The history of the Church
has witnessed the emergence of remarkable personalities at regular
intervals. Patriarch TIKHON was one
such individual. Earlier, the Church has celebrated such luminaries as
Saint John Chrysostom, Saint Gregory of Nyssa and even Origen and Clement
of Alexandria. Some of these men are universally loved. Others are loved
by some and hated by others. What cannot be denied is that such men are
often controversial. What is remarkable is that the end of the twentieth
century our Lord gave the Church two such men: Metropolitan DENIS and Metropolitan SYMEON.
Metropolitan SYMEON (Ioannovskij)
was born Steven Mark Holdridge in Roswell , New Mexico , on 6 October 1953. He
attended Phillips
University
. He
undergraduate studies were in Religion, Religious Education and Church
Music.
Starting his sophomore year, he was catechized in the Greek
Orthodox faith
(taking the Christian name, Stephanos), by
Archimandrite Paul, an hieromonk from the island of Tinos, Greece, an exchange professor
at Phillips. He received orders, including the Sacred Presbytery, from
Patriarch +MARKOS's Auxiliary Bishop
+DAVID in 1975 on October
8th.
After Christmas of 1976, Stephanos returned to his home town
of Roswell, New Mexico to assist with the care of his terminally ill
father. There, he established an English speaking mission dedicated to the
Holy Apostles, he also established the Pan-American Institute of Apostolic
Christianity, to train men for the service of the Church. The course of
study was designed so that this could be accomplished primarily with
distance learning, with quarterly and yearly seminars. This project proved
to be fortuitous, for it established a clear communication channel with
soon-to-be Archbishop DENIS Garrison,
primate of the Holy Eastern Orthodox Catholic Church. He attended the June
Synod meeting of that Church, as an observer and guest in 1987.
In 1983, having been recommended by
Archimandrite Paul of Tinos, Greece, Priest Stephen Holdridge of Roswell, NM
was consecrated by Patriarch +MARKOS, Patriarch +DIODOROS, and
Archbishop +NATALINO. All of the negotiations and services were
carried out in Modern Greek, a language that Priest Stephanos+ only understood rudimentarily and were
sometimes translated for him.
Priest
Stephanos understood that he was to be the Exarch in the Western
Hemisphere for the exiliar
Patriarchate of Alexandria, and eventually, become the exiliar Patriarch.
A few words would be appropriate at this point to describe
the exiliar Patriarchate of Alexandria. Priest
Stephanos was told (and has found record of in
books concerning both the Greek Patriarchate of Alexandria and the
Council of Chalcedon) that after the Council, the Church of Alexandria
split into three factions, those loyal to Constantinople (without whose
blessing, today, a Patriarch of Alexandria, although supposed to be
Auto-cepahic, cannot be enthroned), those
rejecting the Council of Chalcedon on theological terms (which became
the Coptic Church) and the exiliar
Patriarchate, under M
ARKOS II, which rejected the oversight of the
Greek Church, and so was called (non-Melchite,
not following the king) and whose Sobor
Church, Monastery and Seminary were located in the populous Heptastadium neighborhood of Alexandria.
Again
according to what Stephen had been told, after many persecutions by the
Moslems, the Church relocated to the island of Tinos, in Greece,
in the twelfth century. Tinos from the
twelfth century until the 1980’s was the home to three Christian groups,
the Greek Orthodox, the non-Melchite
Alexandrians, and the Roman Catholics (who had settled there after the
crusades). This is the reason for the 400 Churches and monasteries one
island.
The
purpose for Stephen’s consecration was reportedly two-fold. First,
MARKOS, the current Patriarch, was under
increasing pressure, because of the growth of the old calendrist movement, of which he was incorrectly
seen as a part, to come under the Greek Orthodox Church and to resign
his episcopacy and retire to a monastery on the Mt. Athos . While he was ready to capitulate, he wanted
to choose a successor and have him reside safely in the ‘New World’, where there was freedom of religion.
Second, there were many non-Melchite faithful
among the Greek immigrants in the U.S. and
he deemed it appropriate to provide them with clergy and a
bishop.
