A Short History of the Archdiocese Introduction The Anglican Vicariate was established as a missionary body on the 15th of August, 2020, by the Orthodox Archdiocese of America. Bp. Joseph Boyd 112 Anglican parishes in America, India and Asia, were received into the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Orthodox Church, under the omophorion of Archbishop Anthony of New York, in synod with Bp. Michael (Kinsfather), Bp. Robert (Hall), and Bp. Larry (Wright). This formal union assures that that our church was established by rightful decree from an ancient patriarchate, not by schism, heresy or abandonment, and has maintained canonical regularity, therefore preserving the chrism of true Apostolicity and validity. The goal of the Anglican Vicariate is to provide a fully Orthodox canonical shelter for conservative Christians in the Anglican Patrimony, bridging between East and West, and centering our community in the battle against Heresy, Secularism, Radical Individualism, Feminism, Postmodernism, Cultural Marxism, and the Gender Identity Agenda. We were imparted a beautiful and life-giving Tradition as English-speaking Christians. It is up to us to resist the world and pass this great treasure on to future generations! The Vicariate fulfills the long-held vision of the Caroline Divines, the Non-Jurors and the Oxford Fathers, that the English Church would truly express the fullness of unbroken Orthodoxy and Catholicity in a Western cultural context, faithful to the Doctrines and Dogmas of the Apostles, fully submitted to the conciliar mind of the Church as expressed in the Ecumenical Councils! In this way, we are truly more “Anglican” than the contemporary Anglican Communion, and more appreciative of our great Anglocatholic deposit. We rejoice in what God has done, making our doctrine, loyalties and traditions clear, as we take a stand against the heresy and apostasy that has so insidiously compromised the Western Church in general and Anglicanism in particular, whilst holding fast to all that is good and apostolic in the English Parochial Inheritance! May God help us as we seek to be faithful to His call! May God make Anglican-Rite Orthodoxy the way of the future as faithful Christians continue to fight the good fight! We welcome all Anglicans who wish to continue in their English Patrimony and particular traditions, while being faithful to the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Orthodox Church. 1 A Short History of the Archdiocese ST. TIKHON OF MOSCOW, ENLIGHTENER OF AMERICA The Beginning of the Western Rite Western Rite Orthodoxy is known for its commitment to the traditional liturgical forms of the Roman West, while maintaining complete doctrinal fidelity to the conciliar history of the Undivided Church, which was maintained in the Christian East. Betwixt the Orthodox East and Catholic West, the First-World North and the Global South, there is a Cruciform Church re- emerging that will lead into a future with joy and hope, despite the rapid secularization occurring in Western Europe and North America! JULIAN JOSEPH OVERBECK 2 A Short History of the Archdiocese Julian Joseph Overbeck (1820-1905) was a Roman Catholic priest who converted to Eastern Orthodoxy and became a pioneer of Western Rite Orthodoxy. By 1876, Overbeck began to make appeals to many Orthodox Churches for their recognition of his scheme of a revived Western Church. He received audiences with the Patriarch of Constantinople Joachim III and received recognition from the Patriarch of the theoretical right of Western Christians to have a Western Orthodox Church. However, Overbeck's efforts did not result in the establishment of a Western Orthodoxy. He attributed this failing to the hesitance of the Greeks in London (and the Church of Greece generally) to grant approval due to the “newness and importance” of the question and because the Greeks may have feared taking the wrong step and compromising themselves. The Orthodox Catholic Review published its final issue in 1885 and Overbeck died in 1905 without seeing the implementation of the Western Orthodox Church. Georges Florovsky summed up Overbeck's experience in this way: "it was not just a fantastic dream. The question raised by Overbeck was pertinent, even if his own answer to it was confusedly conceived. And probably the vision of Overbeck was greater than his personal interpretation.” The Foundations of the Archdiocese The history of Orthodoxy in America is a long and convoluted one, confusing at points, and always showing the theanthropic nature of God’s Spirit filling and using broken individuals for his glory. All the way up into the 1890’s, the Orthodox approach to missions was inconsistent and led to the dispersal of the Orthodox Faithful into other churches in the New World. Only after the Russians allowed the mission of St. Tikhon of Moscow (1865-1925) was there a recognizable and canonical presence in the United States, and a foundation for other work to take place. The Orthodox Archdiocese of America canonically started with St. Tikhon's mission, but would have to wait until Met. Abp. Aftimios for secular incorporation. 