The Case of the Church of the Union, Who Served in the Russian Army and Navy in Shanghai

Abstract

The purpose of the study is to reveal the history of the St. Nicholas house church of the Union of those who served in the Russian army and navy. In general, the history of this temple has already been considered in the scienti c literature. But this article introduces previously unpublished documents from the correspondence of the con icting parties - Bishop Simon of Shanghai, Chairman of the Union K. F. Walter, Archbishop Innocentiy of Beijing, as well as such parties involved as the Chairman of the Foreign Synod, Metropolitan Anthony, and the Committee for the Protection of the Rights of Russians in Shanghai, as well as on the basis of documents from the correspondence, a deep analysis of the events was carried out.- And this allows us to take a more complete look at the dif cult relationship between emigration and the Church. In addition, the history of the Nikolskiy Church serves as a clear illustration of intra-church relations and processes in the Far East, especially between Archbishop Innocentiy and Metropolitan Methodius, and can also add another page to the history of the activities of Metropolitans Anthoniy (Khrapovitskiy) and Evlogiy (Georgievskiy), and shows the real degree in uence of the Karlovatskiy Synod on the affairs of the Far Eastern dioceses. The article uses comparative-analytical and source study methods. The causes of the con ict are analyzed in detail, the most probable version of what happened is given. As a result of the study, it is concluded that the events of the only schism in the Far East for the entire emigrant period had a real basis, and the actions of both Bishops, Bishop Simon and Archbishop Innocentiy, were fully justied.