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D. Oliver Herbel

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FR. RAPHAEL MORGAN AND EARLY AFRICAN AMERICAN ORTHODOXY

ON AUGUST 15/28, 1907, THE Feast of Dormition, a black Jamaican immigrant to the United States was ordained to the Orthodox priesthood in Constantinople.166 This marked the culmination of a journey in search of the «true church.» On that day, Robert Josias Morgan was ordained as Fr. Raphael and became the first man of African American descent born in the New World to be ordained in the Orthodox Church. One scholar found Morgan’s story so incredible that he wrote, «the Morgan story is so utterly improbable that one tends to dismiss it as a hoax.»167 On the other hand, the journal Epiphany included a brief summary of Morgan’s story in a special volume dedicated to «African-American Orthodoxy.»168 In the introduction, the editor noted that while sources for Morgan’s story were not extensive, they were substantial enough to prove his story was no hoax. The editor went on to speculate about possible motives for Morgan’s conversion and how Morgan may have understood his own conversion from the Protestant Episcopal Church to the Greek Orthodox Church.169

Morgan’s ordination and subsequent ministry within the Orthodox Church was a considered response to the difficult situation black Americans faced, often being viewed as second class even within somewhat integrated churches, as was the case for his own Protestant Episcopal Church. One might expect that Morgan would have turned to one of the historically black churches in America, of which he had knowledge. One might alternatively think that if none of those were appropriate for him, he would seek to establish his own church. As this chapter shows, however, Morgan sought a different solution, one not grounded in the anti-traditional tradition but in the tradition of Orthodox Church, which he entered by the gate of restorationism.

Although he initially considered an independent church, in keeping with American restorationism, and hoped for a furthering of ecumenical relations between Anglicanism and Orthodoxy, Morgan soon decided against such a move. Rather than continue the tradition of breaking from one's previous tradition to join or start another sect in an attempt to restore the early Church, Morgan looked an outside tradition that could serve as a grounding, even critique, of that very anti-traditional tradition. The Orthodox tradition offered Morgan precisely that, for he saw it as a tradition that could stand on its own apart from the racial problems that beset Western Christianity. Indeed, he saw the Orthodox tradition as standing authoritatively prior to Western Christianity.

Morgan’s religious journey is an American one, though it has roots in the Caribbean. Unfortunately, we can only but sketch Morgan’s life prior to his arrival in America, though one early biography does seem based on correspondence with Morgan.170 The date of his birth is not known, but sometime around 1869 seems likely.171 Morgan was born in Chapelton, Clarendon, Jamaica, to Robert Josias and Mary Ann (Johnson) Morgan, though his father died when Morgan was but six months old.172 Although he had a dark skin tone (according to both photographs and source descriptions), he was actually of mixed racial heritage.173 According to both biographies, Morgan traveled extensively. Eventually, he ended up at Freetown, Sierra Leone, where he became a school teacher and was appointed as a lay-reader under Samuel David Ferguson, the bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church in Liberia.174 He later went to England, where he possibly studied at King's College, University of London and Saint Aidan's Theological College, Birkenhead.175

MORGAN IN THE PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH IN AMERICA

In 1895, he came to America and was ordained a deacon in the diocese of Delaware, by Bishop Leighton Coleman, a bishop known for opposing racism.176 He was subsequently assigned to be honorary curate at St. Matthews Protestant Episcopal Church in Wilmington, Delaware.177 Gavin White noted that Morgan served St. Matthew's from 1896 to 1897, subsequently serving in Charleston, West Virginia from 1897 to 1901, in Richmond, Virginia, from 1901 to 1905, in Nashville, Tennessee in 1905, and finally in Philadelphia in 1906 at the Church of the Crucifixion.178

A close examination of his movements during this time demonstrates that Morgan moved within the same circle of black clergymen that included Rev. George Alexander McGuire (who would later go on to lead the African Orthodox Church, which shall be discussed further below). Morgan may have even known McGuire personally179 Their points of contact and overlap provide a strong circumstantial case in favor of this. McGuire had been Morgan's predecessor in Richmond, having served until November of 1900. They both served at the Church of the Crucifixion in Philadelphia. McGuire served there in the 1890s, under Rev. Henry L. Phillips while Morgan served the Church of the Crucifixion several years later in 1906.180 From 1902–1905, McGuire served as rector at St. Thomas's Protestant Episcopal Church in Philadelphia.181 A.C.V. Cartier, a personal friend of Morgan, served as rector of St. Thomas Protestant Episcopal Church after McGuire left. Morgan and McGuire also had an important mutual acquaintance in Rev. George F. Bragg. Bragg included Morgan in his work on African American church leaders. In a letter to the editor of the Living Church, Bragg both referred to himself as a «friend and admirer» of McGuire and raised Morgan as another example of an African American who left the Protestant Episcopal Church in search of Orthodox holy orders.182 All of these men were serving within African American parishes of the Protestant Episcopal Church.

It was while moving within this very circle that Morgan would have first encountered the idea of turning to Orthodox Christianity. Serving within the Episcopal Church at the time was a difficult undertaking for African Americans inasmuch as ordination to the priesthood was often slow in coming and when it did, they were always under white bishops, even if such bishops were the likes of Leighton Cole-man. In conjunction with the racist context in which he lived, however, Morgan also had some unanswered theological questions. He shared with one of his early biographers that he had doubts concerning his service to the Protestant Episcopal Church (indeed, to the larger Anglican Communion), but doubts that were not (interestingly) primarily racial, but theological:

For many years he maintained serious doubts concerning the teachings of the whole Anglican Communion; the change that came over him resulted in more than three years of special study of Anglicanism;...It was his final conviction that the Holy Greek Church is the pillar and ground of truth.183

Much is truncated here, of course, and it is unknown whether that is due to Morgan, his biographer (Mather), or both. What can be known, however, is that these doubts were quite legitimate and carried more than just a racial component. Or, to put it another way, the racism he experienced was about to be addressed fundamentally as a theological problem.

Within his circle of black Episcopalian clergy an Eastern Christian answer came to the fore, being first made in 1898, when Rev. George F. Bragg argued that an Eastern Christian episcopal succession, as exemplified by one Joseph Rene Vilatte's non-Chalcedonian consecration, could well prove important to African American concerns.184 Vilatte was one of many Episcopi Vagantes, or bishops-at-large, who have characterized a subset of American Christianity. The thinking at the time seemed to be that if African Americans themselves could obtain apostolic succession through the consecration by Vilatte, then perhaps an independent African American church with African American leadership could be established. Vilatte's case suggested to Bragg (and, as we shall, Morgan and McGuire as well) that there might be an opportunity to create a new religious identity that could be authentically African American and fully traditional.

