern Church for decades in the Anchorage/Mat-Su valley area and the Orthodox attended divine services there. Alaska really seems to have survived the issues during the time of St. Alexis and Byzantine Catholics there either were assimilated into Latin parishes or worked toward the establishment of a BC mission. As for the St. Josaphat vs. St. Alexis issue: I think it would be a great video game (like Mortal Combat), but it doesn’t work out theologically since both of them are presumably in paradise:D

Whether the Orthodox Czar did work toward the return of Eastern Catholics to the Russian Church for political reasons who knows and who really cares, to be honest. What is important is that we are brothers in the Lord and need to abandon sharpening our knives and start really caring for and loving each other as our simple yet profound Master, Jesus Christ taught us.👍
 
fordhamstudent said:
Whether the Orthodox Czar did work toward the return of Eastern Catholics to the Russian Church for political reasons who knows and who really cares, to be honest. What is important is that we are brothers in the Lord and need to abandon sharpening our knives and start really caring for and loving each other as our simple yet profound Master, Jesus Christ taught us.👍
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I think most of us agree that historical events should not impact how we currently act and interact as Christians. However, this should not discount the study of historical events and a desire to understand how the events truly occurred rather than simply accepting popular folklore and/or urban mythology.

IMO it is an injustice to lay complete blame on the Latin-rite clergy for the Toth-led schism when this paper, backed up with historical fact, clearly suggest there were many other factors at play with Father Toth and the schismatic’s (Pan-Slavism, nationalism, anit-Romanism, mass confusion of uneducated laity, ect). Hopefully some people will actually read the paper and come to their own informed/educated conclusions!

Let us also remember that those who do not understand their history are destined to repeat it! God bless
 
I recommend a quick read of the glossary and a good map of the Austro-Hungarian regions of Galicia and Subcarpathia.

Peace
 
Khalid said:
The Tsar had a great deal of very direct authority in the Orthodox faith from the time of Peter the Great (Westernizer) to the dissolution of the Moscow Patriarchate.
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Not quite. His actual authority within the church was indirect and amounted to a veto in the Holy Synod.
His influence, however, was quite powerful.
 
fordhamstudent said:
St. Nicholas of Myra BCC in Anchorage is really the mother church for the Orthodox Churches in the region since it was the only Eastern Church for decades in the Anchorage/Mat-Su valley area and the Orthodox attended divine services there.
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Dude, WAY wrong. The OCA parish in Eklutna predates Anchorage. Kenai’s parish predates the 1950’s mission to Alaska of the BCC.

St. Nick’s is the only EC parish, but our 40-50 families are hardly the basis for the 1000+ families of the OCA Cathedral (St. Innocent), especially since the Orthodox churches throughout the urban state predate any ECC presence in state.

I suspect you’ve counfounded St. Nicholas in Eklutna, whose current building dates to 1967, but whose old building dates to the 1870’s or before, with St Nicholas in Anchorage, which dates to the 1960’s and is Byzantine Catholic, but had no prior presence.

Point of reference: only one convert Russian Orthodox family was stable in the parish - the Sipree family. We’ve had several Ukrainian Orthodox families, and still have one or two (I’m uncertain of one family - don’t know if they’re UGCC or UOC-KP), the other is a babushka whose children are not in evidence. And, in 1964, The Ruthenian Church had 10 families in Anchorage… Rev. Fr. Artim was sent to close the “failed parish” in 1964. It’s still open.

stnicholaseklutna.org/
eklutnahistoricalpark.org/
nps.gov/history/history/online_books/nhl/russian-america/sec4.htm

You must keep in mind Alaska’s history: The state was a Russian territory. Russian Orthodoxy was the dominant religion, prior to evangelization by the protestants on the US Government’s funding (1880-1930 or so) - Catholics came only during the 1860’s onward, pretty much only after the purchase of “Seward’s Folly” (Alaska).

The OCA owes its current existence as much to the Russian Orthodox of Alaska as to the Tothian Schism, if not much more so, but Orthodoxy in Alaska owes almost nothing to the Ruthenian Church. Many parishes in state still say the DL in Church Slavonic… but it’s the Russian flavor of Church slavonic - differing mostly in pronunciation, not lexicon - and using the Russian derived Hapgood translation when done in English.
 
theistgal said:
Perhaps I am being a bit naive but I would like to believe that St. Alexis Toth and Blessed Theodore Romzha are working together now. 😉
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Funny that you should mention these two. When I was Ruthenian Catholic, I had a strong veneration toward Bl Theodore Romzha…I wept when I read his life story.

Now as an Orthodox Christian…I have a great respect for St Alexis Toth. 🙂
 
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