Lex Anteinternet: Thursday, May 3, 1923. The attempt to depose Archbishop Tikhon.

Lex Anteinternet: Thursday, May 3, 1923. The attempt to depose Arc...:   

Thursday, May 3, 1923. The attempt to depose Archbishop Tikhon.

 

Archbishop Tikhon, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, was expelled by the church and declared a traitor by the Communist dominated All Russian Church Council and declared "henceforth a simple citizen—Vasily Bellavin."

The body further declared:

Inasmuch as the Soviet Government is the only one in the whole world fighting capitalism, which is one of the seven deadly sins, therefore its struggle is a sacred struggle. The Council condemns the counterrevolutionary acts of Tikhon and his adherents, lifts the ban of excommunication he laid on the Soviet Government, and brands him as a traitor to the Church and to Russia. It hereby formally abolishes the office of Patriarch forever and establishes an annual Church Council as the supreme directive body in Church affairs.

The Russian Orthodox Church naturally did not recognize the move, and he continued to offer Devine Liturgy for the rest of his life, which at this point was not to be much longer. The Russian Orthodox Church has declared him to be a saint.  The move by the All Russian Church Council lead to the establishment of a competing church, which died out in the 1940s.  Of note, the establishment of competing government aligned churches is a common practice by authoritarian regimes.  Communist China at one time established a rival church to the Catholic Church, aligned with the government, and Nazi Germany attempted to create an aligned Lutheran Church, although the German efforts failed.

The move would lead to a period of irregular leadership in the Russian Orthodox Church, which was unable to procedural choose a successor in the regular method for a period of time, after Tikhon's death.

Then Bishop Tikhon at the consecration of Anglican Bishop Reginald Heber Weller at St. Paul's Cathedral in the Episcopal Diocese of Fond du Lac.  Also present are Anthony Kozlowski of the Polish National Catholic Church in what sort of amounts to an interesting collection of clerics either claiming Apostolic succession, in the case of the Anglican's, or actually having it in the case of the Russian Orthodox and Polish National Catholic Church, and yet not being in communion with Rome.

Tikhon had been a clergyman for a very long time, but had only been head of the Russian Orthodox Church since 1917.  Earlier in his career he had been the Bishop of the Aleutian Islands and Alaska, which became the Diocese of the Aleutian Islands and North America, and was a naturalized American citizen.  He was a participant, which is to say receptive, to the conversion of Byzantine Catholics into the Orthodox Church due to the ill feelings caused by Catholic Bishop John Ireland's view toward Eastern Rite Catholics comporting with the Latin Rite and Pope Pius X's restriction on Eastern Rite priests marrying, the latter which was later changed and the former which is recognized as a signficant mistake by Bishop Ireland.

Lex Anteinternet: Today is Christmas on the Julian Calendar.

Lex Anteinternet: Today is Christmas on the Julian Calendar.:

Today is Christmas on the Julian Calendar.

So, as a result, it's the day which the Orthodox who follow the Julian calendar, which is not all of them, celebrate Christmas.

Emblem of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church

In Ukraine, where the majority of Christians are in the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which obtained autocephalous status on December 15, 2018, Metropolitan Epiphany, its head will lead a service in the Assumption Cathedral of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra monastery for the first time since 1685.  In that following year, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church fell under Moscow's authority. The Metropolitanate of Kyiv actually became an ordinary diocese of the Moscow Patriarchate in 1722 

This year, however, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church gave its members the option of celebrating Christmas on December 25, which became a widely discussed topic in Ukraine itself, where celebration of a civil Christmas on December 25 had already become widespread. The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, an Easter Rite Catholic Church which is the largest Eastern Rite church in the world, apparently already did.

The Ukrainian Orthodox Church's having obtained autocephalous status has been an odd backdrop to the war.  The Russian Orthodox Church is the largest Eastern Orthodox Church in the world, and it has been one of the primary opponents to reunion with Rome.  The relationship between the various Orthodox Churches is complicated on a legal basis, but generally the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople is regarded as being the  primus inter pares between the various autocephalous church's heads, although sometimes the Pope is also referred to in that fashion.  He is regarded, generally, as having the power to accord autocephalous status, which at least from the outside is problematic as it would seem to suggest that he has a sort of superior authority which the Eastern Orthodox otherwise reject as to the Pope, even though they recognized early in their history.  Anyhow, the granting of autocephalous status by the Ecumenical Patriarch was fiercely resisted by Moscow, and it has lead to a round of schisms.  Moscow continues to deny that the Ukrainian Orthodox Church is autocephalous, and one of the claims of Russians in the war is that they are defending Orthodoxy.

As for the United States, about 1,200,000 Americans are reported as being in an Eastern Orthodox Church.  At least in Wyoming, most of the Eastern Orthodox Churches are Greek Orthodox, although they often have Russian Orthodox members and may be served by Priests who are from another branch of Orthodoxy.  Gillette has an Antiochean Orthodox Church, which represents a congregation which converted from Protestant fundamentalism following an intense study of the early church.

Lex Anteinternet: January 30, 1921. Grand Duchess Elisabeth Feodoronova of Russia laid to rest.

Lex Anteinternet: January 30, 1921. Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodoro...: 

January 30, 1921. Grand Duchess Elisabeth Feodoronova of Russia laid to rest.

Funeral ceremony over the remains of Princess Elizabeth, sister of the Czarina and her maid, in the Russian Church of the Magdalene on the Mt. of Olives. Jan. 30th, 1921

Elizabeth of Hesse and By Rhine, Grand Duchess Elizabeth Elizabeth Feodoronova of Russia, was interred on this day at the Russian Church of the Magdalene on the Mount Of Olives.

She had been murdered on July 18, 1918 by the Communists.

She married into the Russian royal family prior to her younger sister, Alix, who became the Czarina.  Indeed, she met the future Czar Nicholas at the wedding of Elizabeth and Sergei, a Russian Grand Duke.  Sergei and Elizabeth were both deeply religious and while Elizabeth had been born Lutheran, she converted, as would Alix, to Russian Orthodoxy.  Sergei was assassinated by a Russian socialist radical in 1905 and Elizabeth did not remarry.   Reflecting her sincere religious nature, the mother of seven thereafter sold all of her possessions, including her wedding ring, and became a Russian Orthodox nun.

She arrested with members of her family upon the orders of Lenin.  The Cheka murdered her and others by beating them, throwing them in a shaft, and tossing in hand grenades. When even that failed to kill them, evidenced by strains of a Russian Orthodox hymn being sung from below, the shaft was torched.

She was canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church in 1981.