On the face of it, this seems to be a remarkable suggestion, for Vilatte has the dubious distinction of being known as «the direct or indirect progenitor of more than twenty schismatic churches.»185 A Frenchman who immigrated to Canada, Vilatte fell under the spell of Pastor Chiniquy, a former Roman Catholic priest-turned-Protestant-minister convinced Vilatte to journey to Green Bay, Wisconsin, to minister to Belgian settlers «drifting from Romanism into spiritism and infidelity»186 Vilatte worked under the auspices of Bishop J. H. Hobart Brown, the Protestant Episcopal bishop of Fond du Lac. Brown soon provided Vilatte with a letter to Bishop Herzog in Berne for the purpose of acquiring Old Catholic succession.187 Vilatte believed that if he could be ordained by an Old Catholic bishop, he could claim to have apostolic succession. He was subsequently ordained to the Old Catholic priesthood in Switzerland and returned to Wisconsin, serving as the head of a sort of Old Catholic mission of the Protestant Episcopal Church.

Vilatte soon had a falling out with the next bishop of Fond du Lac, Bishop Charles Chapman Grafton, for trying to obtain episcopal consecration in the Old Catholic Church and then in the Russian Orthodox Church through Bishop Vladimir. In 1892, Vilatte was consecrated by a Portuguese group in communion with the non-Chalcedonian patriarch of Antioch, Peter III, though no certificate of ordination exists.188 Eventually, he would be driven out by his congregants in Wisconsin, travel throughout Europe, and return to America again, all the while trying to join one church after another. He also attempted to found Old Catholic jurisdictions in England and America. He finally died in a monastery in France, a reconciled layman in the Roman Catholic Church, but on the verge of yet another ecclesiological escapade.189

Although such a career might strike us as merely unstable, what Vilatte brought to the table, and what was attractive to Bragg, was the idea of an apostolic succession beyond the bounds of the local white American church. Bragg was not alone, for Morgan shared this very same outlook, at least for a time. By 1906, Morgan was visiting the Greek Orthodox Church in Philadelphia as a member of Vilatte’s very own church, «the American Catholic Church, an offshoot of the Protestant Episcopal Church.»190 The American anti-traditional tradition was luring Morgan. Here was the opportunity to break from his current church and join a new, indeed, a radically independent one. Doing so would mean continuing the tradition of anti-tradition and that was a real possibility for Morgan at the time, for by accepting Vilatte’s church, even if but nominally, Morgan had come to act upon what Bragg had merely been willing to suggest. Morgan, however, was still interested in Orthodoxy as a tradition, as something more than merely a certificate of «apostolic succession,» which seemed to be Vilatte’s only concern. Morgan needed to learn more of Orthodox Christianity itself, however, and to do this, he ventured a trip to Russia.

THE TRIP TO RUSSIA

In 1904, Robert Josias Morgan published an open letter in the Russian Orthodox American Messenger as «a legally consecrated cleric of the American Episcopal Church.»191 In this letter, Morgan thanked the Russian Orthodox people for their sincere hospitality during his month-long visit to examine the life of the Orthodox Church in Russia. As he put it:

I came to Russia in no way to represent anything, and I was not sent by anybody. I came as a simple tourist, chiefly with the object to see the churches and the monasteries of this country, to enjoy the ritual and the service of the holy Orthodox Church, about which I heard so much abroad.192

We know that Morgan's black Episcopalian circle of friends already considered Orthodox Christianity as an option, but why the Russian Orthodox Church specifically? Aside from any possible knowledge of positive Anglican-Orthodox relations,193 he may have had secondhand knowledge of the positive treatment of people of African descent in the Russian Empire.

It may not be common knowledge today, but Russia was, for those of African descent, «a land of opportunity where they could not only survive, but could attain high social position.»194 Although the Russian Empire contained African settlements in the country of Georgia, the cases of black servants and visitors proves most relevant to Morgan's own journey. It had been common practice for upper-class Russians to give slaves their freedom once arriving in Russia even before other countries had outlawed slavery.195 Given Morgan's travels and the African American presence in the shipping industry at the time, it would not be at all unusual for Morgan to have learned of Russia's hospitality toward blacks. Morgan was hardly alone in traveling to Russia as one of African descent. What made his journey unique was not that he traveled to Russia nor that he was treated hospitably and kindly, but that he undertook the journey for the purposes of pursuing a religious quest. He may have traveled as a «simple tourist» rather than an official church diplomat, but his purpose was of great importance to him, for not long after, he would become an Orthodox Christian.

According to Morgan, his initial concerns in 1904 centered upon the question of Anglican-Orthodox union, as seen in his message of thanks to the Russian Orthodox for their kindness and hospitality:

I leave your country with a feeling of profound gratitude and take back to North America all the good impressions I received here. And when there I shall speak boldly and loudly about the brotherly feelings entertained here in the bosom of the holy Orthodox Church towards its Anglican sister of North America, and about the prayers which are offered here daily for the union of all Catholic Christendom. My constant humble prayer is for the union of all Churches, and especially for the union of the Anglican faith with the Orthodox Church of Russia. I solicited the Metropolitans and the Bishops to grant me their blessing in regard to this prayer and obtained it. Now I pray daily and eagerly for a better mutual understanding between the character and their union... In conclusion I must say, that my stay in Russia did me personally much good: I feel now much firmer and stronger spiritually than I did before I came196

It would seem that in 1904, he was hoping that Anglican-Orthodox union might offer some sort of a solution for the African Americans, though he did not specifically state how he thought that might work. Indeed, it is doubtful the readers of the Russian American Messenger would have even been able to appreciate his situation. It is also unclear exactly how the Russian trip fit into his doubts concerning the legitimacy of the Anglican Communion more generally, though he did call the Russian Orthodox Church the «Apostolic» church of Russia.197

Readers certainly could tell Morgan had found, in Orthodox Christianity, something he believed would benefit the Anglican Communion and the Protestant Episcopal Church in particular. He had discovered a spiritual depth that permeated his own being and one he had seen within the Russian people as a whole. Morgan claimed to feel spiritually «firmer and stronger» and wrote, «it would seem as if the Christian religion penetrated the whole life of the people.»198 What Morgan had not experienced in America, he had experienced in Russia – a church that truly loved him, a Jamaican immigrant to America of African descent. In the Protestant Episcopal Church in America, he was a second-class citizen who sought a better religious identity. On his trip, he was received by the Russians with «their gentleness, their politeness, their amiability, and kindness,» a reception he linked directly to the Russian Orthodox faith.199

