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Instructions and Teachings
St Tikhon of Moscow, Russian Orthodox American Messenger, 1898–1905
The Archbishop’s Notice to the Presiding Bishop of the P. E. Church (October 16th 1905)
The RUSSIAN CATHEDRAL
15 East 97th St.
New York City, N. Y.
October 16th 1905.
To the Right Reverend
Daniel S. Tuttle, D.D., LL.D.
Bishop of Missouri, and Presiding Bishop
of the Protestant Episcopal Church.
Right Reverend and dear Brother;
I beg to announce to you as the Presiding Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church that, the Rev. Ingram N. W. Irvine, D.D., formerly a priest in active service in the afore said Church has, after careful study of the Doctrine, Discipline and worship of the Holy Orthodox Church, accepted the same and has applied for admission into Membership and also for Ordination.
To both of these requests we have given the most careful and solemn consideration.
Having received satisfactory testimonials, concerning the Rev. Dr. Irvine, from leading Members of the Protestant Episcopal Church, — we have definitely concluded to accept him as a member of the Holy Orthodox Church and also to ordain him to her Priesthood.
Your Right Reverence will be good enough as to bear in mind that, we must absolutely waive all the matters in controversy between the Rev. Dr. Irvine and the Bishop of Central Pennsylvania — the Rt. Rev. Dr. Talbot. We cannot and must not let that controversy, either canonically or otherwise, influence us in the Holy Orthodox Church in doing what we know and believe is according to the love, mercy and justice of our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. The Rev. Dr. Irvine has for, well nigh thirty years, served as a minister at God’s Holy Altar, and desires until death, in this wise, to obey the Voice of the Holy Spirit. We feel it, therefore, our duty as well as pleasure to confer upon him the gifts and graces of the Holy Orthodox Church as she has received them from the Holy Ghost.
We need, Right Reverend Brother, but to recall to your most just and loving consideration that, not until January of this year (1905) the Protestant Episcopal Church has had an Appellate Court for the relief of her Clergy. The Rev. Dr. Irvine, therefore, as your own Rt. Rev. Fathers in General Convention assembled declared in 1900, had no means whereby to appeal from the conduct and sentence of his Diocesan— Bishop Talbot. This fact alone is sufficient cause for solemn thought. But, again, when a cannon providing for a Court of Appeals was adopted, unfortunately, it was not made retroactive; and, therefore, the Rev. Dr. Irvine was absolutely deprived of every vestige of opportunity to have his case reviewed. We, therefore, beg of your Right Reverence to pardon us for not so much as considering, in any form, the action of the Bishop of Central Pennsylvania, inasmuch as the right of appeal is the privilege of every priest in God’s Holy Church, and, that sad omission was for many years manifest in the judicial system of the Protestant Episcopal Church.
Our object in writing to your Right Reverence is that, you might kindly convey to the House of Bishops, when in Council assembled, that our action must not be interpreted as being either inimical or unloving, for we are guided solely by the canons and usages of the Holy Orthodox Church. and we trust, by that high sense of justice and charity which the Great Head of the One Holy Catholic Church has bestowed upon us, and which we know you will graciously allow to be our true motives.
We are, with great regard for you personally as the Presiding Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church, — to whose College of Bishops we send greetings,
Most respectfully Yours
(Signed:) TIKHON,
Archbishop of the Russian
Orthodox Church in N. America.