3 A Short History of the Archdiocese ST. TIKHON AT BP. CHARLES GRAFTON'S CONSECRATION IN FOND DU LAC, WISCONSIN, 1900 ST. RAPHAEL OF BROOKLYN 4 A Short History of the Archdiocese St. Tikhon passed his Orthodox mission to St. Raphael of Brooklyn (1860-1915) before returning to Russia and taking up his cross as the first Patriarch in the Russian Church in 300 years. St. Raphael was faithful to his calling, and worked diligently to receive dissatisfied Anglocatholics, who were allowed to use the “Western Rite” within their communities under St. Raphael’s care. Upon his deathbed in 1915, the American Orthodox Archdiocese that he had formed passed to Metropolitan Aftimios Ofiesh (1880-1966). Aftimios was a man of great vision, and he sought to establish a Church for all Americans. However, ethnic preferences began to appear and destroy his vision. He became disgusted after a fellow bishop betrayed him, and started to make decisions unilaterally. Unfortunately, Metropolitan Aftimios married ten years later, without the support of old-world Patriarchates, convinced by the ancient canons that it was allowed to do so. The promises of various Anglocatholic groups that would have justified Met. Aftimios’ decision in the sight of the Old World Patriarchates, showing how a married episcopate could lead to to the widespread conversion of Anglocatholics to Orthodoxy, and would have brought great financial and spiritual support his mission, fell through and led to further marginalization for the Orthodox Archdiocese. This breakdown is what led the Russians, Greeks and Syrian/Antiochians to start their own American Archdioceses in the late 1920’s and early 1930’s, and led directly to the inter-jurisdictional chaos of American Orthodoxy today. ABP. AFTIMIOS OFIESH & CLERGY OF ST. MARY'S CATHEDRAL 5 A Short History of the Archdiocese EPISCOPAL CHURCH JOURNAL, "CHURCH LIFE", COVERAGE OF ABP. OFIESH'S VISION OF CHRISTIAN UNITY “Aftimios Ofiesh deserves a place in the history of American Orthodoxy as a man of great vision who did not fear to take the steps he considered necessary to end the separation of the Orthodox faithful in North America into rival groups. He also was farsighted enough to recognize the mission of the Orthodox Church to bring the ancient Faith of the Apostles to all North Americans regardless of their ethnic heritage. ... This is a man who was before his time. He envisioned necessary institutions for the Church, worked closely with the poor and struggling immigrants, established missions and parishes, and he gave the greatest gift of all – the vision of Orthodox administrative unity in the New World for all people, of all ethnic backgrounds. We owe a great deal to his wisdom and vision.” “The Orthodox Word” magazine (June, 1995, pp. 4-8) 6 A Short History of the Archdiocese The Archdiocese Under St. John Maximovitch The Archdiocese passed to Archbishop James Tombs and he and his clergy were received as an autocephalous jurisdiction by Metropolitan Vitaly and St. John Maximovitch in 1951, when St. John moved his people from Shanghai to San Francisco. Abp. James Toombs was a Baptist convert to Orthodoxy, and was canonically and validly affirmed in his orders by the saintly founders of the ROCOR. He was directly involved with St. John Maximovitch’s plans to establish the Western Orthodox Church of France, although he did not attend the Consecration of Jean-Nectarie of St. Denis. Due to political pressure and scandal amongst the Russian immigrants over having an American hierarch, and also because he allowed St. Tikhon’s Mass, which many Slavophiles deemed unacceptable and “unorthodox”, Abp. James retired from the Russian Church in 1958, while maintaining the missionary organization that the ROCOR had canonically recognized for him. He was slanderously and untruthfully accused of Masonry by various Russian priests who were bent on destroying him, but he always maintained his innocence and rejected all forms of occultism and heresy, teaching only what was approved by the Orthodox Church. The initial recognition that they received, the canonical documentation, and the Tomos that ROCOR had given to the American Mission was, however, never revoked. 7 A Short History of the Archdiocese TOMOS OF FOR THE ARCHDIOCESE FROM THE ROCOR, 1951 8 A Short History of the Archdiocese ABP. JAMES TOOMBS AND WIFE 9 A Short History of the Archdiocese ABP. JAMES (CENTER) WITH THE HOLY SYNOD OF ROCOR ABP. JAMES TOOMBS ENTHRONED BY THE ROCOR AS ARCHBISHOP OF THE AMERICAN CHURCH (ST. JOHN MAXIMOVITCH ON THE FAR RIGHT) 10 A Short History of the Archdiocese The Former Exarchate Connection Archbishop Dionysios (Makogambrakis) His Beatitude was born on August 14th, 1919 in the town of Heraklion, on the Island of Crete, in the country of Greece.