It is clear that when Morgan left Russia with his personal mission of spreading the good news of the love of Orthodoxy for Anglican Christians, he left with some knowledge of Orthodox Christianity and already demonstrated evidence of one who was likely soon to convert. Concerning a possible Anglican-Orthodox union, Morgan asked his reader to «solicit the prayers of the Saints» and the «intercession of the holy Mother of God» and went so far as to write, «Virgin Mary, pray for us!»200 This does not sound like a typical Protestant. He also asked that God grant Emperor Nicholas II and his family «a long life, peace and prosperity.»201 This phrase comes from the beginning of intoning «God grant you many years,» a traditional Orthodox hymn. Although one should not make too much of this, it suggests that Morgan had begun to develop an intimate knowledge of Orthodox traditions and worship.

CONVERSION AND THE ORDER OF THE CROSS OF GOLGOTHA

Following his return from Russia, Morgan began developing a close relationship with the local Greek Orthodox clergy in Philadelphia. The priest mentioned in the 1906 newspaper article noted above was Rev. Theodore Prussianos, who was a missionary priest traveling from parish to parish. His tenure in Philadelphia was short-lived. The subsequent priest, Rev. Demetrios Petrides, developed a relationship with Morgan and went so far as to advocate on Morgan’s behalf before the Ecumenical Patriarch in Constantinople. Morgan's approach to his situation had shifted. No longer was he presenting himself as one interested in unity between Anglicanism and Orthodoxy. He was looking to become Orthodox and, as we shall see, to bring Orthodox Christianity to those of African descent in America, be they from the Caribbean or America proper. The Orthodox tradition was about to provide him with the opportunity for religious identity creation par excellence. By looking to the Orthodox tradition, he was breaking out of the anti-traditional tradition exemplified in Vilatte’s movement and finding a platform from which he could stand over and against the entirety of Western Christianity, whether the Anglo-Catholic tradition or the American anti-traditional tradition, which characterized the likes of both Vilatte and even black Protestant denominations.

In June 1907, the Holy Synod of Constantinople received a letter from Petrides recommending Morgan for ordination and the minutes of the July 1907 meeting contain a discussion of Morgan’s case.202 Documents pertaining to Morgan’s ordination provide a general outline of the events.203 In July, the synod approved Morgan's request to be baptized and subsequently ordained to the diaconate and priesthood.204 Morgan’s case caused a stir in the local Greek population, as over 3,000 people attended his baptism.205 The synod provided for Morgan’s travel, vestments, liturgical books, a cross, and also granted him the right to hear confessions.206 Despite this, Morgan's request for an antimension (i.e., an altar cloth with a bishop's signature) and holy chrism, for annointing the newly baptized, were denied.207 These were denied because the synod wished for Morgan to serve under Petrides until he was, in fact, ready to open and serve in a separate parish.

Although his request was denied, Morgan's request for these items suggests that Morgan had a larger goal for his own conversion. Becoming Orthodox was not merely a matter of a personal religious journey. His outlook was evangelistic. The goal was to take the Orthodox tradition, which was «apostolic» and yet neither a restorationism such as Vilatte's church,208 nor even Western, nor chained down by a legacy of racial segregation, and bring it to blacks in North America.

In fact, an evangelistic fervor characterized his initial actions upon returning to Philadelphia. According to the minutes from February 1908, Morgan returned and baptized his wife and children, though Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church of Philadelphia contains no records of this.209 Then, in November of 1908, Morgan recommended his old friend Rev. A. C. V. Cartier for ordination into the Orthodox Church, but the request seems to have produced no attempts to pursue Cartier as a candidate for the Orthodox priesthood.210 Most likely, the request was misplaced or forgotten because it was made just when the jurisdiction of the Greeks in America had been transferred from Constantinople to the Church of Greece.

For Morgan, there was clarity, and not just from the Orthodox side. For in that same year, the Protestant Episcopal Church announced that he was suspended as a deacon.211 For Morgan, there would be no turning back as the break with his previous tradition was now clear and obvious to all. He had turned to tradition.

Unfortunately for Morgan and his family, his frequent ministry assignments and marital disputes took its toll, and in 1909 his wife, Charlotte, filed for divorce.212 Yet, Morgan did not let this turn of events completely dissuade him. In 1911, he journeyed to Athens, almost certainly to be tonsured a monk. This is suggested by at least two things. First, the Ellis Island ship records list Morgan as single, which fits his divorced status as of 1909, but also displays the name «Father, Raphael,» which was then corrected by someone to «Morgan, Raphael.»213 In addition, Mather, one of his early biographers (and again, who seems to have received his information by way of correspondence with Morgan) noted specifically that «the family name of Morgan has been dropped and should never be used in addressing him.»214 The only times Morgan traveled to Greece or Constantinople were at his ordination and his 1911 trip, and since he was still married when ordained, it seems quite likely he was tonsured on his 1911 trip.

Morgan now had more of the authority and freedom that he sought to spread his message of the importance of the Orthodox tradition both as a response to racial inequalities within Western Christianity, especially the Anglican Communion, and as the bearer of the apostolic faith. In 1913, he even returned to Jamaica in order to deliver lectures throughout the country, something he had done on at least two previous occasions prior to becoming Orthodox (once in 1901 and again in 1902).215 From the newspaper accounts, it seems that Morgan used the lecture circuit to support himself while he investigated the possibility of establishing an Orthodox Church in Jamaica.216

After spending a little over a year in Jamaica, he returned to America, though an article claimed Morgan intended to return to Jamaica to «start mission work under his Faith.»217 Morgan had, by this time, been active among a group of Syrian Orthodox Christians in Jamaica. Morgan had even informed the Gleaner that he was in contact with «the Syrian Orthodox Bishop of Brooklyn,» which would have been Bishop Raphael (Hawaweeny), who held the post from 1904 until his death in 1915.218 Incidentally, at one point on his Jamaican mission, he was able to rekindle his Russian connection, concelebrating a divine liturgy on board the Russian Warship Rossija, together with the ship's chaplain, with the service «sung in Russian for the benefit... of the Russians and in English for the benefit of the Syrians.»219

When Morgan returned to Philadelphia after lecturing and attempting to establish a more permanent mission in Jamaica, his efforts bore some fruit. In 1916, Morgan penned an open letter that directly demonstrate the extent of his efforts and provides us with an important look into how he saw the Orthodox tradition as responding to the racial concerns of his day. Morgan had chosen to argue against Marcus Garvey.220 Garvey, who was himself from Jamaica, had founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association in 1914 in order to unite all Africans and those of African descent scattered throughout the world. He had arrived in America in March, 1916, in order to go on the lecture circuit and raise money221 Morgan wrote his open letter almost immediately. Allowing himself but a brief introduction, Morgan launched into the central arguments. Thirteen other Jamaican-Americans co-signed Morgan's letter to Garvey.222 Morgan himself signed as the head of the Order of the Cross of Golgotha, making it likely that the other thirteen Jamaicans were also members.

