Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in Urmia
The Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in Urmia (Русская духовная миссия в Урмии) or Orthodox Mission in Urmia (Урмийская духовная миссия) was a
History
There was a group from the
Along with Bishop Yonan, Archimandrite
Since 1904, the mission published the magazine Orthodox Urmia in both the Assyrian-Aramaic and Russian languages.[5]
In 1918, renewed persecution by the Muslims resulted in a mass exodus of indigenous Christians (including
After the Russian Revolution, Bishop Elia could no longer communicate with Patriarch
Bishop Elia died in December 1928, and he was succeeded by Bishop John (Gewarigis),
Bishop John resided in Baghdad where most of his flock lived. He retired due to old age in 1945, and eventually made his way to the U.S., where he lived with his son in Chicago. In the early 1950s, Bishop Nikon (Rklitsky), while visiting Chicago, "had a wonderful meeting with Bishop John of Urmia and Salma, the eldest member of our Council of Bishops, and spiritual head of the Orthodox Assyrians." Vladika Nikon noted that Bishop John spoke the same language as that spoken by Christ the Savior, and had been the translator at the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in Urmia. After moving to Chicago to live in retirement, he found there were several thousand of his fellow Orthodox Assyrians, who were spiritually undernourished, living in the Chicago area. When Vladyka Nikon visited Bishop John, he found him "surrounded by Americans of Assyrian origin", to whom Bishop John was reading the Bible in their native language. The Synod of Bishops, through Archbishop Gregory (Borishkevitch) of Chicago and Cleveland (later of Chicago, Detroit and Midwest America), Protopresbyter Arkadii Tsepuro, Protopresbyter George Grabbe (later Bishop Gregory of Washington & Florida), and Protopresbyter Adrian Rymarenko (later Archbishop Andrew of Novo Diveyevo) arranged for Bishop John to live in retirement at the Novo Diveyevo Convent in Spring Valley, New York. He reposed at Novo Diveyevo in 1960 at the age of 105, and is buried in the cemetery located there.
Heads
- Archimandrite Theophylact (Klementyev) (1898 - 1902)
- Archimandrite Cyryl (Smirnov) (1902 - 1904)
- Bishop Sergius (Lavrov) (1904 - 1916)
- Bishop Pimen (Belolikov) (1916 - 1917)
- Archimandrite Vitaly (Sergeyev) (1922 - 1946)
References
- ^ Садо 1996, p. 73-112.
- ^ Bolshakoff 1943, p. 102.
- ^ Wilmshurst 2000, p. 36, 281, 314.
- ^ Wilmshurst 2000, p. 36, 314-315.
- ^ Yakubova 2016.
- ^ Bolshakoff 1943, p. 104.
Literature
- Abramtsov, David (1960). "The Assyrians of Persia and the Russian Orthodox Church". One Church. 14: 155–169.
- ISBN 9781134430192.
- Bolshakoff, Serge (1943). The Foreign Missions of the Russian Orthodox Church. London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge.
- Coakley, James F. (1992). The Church of the East and the Church of England: A History of the Archbishop of Canterbury's Assyrian Mission. Oxford: Clarendon Press. ISBN 9780198267447.
- Ольга Ходаковская Там где сияют горные вершины Документальное исследование жизни и трудов преосвященного Пимена епископа Семиреченского и Верненского, священномученика
- Садо, Стефан (1996). "Российская православная миссия в Урмии (1898-1918)" (PDF). Христианское чтение. 13: 73–112.
- Садо, Стефан (1997). "Профессор Санкт-Петербургской духовной академии В. В. Болотов и вопрос о чиноприеме воссоединения несториан с Русской Православной Церковью в конце XIX в." (PDF). Христианское чтение. 14: 97–123.
- Yakubova, Lina (2016). "URMIA ORTHODOKSETA". Encyclopaedia Iranica.
- Wilmshurst, David (2000). The Ecclesiastical Organisation of the Church of the East, 1318–1913. Louvain: Peeters Publishers. ISBN 9789042908765.
- This article incorporates text from Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in Urmia at OrthodoxWiki which is licensed under the CC-BY-SA and GFDL.