THE PROBLEM OF THE ACTIVITIES OF THE FALSE PRIESTRY OF THE “ORTHODOX CHURCH OF THE ALL-RUSSIAN PATRIARCHATE” ON THE TERRITORY OF THE ALEUTIAN AND NORTH AMERICAN DIOCESE IN 1902–1910

Pavel V. Bochkov

The rector of the church of St. Luke of the Archbishop of Krasnoyarsk

St. Luke of the Archbishop of Krasnoyarsk, Norilsk, Russia

Email: frpavel@inbox.ru

ORCID: 0000–0002–3218–6706

Issue: № 1 (29), 2025

Pages: 143

Annotation

The article is devoted to the history of a little- known non-canonical Orthodox jurisdiction known as the “Orthodox Church of the All-R ussian Patriarchate”, created by the self-sanctified, defrocked former priest of the Orthodox Russian Church Seraphim (Ustvolsky). The years of creation and greatest activity of this group (1902–1908) fell during the years of the hierarchal service on the North American continent of St. Tikhon (Bellavin), the future His Holiness Patriarch of the Orthodox Russian Church, who led the host of New Martyrs and Confessors of the Russian Church in the twentieth century. Constantly facing the schismatic and fraudulent activities of the false Metropolitan Ustvolsky, Saint Tikhon, in addition to the colossal work of preaching the Orthodox faith to the people of the USA and Canada, was quite deeply immersed in activities aimed at countering Ustvolsky and exposing his anti-canonical actions. From the sources cited in the article, it is clear that the future patriarch ploddingly collected information about non-canonical activities, reacting to them based on the possibilities available to him. The history of Ustvolsky’s group revealed not only problems in matters of the Orthodox mission in Canada among emigrants from Eastern Europe, primarily among former Ukrainian Uniates, but also revealed a number of new problems: Protestant proselytism among former Uniates, the problem of nationalism among Ukrainian Uniates, mistrust and prejudice towards to the Russian clergy, rapid divisions among the Uniates and the creation of new non-canonical formations, a lack of educated Orthodox clergy for the spiritual care of Orthodox communities and counteracting the schism. Despite the rather short period of Ustvolsky’s activity, his followers confused the Orthodox residents of Canada for some time and then dissolved into the rapidly developing jurisdictional diversity of North America.

Keywords

History of Orthodoxy in Canada, Seraphim (Ustvolsky), St. Tikhon (Bellavin), false priesthood, self-sanctification, schism, non-canonical jurisdictions, “Orthodox Church of the All- Russian Patriarchate

For citation

Bochkov P. V., priest. The problem of the activities of the false priestry of the “Orthodox church of the all-russian patriarchate” on the territory of the Aleutian and North American diocese in 1902–1910 // Ipatievsky vestnik. 2025. № 1. Р. 143–162 (In Russian). https://doi.org/10.24412/2309–5164–2025–1–143–162