Two of Morgan’s arguments stand out in particular. First, Morgan objected that Garvey «drew a deplorable picture of the prejudice of the Englishman in Jamaica against the blacks, portraying hypocrisy and deceit of his attitude towards blacks, and stated his preference for the prejudice of the American to that of the Englishman.»223 Morgan approached the problem of racial concerns primarily through an ecclesiastical lens. In American church life, Morgan had not found racial harmony, but rather the opportunity to forge and offer a new religious identity to African Americans, one grounded in the Orthodox tradition. Second, Morgan objected to Garvey's rejection of racially mixed marriages. Garvey had pressed for a pan-Africanism with an anti-white tenor, but Morgan did not view race relations in this manner and given his own racially mixed background, Morgan had to have been offended by the comments Garvey made concerning mixed heritage and mixed marriages.

Morgan was as committed to African American concerns as Garvey, but from a specifically religious context. He had placed his hope not in a return to Africa or pan-Africanism, but in Orthodox Christianity, a Christianity that not only ordained him to the priesthood but gave him the charge of reaching out to other African Americans. When he became Orthodox, he forged a new identity and did so with the intention of spreading the Orthodox faith amongst fellow African Americans, going so far as to recommend A. C. V Cartier as a candidate for the Orthodox priesthood. There was no need to unite around Africa, for the answer was theological. The answer was a tradition that could be seen as untainted, as even prior, to the racially segregated Christianity of the West. For as Morgan told his biographer Mather, his initial doubts led him to pursue three years of historical and theological searching, from which he concluded that the «pillar and ground of truth» was the Orthodox Church.224 That was not something American restorationism, with its independently formed churches, could normally bring, but American restorationism had, in fact, led Morgan to believe that a grounding in an ongoing tradition was precisely what was needed.

This would be the last time the public would hear from Morgan. The last year he appeared in the city directory of Philadelphia was 1916.225 The 1921–1922 Negro Year Book contains a paragraph dedicated to Morgan, but it reads identically to the 1912 version and therefore does not necessarily indicate that Morgan was still alive. Morgan cannot be found in the U.S. census for 1920, so if he was still living in 1921–1922, he was most likely in Jamaica. Still, there is no further mention made of him in the Kingston Gleaner, suggesting that Morgan died in 1916–1917.

THE LEGACY OF THE ORTHODOX TRADITION AMONG AFRICAN AMERICANS

Morgan’s immediate and direct efforts to bring the Orthodox tradition as a solution to black Christians in North America yielded little fruit other than baptizing his own family and establishing a small lay fraternity known as the Cross of Golgotha (about which we know nothing other than that it consisted of a handful of Jamaican immigrants such as himself). Despite this, he had trail-blazed a path that was soon to become popular. In 1921, George Alexander McGuire established the African Orthodox Church, designating himself Patriarch Alexander when he was formally elected to lead the new religious body. Moreover, McGuire would establish the African Orthodox Church, through his consecration at the hands of the wandering bishop noted above, Joseph Rene Vilatte.

McGuire had initially been the chaplain for Garvey's Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) before they had a falling out and McGuire pursued his ecclesiological endeavors independent of Garvey. McGuire patterned the services and church structure of the African Orthodox Church after that of the Anglican Church, but with a theological eye toward the historic Orthodox Church. For example, the African Orthodox Church did not include the filioque clause in the Nicene Creed.226 Just as the African Methodist Episcopal Church and the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church adapted the Methodist Church, so the African Orthodox Church adapted Anglicanism and Orthodoxy, creating what was to be a Western Rite Orthodoxy for people of African descent. McGuire sought to establish a church with an episcopal structure that would be headed by those of African descent and the African Orthodox Church even established a presence in Africa. For this work, McGuire consecrated Archbishop Daniel William Alexander. The African Orthodox Church grew quickly, establishing a seminary and a journal, The Negro Churchman. Although the African Orthodox Church had grown significantly during his lifetime, after McGuire's death in 1934, the church was unable to continue this momentum and today, the church exists as a small denomination with a presence in America and South Africa.227

It is McGuire's connection to Marcus Garvey’s UNIA and the early years of the African Orthodox Church that has received the most scholarly attention. What Morgan’s story helps highlight is the extent to which the African Orthodox Church was flanked by the Orthodox Churches themselves, being a factor when the African Orthodox Church began in 1921 and in 1946, when the Kenyan contingency of the African Orthodox Church formally entered the Greek Orthodox Church.

We have already seen that McGuire moved in the same social circles as the first known African American Orthodox priest, Fr. Raphael Morgan. Indeed, when one considers that McGuire was part of a circle that included George F. Bragg and A. C. V. Cartier, both of whom were also interested in Eastern Christian apostolic succession, McGuire proves to be not as unique as is sometimes thought, but rather perhaps just more successful in carrying out the endeavor. Indeed, accounting for this circle of African American members of the Protestant Episcopal Church in America in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries helps avoid the false dichotomy found in the secondary literature that seeks to determine whether the idea of the African Orthodox Church was Garvey’s or McGuire's.228 In reality, the answer is neither. The answer was a small group dynamic, suggested by George F. Bragg and first enacted by Raphael Morgan.229

The trailblazer who established the iconic path was not McGuire, as is commonly thought, but Raphael Morgan. Indeed, Morgan went farther than McGuire in one key respect. For McGuire, Eastern Christianity was merely a means to further the American anti-traditional tradition in a particular, African American restorationism. Thus, Eastern Christianity was merely a means to take from one's preceding tradition and establish a new denomination from that, thus perpetuating a tradition of change. When Morgan looked to Eastern Christianity, he may have initially also had eyes guided by a primitivistic pursuit but soon came to see the Orthodox Church as its own tradition. Morgan had considered Vilatte's church and moved on. McGuire thought another denomination was the answer.

