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Instructions and Teachings
St Tikhon of Moscow, Russian Orthodox American Messenger, 1898–1905
Inaugural Address (December 1898)
At this my first coming among you, beloved brethren, I bring to mind the words once uttered by the Lord through the lips of the Prophet Hosea: “And I will say to them which were not my people Thou art my people’, and to her which was not my beloved ‘Thou art my beloved’, (II, 23). These words were spoken of heathens and meant that, when many in Israel, the people chosen of God, did not know Christ, then the Lord would make Himself manifest unto them that asked not after Him (Rom. 10, 20; Isaiah 65, 1), and called heathens into His Church.
By the ineffable mercy of God, the heathens that people the remote regions of Alaska and the Aleutian Islands have been called into the Church of Christ; they have been taught and illumined with the light of the faith of Christ through the agency of the monks of Balaam, who were the first to sow among them the seed of the Gospel. The holy work was taken up after them and continued by their successors, the pastors and archpastors of the Aleutian Islands, more especially by the arch-priest John Venyaminof, (later Innocent, Metropolitan of Moscow), and by my predecessor, the Right Rev. Nicholas, “a man strong in word and deed.” And now by the will of God, I, albeit unworthy, am called to this apostolic ministry, “and I will say to them which were not my people ‘Thou art my people’, and to her that was not my beloved ‘Thou art my beloved’.” Until this day we have you and I, been strangers to one another and did not know one another. From this day forth the Lord Himself establisheth a close bond of union between us, placeth us into the mutual relation of bishop to flock and flock to bishop. In the writings, of the Fathers this relation is likened to the conjugal relation, the bishop being as the bridegroom and the flock as the bride. And as a husband bears his wife such love, that he, for her sake, leaveth father and mother and cleaveth unto her, becomes as of one kin and lives one life with her, even such love must a bishop bear unto his flock. And as a wife is obedient unto her husband, for that he is her head and her protector, even so a flock must be obedient unto its bishop. Understanding thus the relation of a bishop to his flock and being affianced to the Aleutian flock, I left my beloved native land, my aged mother, my friends, all near and dear to my heart, and wended my way to a far distant land, to you, men to me unknown, in order that ye might henceforth become “my people and my beloved”. From this day on, to you and to your welfare I direct my thoughts and my care; my strength and my faculties I dedicate to ministering unto you. With love I come to you, brethren; ye also, I pray, receive me with love. My love will find its expression in caring for you, in serving you; ye are to show yours in obeying me, trusting me, co-operating with me.
The request for co-operation I address more particularly to my more immediate collaborators, the pastors of the Aleutian church. I come to this country for the first time, knowing it but little, while ye have labored here long before my coming. Many among you have become familiar with the country, several were born in it. I trust that in this my ministry ye will do me valuable service by your knowledge of this country and its people, by your experience; that ye will be, really and trully, my co-laborers, of sound judgment and counsel.
It is not only from the pastors that I request assistance and co-operation, but from my entire beloved flock. The holy Apostle Paul wisely likens the Church of Christ to a body, and “the body is not one member, but many” (I Corinth. 12, 15); and as all members have not the same office (Rom. 12, 4), but each hath its own: the eye one, the hand another, and every member is necessary and cannot do without the others,—and as all the members have the same care one for the other and there is no schism in the body (I Cor. 12, 21,25,26), — even so, brethren, “ye are the body of Christ and members in particular” (ib. 12, 27), “and to every one of you is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ” (Ephes. 4, 7) “for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ” (ib. 4,12). Therefore do ye, with true love, grow up into Him Who is the Head, even Christ, “from Whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love” (ib. 4, 15, 16). Again, St. John Chrysostom sayeth: “Do not lay all the burden upon us, the clergy; ye yourselves can do much; ye know one another better than we do”... Therefore, brethren, do ye also edify one another: “warn them that are unruly, comfort the feeble-minded, support the weak, be patient toward all. See that none render evil for evil unto any man; but ever follow that which is good, both among yourselves, and to all men” (I Thesal.5, 15-16). “But the God of all grace, Who hath called us unto His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you. To Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen” (I Peter 5,10-11).