So it was,
according to what priest Stephen was told by the people involved in his
ordination and consecration, that Archimandrite Paul had recommended
Stephen to become exarch in America and eventual
successor to Patriarch MARKOS. (Because of this, priest and then Bishop
STEPHANOS used the Liturgy of Saint Mark until
his enthronement as Archbishop of Denver in the Holy Eastern Orthodox
Catholic and Apostolic
Church in North America).
Participants in Bishop S
TEPHANOS' ordination and consecration
became increasingly inaccessible and what little documentation had once
existed [heretofore stored on Mount Athos, at the
Skete of St. Andrew (a dependency of the monastery of
Vatopedi) where the hierarch that Bishop S
TEPHANOS knew as Patriarch M
ARKOS was living as a Monk] became
inaccessible.
For whatever
reason, written documentation of this ordination to Bishop was never forthcoming, therefore Metropolitan SYMEON sought conditional re-ordination by
and membership in the Synod of the Holy Eastern Orthodox Catholic
and
Apostolic Church
, under Metropolitan DENIS. At that juncture, Bishop
S
TEPHANOS was offered Episcopal
protection by Archbishop D
ENIS, so
that written documentation would be available to his clergy (so as to
prove the validity of their orders and sacraments).
(Metropolitan SYMEON did not seek this re-ordination because he
had any doubts about the legitimacy of his initial sacraments and the
charisms imparted thereby. Rather, Metropolitan
SYMEON was concerned about the peace of mind of
the clergy that he had ordained, or would ordain in the future, and the
Orthodox Christians that would receive sacraments from these priests, as
well as those who received sacraments from Metropolitan SYMEON).
This consecration has been denied by the
US
representative of +NATALINO, although +NATALINO himself never directly denied being
involved. Priest Stephanos later accurately
identified +NATALINO and +DIODOROS from separate photo 'line-ups' administered
by impartial authorities (Metropolitan
DENIS (Garrison) having administered a
photo 'line-up' for Metropolitan STEPHANOS to identify +DIODOROS at the time that the
controversy began). In later
years, Metropolitan SYMEON has come to believe that the bishops
involved were who they claimed to be, however, their purpose was never
given. It is surmised that they were attempting to stabilize Old Calendarist, conservative Orthodoxy in the U.S.A.
+DIODOROS spent much time and effort trying to assist
Old Calendrists.
These events culminated at a meeting of the Holy
Synod of the Bishops of the Church, the weekend of June 2, 3, 4 & 5th,
1988. Metropolitan S
TEPHANOS (now
re-named Metropolitan S
ERAPHIM) was
conditionally consecrationed by Archbishop P
AUL (Dolan) (with the other bishops of the
synod assisting) and returned from that synod not only with documentation,
but having been enthroned as the first ever Orthodox Archbishop of
Denver, Colorado (and the only Russian
Archbishop to ever have an actual see in the city). The synod also made
him
Exarch of the Alexandrian church (to assist
the other clergy who were out of contact with Patriarch M
ARKOS) and Eparch of Central America. At
the same synod, Metropolitan S
TEPHANOS took the vows of the small schema,
being given the name: Seraphim (to honor Seraphim of
Sarov) by Archbishop D
ENIS, the primate of the Church.
The following year: the bishops of the same synod elected
Metropolitan S
ERAPHIM Primate X of
the HEOCACNA (which had originally been chartered in 1927 by the bishops
of the Russian Orthodox Church in
America at the prompting of Patriarch Saint
Tikhon of
Moscow). He was enthroned as Patriarch of
North America and Primate X of the Holy Eastern Orthodox Catholic and
Apostolic Church in North America at a special synod in
1989 at
Columbia,
South Carolina, attended by
all of the bishops and all of the other clergy of the Church.
In
1988, Bishop S
ERAPHIM and
Proto-Deacon James founded a small Russian
skete
(monastery) in
Denver. Receiving considerable resistance
among the ethnic Catholic population they were endeavoring to serve, they
moved to Carpenter
Wyoming to found the Monastery of St
Joseph the Betrothed. Not, however, before both were assaulted. Deacon
James (Metropolitan
SYMEON's monastic
kellinic) finally reposed on 14 December 1994, from
the effects of these early attacks.