One gets a sense for this even in September of 1921, when George Alexander McGuire was elected to head a group of independent black Episcopal parishes. McGuire took the title patriarch and a new name, Alexander, his middle name, being henceforth called Patriarch Alexander (similarly to how Morgan, in following Orthodox tradition, dropped his surname and went only by Fr. Raphael after his monastic tonsure). At McGuire's convention, there was a contingency from the Russian Orthodox Church, which had a well-established presence in North America by 1921, thanks in large part to the conversions of Carpatho-Rusyn immigrants under Alexis Toth, as discussed in the last chapter, and new waves of immigrants and refugees. McGuire had even initially attempted to bring his African Orthodox Church into the Russian Orthodox Church. Ultimately, he did not do so, likely because he would have been placed under the leadership of non-Africans. McGuire wanted the African Orthodox Church to exist as an autonomous or autocephalous church. One of the representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church was one Fr. Anthony (Robert F. Hill) who, shortly after being given the assignment of attending the convention, affiliated himself with the African Orthodox Church and later established an independent church in Harlem. Given that the African Orthodox Church allowed officiating roles exclusively to those of African descent, it would seem that Hill himself was an African American. Hill had been a clergyman at the Holy Transfiguration chapel, a chapel established by the efforts of Fr. Nathaniel (Ingram N. W.) Irvine and included other converts from the Protestant Episcopal Church.230

Better accounting for the African American circle that looked to the Orthodox tradition (and Raphael Morgan particularly) makes McGuire's own efforts feel less idiosyncratic (though also less original), but it is worth noting that the interest in the Orthodox tradition did not end there. Indeed, the African Orthodox Church itself eventually led thousands of Africans into the Greek Orthodox Church. The establishment of the African Orthodox Church in Africa occurred when Daniel William Alexander was elected bishop of a group of former members of the independent African Church in September 1924 in South Africa.231 Alexander had learned of the African Orthodox Church through Garvey's UNIA journal, Negro World, and within days of becoming the head of a small church, he sent a petition to McGuire on behalf of himself and the four priests and congregations under his supervision.232 McGuire responded warmly, and by October 1924, Alexander's church was functioning as a member of the African Orthodox Church. Alexander viewed the mission of the African Orthodox Church much in the same light as McGuire, omitting the filioque and noting, «the East and the West have met each other in the African Orthodox Church.»233 Alexander pressed to be recognized as a bishop and in 1927, he traveled to Boston, where McGuire, assisted by two of his bishops, consecrated Alexander.234 Alexander made his headquarters in Kimberley, South Africa, and began the task of evangelization.

Believing that within the African Orthodox Church, the East and West intersected, Alexander contacted Metropolitan Isidore, the Greek Orthodox bishop of Johannesburg:

I herewith take this opportunity in writing to you, and to forward to your Grace the following questionnaire which we hope you will deign to answer, that they may be answered at our recent Synod which meets in December next... The African Orthodox Church having been organized particularly to reach the deepest parts of Africa and its people and implanting the true Orthodox Faith in them... that as much as we desire intercommunion we express the hope that the name African Orthodox be not interfered with, and its principles remain intact... that the control of the African Orthodox Church and its affairs shall always remain in the hands of an African Episcopate, except in complicated matters affecting the teaching and Faith of the Church, when the matter shall be referred to the Orthodox Communities for adjustment and advice. That since our people are not used to the Eastern habit of vesting and worshipping, the African Orthodox Church resolves to gradually introduce the Eastern Church Rituals.235

Alexander's attempt to facilitate intercommunion ultimately failed. We do not know how Metropolitan Isidore responded at that time, but the synod was held in December without any response from the patriarchate of Alexandria, something that disappointed Alexander and his synod.236 A year later, in a letter concerning another matter, Metropolitan Isidore noted a defection from the African Orthodox Church that was in progress by stating, «I do not think you forget that your Christians in Uganda in Rhodesia and here applied to us to come in our church and become its members. And our church is oblige [sic] to examine their petitions, and accept them and establish Greek orthodox mission.»237 The African Orthodox Church was about to lose a significant amount of its membership to the Greek Orthodox Church because of the instigation of Reuben Spartas.

Reuben Spartas established the African Orthodox Church in Uganda after a spiritual journey of his own. Born Reuben Sebbanja Ssedimba in a village near Kampala, Uganda, he later took the name Sparta, and then its masculine form, Spartas, due to his athletic prowess and being complimented by his primary school headmaster.238 During his time at King's College in Budo, just outside of Kampala, Spartas reacted against the notion of «branch theory» and instead began «inquiring after the true old Church.»239 Initially, Spartas contacted Archbishop Daniel William Alexander and joined the African Orthodox Church.240 In 1931, Alexander ordained Spartas to the priesthood and established the African Orthodox Church in Kenya.241 It was not long, however, before Spartas and others looked to the Orthodox Church in Alexandria in spite of Alexander's desire to see intercommunion between the African Orthodox Church and the Orthodox Church of Alexandria.242 Spartas had questioned the legitimacy of Alexander's episcopal succession.243 Eventually, the African Orthodox Church of Kenya and many in Uganda would join the Orthodox Church through the patriarchate at Alexandria, though Spartas himself upheld a strong Ugandan nationalism and would later leave.244 The Orthodox Church in Kenya grew rapidly until the 1950s, when it suffered through severe persecution at the hands of the British in Kenya in the 1950s.245 Despite such struggles, the Orthodox Church of the Patriarch of Alexandria has rebuilt itself in Kenya and has approximately 280,000 members currently in Africa.246 The Greek Orthodox Church exists in Africa largely because of the African Orthodox Church and the undertakings of native Africans themselves.

CONCLUSION

Raphael Morgan’s life and work provide us insight into just how multivalent the Orthodox tradition could become within the American context. Not only could the Orthodox tradition be the «true» tradition of one's ancestors, as in the case with the Carpatho-Rusyn converts beginning at the turn of the twentieth century, but so could the Orthodox tradition offer a tradition unencumbered by the heinous racial segregation of Western Christianity, as found in North America. Indeed, the Orthodox tradition, for Morgan, was prior to that racially segregated tradition, for Orthodoxy offered the «pillar and ground of truth.» The American freedom for forging a religious identity spurred Morgan not to remain content to participate within the American anti-traditional tradition, as represented by Vilatte, nor to do so by creating his own church, but to turn to an established tradition completely outside of that model. Morgan turned to a tradition that could stand in critique of that very anti-traditional tradition model itself, for that model (at least to Morgan) remained largely bound to a highly segregated racist vision. Theologically, as well, the anti-traditional tradition did not seem to satisfy Morgan. Morgan utilized the American restorationist tradition to look to a church that was still in existence but with the ability to claim apostolic heritage.

