Russo-Episcopal

Episcopalian bishops were asked to pay for round-trip tickets to Detroit, for some 250 priests of the Russian Orthodox Church in America. In Detroit, April 2-5, these priests convened in order to divorce their church from the Holy Synod in Moscow, and to unite it, or semi-unite it, to the Protestant Episcopal Church.

The Russian (or Eastern) Orthodox Church has about 3,000,000 members in the U. S. and church property to the value of $3,000,000. Its cathedral is a smallish minaretted building on 97th street, just off Fifth Avenue, Manhattan. In pre-Bolshevik days, it was subsidized from Moscow. Now it is penniless.

The question whether these 250 priests have the right to secede from Russia and lead their flocks into Episcopalian pastures is one which is likely to be decided by practice rather than theory. The theory of the business is further complicated by the fact that Metropolitan Platon has been repudiated by the Holy Synod, and one, Rev. John Kedrovsky appointed in his stead. But Platon is still in possession of both his house and his cathedral, while Kedrovsky is a plaintiff before courts of law.

George Zabriskie, prominent Episcopalian layman of New York, has acted as legal adviser of Platon's church, and has advocated secession from Moscow. Bishop Manning is sympathetic. It is believed that if the Russian church is left to itself, it will wither and die. But if it has Episcopalian support it will flourish, like the green bay, and bring forth fruits of goodness and true Americanism.