Atmosphere of Freedom

The leaders of North America's 350,000 Russian Orthodox Church members reached a firm and weighty decision: they would not reunite with the mother church in Russia. Reason: the mother church would not back down on its demand for a pledge of loyalty to the Soviet Government.

Even after the Bolshevik Revolution the North American church* did not deny the general principle of its subordination to the patriarchate of Moscow, but from then on the church actually practiced independence--after almost 125 years of filial allegiance to the Russian Synod.

After U.S. recognition of Russia (1933), the Russian Synod demanded a pledge of loyalty to the Soviets, promptly suspended the North American church when it was refused. Recently Russia's new primate, Patriarch Alexei, had a new try. But in his ukase was a familiar clause: the North American church must abstain "from political activities directed against the U.S.S.R."

Last week Moscow's Patriarch had his answer. It came from San Francisco's Metropolitan Theophilus and his clergy, who had carefully studied the new terms: "It would be inconsistent with the duties and obligations of loyal American and Canadian citizens, and contrary to the traditional atmosphere of freedom of speech and political action in these countries, for the Russian Church in America to give the pledge of loyalty to a foreign power. . . ."

*Founded (1794) by eight missionary priests from St. Petersburg, on Kodiak Island off Alaska.

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