His would not be the last attempt to bring the Orthodox tradition to African Americans, however. In the next chapter, we turn to a contemporary, Moses Berry, and his efforts to do just that through the Brotherhood of St. Moses the Black. As we shall see, Berry's efforts derive from a different context, answering different questions, but restorationism has a role to play in his conversion as well.

* * *

166

The Repose of Mary, the Mother of God (specifically, Jesus, the Son of God).

167

Gavin White, «Patriarch McGuire and the Episcopal Church, »Historical Magazine of the Protestant Episcopal Church 38:2 (1969), 126. Exactly why this seems «improbable» is hard to say, leaving the reader to wonder which aspect(s) made the story all the more improbable.

168

«The First African American Orthodox Priest,» Epiphany 15:4 (1996), 88.

169

Ibid. The biography in Epiphany is quite truncated. Better biographies may be found in Dellas Oliver Herbel, «Reverend Raphael Morgan,» in African American National Biography (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008) and Matthew Namee, «Father Raphael Morgan: The First Orthodox Priest of African American Decent in America,» St. Vladimir's Theological Quarterly (2009), 447–459.

170

Two early biographies provide a basic outline. See Frank Lincoln Mather, ed., Who's Who of the Colored Race: A General Biographical Dictionary of Men and Women of African Descent, vol. 1, 1915 (1915; rpr., Detroit: Gale Research, 1976), 226–227and Monroe N. Work, ed., Negro Year Book: an Annual Encyclopedia of the Negro, 1921–1922 (Tuskegee, AL: Negro Year Book Publishing, 1922), 213. Mather’s phraseology leads me to the conclusion that he had correspondence of some sort with Morgan, since he gives explanations from Morgan himself rather than merely describing what he knew from other sources.

171

Presently, there is no way of determining Morgan’s exact year of birth. 1869 is used as an estimate. This was ascertained by an examination of ship lists, which included dates of births, ages, racial information, and often the names of close relatives for passengers. The passenger list from the S.S. Joseph J. Cuneo, which sailed from Port Antonio, Jamaica to Philadelphia, arriving on October 28, 1914, indicates a date of 1869. The 1911 ship, S.S. Patris, which departed Piraeus, Greece and arrived in New York City on November 16, 1911, indicates 1871. A special thanks to Matthew Namee for providing the ship lists from his personal database. Namee acquired these lists from Ancestry.com.

172

Mather, 226.

173

See Edward B. Reuter, The Mulatto in the United States (Boston: R.G. Badger, 1918), 183–184, where he writes, «Father Raphard [sic] of Philadelphia, the one Negro Priest in the Greek Catholic Church, is a dark man, but not a full-blooded Negro.» See also Richard Newman, Words Like Freedom: Essays African-American Culture and History (West Cornwall, CT: Locust Hill Press, 1996), 110.

174

Ibid. Work simply notes that Morgan traveled to Liberia, omitting any reference to Ferguson.

175

Both Work and Mather make the claim that Morgan studied at these institutions. Katharine Higgon, an archivist assistant at King’s College sent an email to me on January 25, 2006, in which she noted that despite extensive investigation on her part, she was unable to locate any mention of one Robert Josias Morgan as a student in any department. Gavin White had received a similar reply during his research for his 1969 article on George Alexander McGuire. See White, 126. I have not yet searched any archival holdings for St. Aidan’s Theological College, Birkenhead.

176

For Morgan’s ordination date, see George F. Bragg, History of the Afro-American Group of the Episcopal Church (1922; repr. New York: Johnson Reprint Corporation, 1968), 273.

177

Mather, 226. That he was an honorary curate means that there must have been a priest who had oversight over his actions in the parish. A curate was often a deacon or priest-in-training.

178

White, 126. He is listed as being at Hoffman Hall in Nashville, Tennessee in Frederick Ebenezer John Lloyd, The American Church Clergy and Parish Directory (Uniontown, PA: Frederick E.J. Lloyd, 1905), 200. During the first four months of 1901, he served as rector of St. Philips Episcopal Church in Richmond, Virginia. This information had been available on the parish website at http://stphilips.thediocese.net. Unfortunately, the link is no longer active. The current history link is quite truncated: http://www.stphilipsrva.org/About_Us/History_of_St_Philip_s/ (accessed November 29, 2012).

179

See White, 127, where he noted, «There can be no doubt that McGuire knew all about Morgan and it is very probable that he knew him personally. It is just possible that it was Morgan who first introduced McGuire to the Episcopal Church in Wilmington; it was almost certainly Morgan who introduced McGuire to the idea of Eastern episcopacy.»

180

White, 111 and 126.

181

A list of the rectors of St. Thomas Episcopal Church may be found at http://www.accst.org/about_us/history/rectors.html.

182

See «The McGuire Lesson,» The Living Church (June 25, 1921), 250. In at least one other instance, Bragg specifically calls himself a friend of McGuire. See Church Advocate 17:5 (1908), 1.

183

Mather, 226. The phrase, «pillar and ground of truth» is a reference to 1 Timothy 3:15, where St. Paul claimed the household of God, which is the Church, is the pillar and ground of truth.

184

Gavin White, 126, citing Church Advocate, March, 1898.Whites essay was reprinted in Randall K. Burkett and Richard Newman, eds., Black Apostles: Afro-American Clergy Confront the Twentieth Century (Boston: G.K. Hall, 1978).

185

Peter F. Anson, Bishops at Large (London: Faber and Faber,1964), 91.

186

Ibid., 93.

187

Ibid., 96.

188

Ibid., 108. Terry-Thompson did include some photocopies of official correspondence in the opening pages of his book.

189

Ibid., 127.

190

«Christmas is Celebrated by the Greek Christians,» Philadelphia Inquirer, January 8, 1906. It should be noted that it was not until 1915 that Vilatte formally established what he called the «American Catholic Church» (Anson, 124). Although that maybe the case technically, the manner in which Vilatte had already been operating and the fact that Morgan was using the name publicly, suggests that Vilatte had already begun calling his church by that name as early as 1906.

191

Amerikanskiĭ Pravoslavnyĭ Viestnik October and November Supplement (1904), 380–382.

192

Ibid., 380.