The monastery in Carpenter was
moved in 1992 to Shoshoni Wyoming. Then, in 1993, they again moved to
escape persecution, this time a return to central Denver, Colorado. They
felt directed to dedicate the
Denver skete to
Saint John
(
Maximovich) of
Shanghai and
San Francisco, the Wonderworker, in whose
glorification Metropolitan S
ERAPHIM
had participated in June of 1994.
In 1994, Metropolitan S
ERAPHIM had resigned the primacy of the
church, in favor of Metropolitan VLADIMIR (one of the bishops that had
participated in his consecration and enthronement) and dear and loyal
friend), to live a life of reclusion at the Ukrainian monastery in
Houston, Texas. In 1995, following the repose of Deacon James,
Metropolitan V
LADIMIR, the Primate of
the HEOCACNA, relocated to
Denver, Colorado to assist with the foundation
of the Monastery of Saint John the Wonderworker and assist in the care of
his friend and mentor, Metropolitan S
ERAPHIM. It was at this time that
Metropolitan S
ERAPHIM met another
life-long friend,
rasofor monk Nestor, now of
the
Skete of Saint Mary Magdalene in
Missouri.
Throughout the 1990's,
as his health improved, Metropolitan S
YMEON became increasingly active in the
care of persons affected by the HIV epidemic. He served as chaplain of an
AIDS hospice, as chaplain for HIV patients at
Denver General
Hospital and on the
Mayor
Welington Webb’s committee on HIV/AIDS
services (both as a member and on the executive committee). He chaired the
committee that wrote the three-year plan for HIV services for the City and
County of
Denver.
In
1996, due to his poor health, caused by the earlier incidents, he was made
a Great Schema (
megaloschemos) monk by
Metropolitan V
LADIMIR, being given,
as is traditional, another name, this time honoring St.
Symeon, the God-receiver. Later in 1996, following the
resignation of Metropolitan Vladimir from both the monastery and the
Church, Metropolitan Schema-Archbishop S
YMEON, as the last bishop of the Church,
resumed
primatial authority and dignity, upon
the unanimous request of the clergy and parishes. In 1998, he was joined
in his monastic labors and hierarchical duties by Bishop M
ACARIUS (titular see of
Auraria). Together, they re-chartered the Church as
the Russian Orthodox Church in
America, to more correctly
reflect her history and significance.
In the late 1990?s and early
in this century, Metropolitan S
YMEON
worked with Holy Trinity Orthodox Church in western
Denver. Holy
Trinity’s rector was Bishop I
OAN,
both one of the Metropolitan’s long-term friends and one of the three men
that has had the Metropolitan assist in their consecration to the sacred
episcopacy. In 2002, Metropolitan S
YMEON founded the Cathedral parish of Mary
Joy of the Sorrowing in
Aurora, Colorado.
In 2005, Abp. M
ACARIUS left the church, leaving
Metropolitan S
YMEON once more without
synodal.
To correct this deficiency, Metr. S
YMEON invited Bishop I
OAN, whom he had assisted in consecrating
to join him in the
synodia. The
synodia has since sought and seated additional
hierarchs.
In October 2006, Metropolitan S
YMEON moved his primary residence from
Denver,
Colorado to
Roswell, New Mexico,
U.S.A.
where he has established the Monastic
Skete of
Saint John the Wonderworker and the parish of the Holy New Martyrs of
Russia. Summer of 2008 will mark the commencement of classes at the
Roswell
campus of the Saint Innocent of Alaska Orthodox Theological
Seminary.
On June 14th, 2008, the Feast of the Holy Prophet Elisha,
Metropolitan S
YMEON received the
Church of the Holy Faith of the Christian East (the Orthodox Church of
Columbia) into the Russian Orthodox Church in America. The following day,
its hierarch JAIRO Gonzales y Montoya was raised to the Archepiscopal
Dignity as Archbishop for the Western Rite in Central and South America.
(note to reader: In the preceeding document, the
convention of calling Orthodox hierarchs (bishops) by their first names
has been followed, except in the case of Archbishop Natalino (who asked
me to call him by his last name). It is also pious custom to Capitalize
the names of Hierarchs. Finally, those bishops with a cross before their
names are known to have reposed in Christ at the time this was
written.)
times
since 2005