The Episcopal Church of America and her influence on negotiating process between the North American Metropolitanate and the Moscow Patriarchy in 1945-1947

Abstract

The article is devoted to the research of contacts of the Episcopal church of America with the North American’s metropolitanate and Its influence on the negotiating process about the reconciliation with the Moscow Patriarchy in 1945.1947. One of the results of this influence was the removal of Metropolitan Benjamin (Fedchenkov) from the negotiations, and subsequently, from the management of the Exarchate of the Moscow Patriarchate in America. The author investigates the documents from the State archive of the Russian Federation (GARF), the fund of the Council of the Russian Orthodox Church’s affairs at the Peoples Commissars’ Council of the USSR, reports of metropolitan Benjamin (Fedchenkov), and also the periodicals in Russian in the USA.

Keywords

• the American Metropolia
• the North American exarchate of Moscow Patriarchate
• Episcopal Church of America
• the Russian Orthodox Church Aboard
• Orthodox Church in America