193

See Bryn Geffert, Eastern Orthodox and Anglicans (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2010). Morgan did not specifically mention any pre-trip awareness but one would think he must have been at least generally informed.

194

Allison Blakely, «The Negro in Imperial Russia: A Preliminary Sketch,» journal of Negro History 61:4 (1976), 353.

195

Ibid., 354. The most famous example may be General Ivan Hannibal, who became a general under Peter the Great after being brought from Africa in 1707.

196

Amerikanskiĭ Pravoslavnyĭ Viestnik, October and November Supplement (1904), 381–382.

197

Ibid., 382.

198

Ibid., 381.

199

Ibid.

200

Ibid., 382.

201

Ibid.

202

Paul G. Manolis, Raphael (Robert) Morgan the First Black Orthodox Priest in America (Athens, NP: 1981), 6.

203

Ibid. The documents themselves may be found in Manolis,14–21. A more summarized version, without the documents may be found in a Greek article by Bishop Makarios of Rirogtas. See Bishop Makarios of Rirogtas, «O protos mauros orthodoxos iereas: Raphala Robertos Morgkan.» Orthodoxi Marturia 50 (1996), 72–75.

204

Ibid., 7, 14–15. In the Orthodox Church, a man desiring to be a priest must be ordained a deacon first. The reader is reminded that although it is the practice of the Russian Orthodox Church to chrismate converts who had already received a Trinitarian baptism, the Greek Orthodox Church rebaptized such converts, a practice started in response to Roman Catholic rebaptism of Orthodox Christians. The Roman Catholic Church has since ceased this practice. To this day, Constantinople and the Greek Orthodox Church officially sanction rebaptism, but in America, the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese regularly extends leniency, or economia. In this regard, the Greek Orthodox Church in America follows the Slavic practice of recognizing Trinitarian baptisms, but does so while trying to keep to the letter of the law for Constantinople. During Morgan’s time, such leniency, or expediency, was not yet the standard practice in America. To enter the Greek Orthodox Church, a Western Christian had to accept an Orthodox baptism in place of any Western baptism given previously, even if that baptism had been Trinitarian. See John Erickson, «On the Cusp of Modernity: The Canonical Hermeneutic of St Nikodemos the Haghiorite (1748–1809),» St Vladimir's Theological Quarterly 42:1 (1998), 45–66 and Timothy (Kallistos) Ware, Eustratios Argenti: A Study of the Greek Church under Turkish Rule (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1964), 65–107.

205

Mather, 226.

206

Manolis, 8–9. It should be noted that being granted the right to hear confessions was an honor and is not normally granted to a priest in the Greek tradition until some time has passed following his ordination. By contrast, in the Slavic tradition, a priest may hear confession immediately upon ordination.

207

Ibid. The antimension, which means, «instead of table,» is a cloth that must reside on the altar, or table being used as an altar, during an Orthodox Divine Liturgy. It contains depictions of the four evangelists in the corners and the laying of Christ in the tomb. A relic from a saint is sewn into the cloth and the cloth is signed by the bishop, providing episcopal approval for the priest and community in question to serve the Eucharistic liturgy.

208

Vilatte himself had, in fact, argued in an autobiography on behalf of the Old Catholic Church on the basis that Protestants had not only removed the «Roman errors, but also a part of the primitive deposit of faith,» qtd. in Anson, 92.

209

Ibid., 9.

210

Ibid., 10–11. Concerning Cartier, Bragg lists the initials as «A. V. C.» See History of the Afro-American Group, 273. However, the records in Constantinople (available in Manolis) and the archives of the Episcopal Church both list his initials as «A. C. V.» and so that is what I have used here. As for Cartier himself, he had been ordained a deacon and then priest in 1895and eventually died a Protestant Episcopal priest in South Carolina in 1917. See Bragg, History of the Afro-American Group,273, for the dates of his ordination (under Bishop Quintard). Concerning A. C. V. Cartier’s later career, I am reliant upon correspondence with Glen Colliver, archivist for the Protestant Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania.

211

See «Deacon Suspended,» Gleaner, June 4, 1908.

212

Charlotte Selina Morgan against Robert Josiah Morgan is case number 72 of the March Term of 1909 from the Court of Common Pleas of Delaware County, Pennsylvania. The presiding judge was Andrew J. Dalton. According to the divorce records, the marriage was a difficult one. From the testimonies of Charlotte and a witness, it seems almost certain that Fr. Raphael Morgan was abusive, though it is possible that Charlotte was also an unstable person, making a bad situation even worse. Their marriage consisted of years of separations and reunions. The children were split between them, with their son remaining with her and the daughter remaining with him. See also «30 Years Later,» Chester Times, March 21, 1939.

213

Ship list from S.S. Patris, Sailing from Piraeus to Ellis Island, October 29, 1911. Matthew Namee, who kindly provided me with the ship lists he obtained through an Ancestry.com search, first noted this in his biography of Morgan. See Namee, 453.

214

Mather, 226.

215

For references to a lecture in 1901 and again in 1902, see, «West Africa,» Gleaner, October 9, 1901 and «Port Maria, A Lecture,» Gleaner, October 7, 1902. The 1911 trip is evidenced by his name in the passenger list for the S.S. Patris, which sailed from Athens to Ellis Island. This trip was likely for the purposes of some official visit, since the archbishop of Athens and the synod of Greece would have been overseeing the Greek Orthodox parishes in America at this time.

216

For some references to his speaking engagements and lectures, see the following: «Shipping News,» Gleaner, July 16, 1913;«Priest is now on Visit to His Native Land,» Gleaner, July 22,1913; «Some Interesting Church Notes and Services,» Gleaner, August 9, 1913; «Father Raphael,» Gleaner, August 15, 1913;»Father Raphael,» Gleaner, August 22, 1913; «Father Raphael,» Gleaner, August 28, 1913; «Current Items,» Gleaner, September 10, 1913; «General Notes,» Gleaner, September 12, 1913;"Current Items,» Gleaner, October 24, 1913; «Happenings in the Parishes,» Gleaner, October 30, 1913; «A Lecture Given,» Gleaner, July 15, 1914. Morgan had already attracted some minor attention in Jamaica, as evidenced by a 1908 article. See «Deacon Suspended,» Gleaner, June 4, 1908.

217

«Late News from Port Antonio,» Gleaner, November 2, 1914.

218

Ibid. Although Bishop Raphael was a bishop in the Russian Orthodox diocese of the Aleutian Islands and North America, archivist Alex Liberovsky informed me that the archives in Syosset contain no record of this correspondence. It is possible that it exists somewhere in the archives of the Antiochian Archdiocese in Pennsylvania, but presently their archives are in need of further organization.

