Presiding Bishop Visits Russian Orthodox Patriarch
Diocesan Press Service. June 2, 1972 [72074]
NEW YORK, N.Y. (DPS) -- The Rt. Rev. John E. Hines, Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, embarked yesterday on a nine-day visit to the Soviet Union.
Bishop Hines, leader of the Episcopal Church's 3.5 million members, will bring greetings to the Russian Orthodox Church and hold conversations with His Holiness Pimen, Patriarch of Moscow and of All Russia, whose enthronement took place on July 1, 1971. Patriarch Pimen succeeded Patriarch Alexei, who in 1956 received the Episcopal Church's Presiding Bishop Henry Knox Sherrill, and in 1962 the late Bishop Lauriston L. Scaife of the Diocese of Western New York.
In August, 1967, Bishop Hines had a similar visit with the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople of the Greek Orthodox Church.
The Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev. Michael Ramsey, and Patriarch Alexei had formal visits with one another.
The Russian Orthodox Church has between 30 and 40 million communicants out of a population of 241 million. However, many feel that a greater number are loyal to the ancestral faith.
Bishop Hines will discuss church life in the United States and Russia with the Patriarch. He is interested in learning of the special tasks and objectives of the Russian Orthodox Church and in sharing some of the objectives and problems of the Episcopal Church.
The informal talks will seek to discover the most fruitful areas of cooperation between the two Churches for strengthening Christian unity. The two Church leaders will consider how their Churches, both of which are members of the World Council of Churches, can promote the preservation of the human rights of individuals, justice and harmony among nations.
The Episcopal Church has been engaged in discussions with the Orthodox Churches through the Orthodox-Anglican Consultation in the United States and has four members on the Anglican delegation to the International Joint Theological Dialogue with the Orthodox. The Episcopal Church has not engaged in as much discussion with the Russian Orthodox Church as with some of the other Orthodox bodies. Bishop Hines felt that it was worthwhile for the heads of these two communions to discuss informally some of the issues involved in cooperation between them.
While in Moscow, Bishop Hines will preach to the congregation of American Protestants which is served by the Rev. Raymond Oppenheim, the first Episcopal priest to serve as chaplain to Americans in Moscow.
In 1962 the Episcopal Church joined with four other Churches -- United Presbyterian, Lutheran in America, American Baptist, and United Methodist -- in providing a resident chaplain for ministry to the Anglican and Protestant Americans in Moscow. Each of the five churches, in turn, appoints and pays for the chaplain for a three-year period. Father Oppenheim began his term in February, 1972.
Bishop Hines will also visit Leningrad where a ministry to the English-speaking community has been begun by Father Oppenheim. He will lecture at two Russian Orthodox seminaries, in Moscow and Leningrad.
Bishop Hines' journey, following immediately after President Nixon's trip to the Soviet Union, was arranged prior to the announcement of the date of the President's trip.
Bishop Hines was accompanied on his trip by Dr. Peter Day, Ecumenical Officer of the Episcopal Church, Mrs. Vojislav Tubic, who is Dr. Day's daughter, Dr. Paul B. Anderson, Consultant on Orthodox Relations, and Mrs. Anderson.