219

"Mass on Warship,» Gleaner, December 27, 1913.

220

See «Mr. Marcus Garvey in U.S.,» Gleaner, October 4,1916 and «Letter Denouncing Marcus Garvey,» in Robert A. Hill, ed., The Marcus Garvey and Universal Negro Improvement Association Papers, vol. 1, 1826-August 1919 (Berkeley, Los Angeles, and London: University of California Press, 1983), 106–107.Robert A. Hill cites the Jamaican Times, October 7, 1916.

221

The literature on Garvey is extensive. For a starting point, the following may prove helpful: Robert A Hill, ed., The Marcus Garvey and Universal Negro Improvement Association Papers, vol. I-VII, IX. (Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press, 1983–1995); Randall K. Burkett, Garveyism as a Religious Movement: The Institutionalization of a Black Civil Religion (Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press, 1978); Edmund David Cronon, Black Moses: The Story of Marcus Garvey (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press,1955).

222

Of the 13, I have only been able to verify the existence of a few: Henry J. Booth, who arrived in 1911 from Kingston, Aldred Campbell, who arrived from Jamaica in 1906, Hubert Barclay, who arrived in 1915 from Clarendon, Phillip Hemmings, who is listed in the 1920 census, and S.C. Box, who arrived to the United States by way of England. There is no reason to doubt the existence of the others. It seems that the signers were not people of high social stature, which would explain the difficulty in researching them. Philip Hemmings would later join Garvey's movement. One signer, H.S. Boulin, later joined Garvey s movement and worked covertly as a federal agent. See Robert A. Hill, The Marcus Garvey and Universal Negro Improvement Association Papers, vol. XI, The Caribbean Diaspora (Durham, NC: Duke University Press,2011), 730. There was no mention of Morgan in Boulin’s file in the FBI archives, since they cover a later period of Boulin’s life.

223

«Mr. Marcus Garvey in U.S.,» Gleaner, October 4, 1916.

224

Mather, 226.

225

Boyd's Philadelphia City Directory (Philadelphia: C.E. Howe, 1916), 1209. I am indebted to Fr. Anastasius Bandy, the late archivist and historian for Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church in Philadelphia, for this observation. Morgan was also listed in the directories for 1907, 1909, and 1910. It is possible he died in Philadelphia, though responses from both Mount Lawn Cemetery and Joy Hill Cemetery Company revealed no listing for Morgan. Another logical (and perhaps more likely) burial place, Eden Cemetery, has not yet responded to several attempts at correspondence. It is possible that Morgan did return to Jamaica in 1916 in order to serve the local Syrian/Lebanese population.

226

The phrase filioque means «and the Son» and referred to the origin of the Holy Spirit. The phrase was originally used to combat Arianism in Spain in the sixth century but did not become a church-wide concern until it was added to many Western recitations of the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed in the ninth century and received papal blessing in the eleventh. The Eastern Churches disputed both the theology as well as the lack of ecumenical concensus for the addition and to this day, they do not include it.

227

See http://netministries.org/frames.asp?ch=ch26904&st=NY&name=African%20Orthodox%20Church%20Inc.&city=New%20York%20City (accessed November 29, 2012).

228

Byron Rushing strongly argued against the idea that the African Orthodox Church had its origins in Garvey’s UNIA. See Byron Rushing, «A Note On the Origin of the African Orthodox Church,» The Journal of Negro History 57:1 (1972), 37–39. Gavin White and Warren C. Platt, while acknowledging some influence from Garvey, also emphasized McGuire's independence. See White, 120; Platt, 477. Juan Williams has recently argued the reverse, placing the impetus on McGuire's encounter with the UNIA. Juan Williams, This Far by Faith: Stories from the African American Religious Experience (New York: Harper Collins, 2003), 180–181.

229

See Richard Newman, Words Like Freedom: Essays African-American Culture and History (West Cornwall, CT: Locust Hill Press, 1996), 110. Newman stated that Morgan and McGuire did, in fact, know each other, but I have been unable to do any more than locate them within the same social circle. He may have had access to records which I have not yet obtained or are no longer extant. See Newman, 132 n.15.

230

Irvine himself had been a convert. See Dellas Oliver Herbel,"Turning to Tradition: Intra-Christian Converts and the Making of an American Orthodox Church» (doctoral dissertation, Saint Louis University, 2009), 162–196.

231

Richard Newman, «Archbishop Daniel William Alexander and the African Orthodox Church,» The International Journal of African Historical Studies 16:4 (1983), 617.

232

Ibid., 619.

233

Qtd in. Newman, 620.

234

Newman, 624.

235

Archbishop Daniel William Alexander to Metropolitan Isidore, October 16,1934, African Orthodox Church Records, RG 005, Archives and Manuscripts Department, Pitts Theology Library, Emory University.

236

Ibid.

237

Metropolitan Isidore to Archbishop Daniel William Alexander, September 17, 1935, African Orthodox Church Records, RG 005, Archives and Manuscripts Dept., Pitts Theology Library, Emory University.

238

F.B. Welbourn, East African Rebels, A Study of Some Independent Churches (London: SCM Press, 1961).

239

Spartas, qtd. in Welbourn, 77.

240

Newman, 622. See also Theodore Natsoulas, «Patriarch McGuire and the Spread of the African Orthodox Church to Africa,» Journal of Religion in Africa 12 (1982), 100.

241

Natsoulas, 100.

242

Newman, «Archbishop Daniel William Alexander,» 625.

243

Ibid.

244

For information on their formal conversion in 1946, as well as persecution in the 1950s and an overview of Orthodox mission work in Africa during the twentieth century, see Stephen Hayes, «Orthodox Mission in tropical Africa,» Missionalia 24:3 (1996), 383–398. Originally available at http://hayesfam.bravehost.com/ORTHMISS.HTM [a currently broken link], his essay may now be found at http://www.orthodoxytz.com/OrthodoxMission.asp (accessed November 29, 2012). Although Orthodoxy expanded in Africa due to the initiative of Africans themselves, Hayes also discussed the efforts of Greek missionary-priest Fr. Nicodemus Sarikas. For a brief discussion of Spartas leaving the Orthodox Church, see Allan H. Anderson, African Reformation: African Initiated Christianity in the 20th Century (Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, 2001), 146.

245

Ibid.

246

John Binns, An Introduction to the Christian Orthodox Churches (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002), 14.


Источник: Oxford University Press 2014

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