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22Development of Orthodox Diaspora in Southeast Asia: Anticolonial Ideology in St John's Unknown Non-Canonical Sermon for the Members of the Orthodox Mission on Tubabao Isle, the Philippines
Reverend Father Antony P. Gerilovych1, Natalia P. Sharova
Rev Fr Antony P. Gerilovych,
PhD, Dr habil (Veterinary), Professor, Corresponding Member of the National Academy of Agrarian Sciences of Ukraine, Deputy Director for Scientific Research, Institute for Experimental and Clinical Veterinary Medicine, Ukraine
Natalia P. Sharova,
PhD, Dr habil (Biology), Deputy Director of N. K. Koltsov Institute of Developmental Biology of Russian Academy of Sciences,
Head of Laboratory of Biochemistry of Ontogenesis Processes, Russia
Article No / HoMept craTbu: 010110012
1 Please send correspondence to e-mail: antger2011@gmail.com.
For citation (Chicago style) / Для цитировашя (стиль «Чикаго»):
Gerilovych, Antony P., Rev., and Natalia P. Sharova. 2020. "Development of Orthodox Diaspora in Southeast Asia: Anticolonial Ideology in St John's Unknown Non-Canonical Sermon for the Members of the Orthodox Mission on Tubabao Isle, the Philippines." The Beacon: Journal for Studying Ideologies and Mental Dimensions 3, 010110012.
Permanent URL links to the article: HANDLE: 20.500.12656/thebeacon.3.010110012
http://thebeacon.ru/pdf/Vol.%203.%20Issue%201.%20010110012%20ENG.pdf
Received in the original form: 19 December 2019 Review cycles: 2
1st review cycle ready: 15 February 2020 Review outcome: 2 of 3 positive Decision: To publish with considerable revisions 2nd review cycle ready: 17 March 2020 Accepted: 20 March 2020 Published online: 21 March 2020
ABSTRACT
Rev Fr Antony P. Gerilovych, Natalia P. 5harova. Development of Orthodox Diaspora in Southeast Asia: Anticolonial Ideology in St John's Unknown Non-Canonical Sermon for the Members of the Orthodox Mission on Tubabao Isle, the Philippines. The paper covers the analysis of an unknown public sermon of 5t John (Maximovitch) of Shanghai and San Francisco given at Tubabao Isle, Philippines, on Orthodox Pentecost, 12 June 1949. This sermon was not written down, therefore it is not published nor included in any collections of St John's writings. We analyse the Eurasian and anticolonial ideologies contained in the sermon.
Key words: 5t John of Shanghai and 5an Francisco, religious ideology, anti-colonialism, homiletics, non-canonical Orthodox sermon, Eurasianism, Orthodox Christianity, Holy Rus archetype, White Russian diaspora, emigration, Southeast Asia, Philippines, Tubabao, Guiuan, Samar, missionary work, Pacific region
РЕЗЮМЕ
Его преподобiе отець Антонй П. Герпловпчь, Наталья П. Шарова. Быпъ пи свт. 1оаннъ Шанхайскй евразйскимъ
мыслителемъ? Антиколональная идеолопя въ проповеди свт. 1оанна для членовъ Православной мисси на островп> Тубабао, Филиппины. Статья посвящена анализу неизвестной публичной пропов-Ьди святителя 1оанна (Максимовича) Шанхайскаго и Санъ- Францисского, произнесенной на остров-Ь ТубаБао, Филиппины, въ православную Пятидесятницу 12 юня 1949 года. Эта проповЬдь не была документирована, поэтому она не опубликована и не включена ни въ одно собрате сочинена свт. 1оанна. Мы анализируемъ евразйскую и антиколоНальную идеологи содержащиеся въ проповЬди.
Ключевыя слова: Святитель 1оаннъ Шанхайски и Санъ-Францисскй релипозная идеологiя, антиколонiализмъ, гомилетика, неканоническая православная проповЬдь, евразйство, православiе, архетипъ Святой Руси, бЬлая русская дiаспора, эмиграцiя, Юго-Восточная ^я, Филиппины, Тубабао, Гуйуан, Самаръ, миссюнерская деятельность, Тихо-океанскiй репонъ
INTRODUCTION
St John (Maximovitch), Archbishop of Shanghai and San Francisco, Wonderworker, is one of the most famous Orthodox preachers of the twentieth century, a man whose archpastoral and homiletic works greatly contributed to the spread of Orthodox Christianity in the Far East, Southeast Asia, Australian-Pacific region, as well as North America.
In 1934, by decision of the Synod of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad (the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia2), John was appointed Bishop of Shanghai, the Vicar of the Diocese of China and Beijing. He left Serbia, where he was ordained, to China (Seraphim 1987, 44). For fifteen years St John has been the spiritual leader of the Orthodox Russian and Asian flock in China, among which there were former leaders of the White movement, their families and refugees from the Soviet Union that joined them, with the total population of about 50,000 people (Chernolutskaya 2000, 80; Lukianov 2004, 81). In addition to them, every year St John's preaching and Church-administrative talents increased the number of Asian Orthodox Christians: Chinese, Koreans, Vietnamese, Filipinos, Thai, Malays, even Japanese (Lukianov 2004, 84).
Bishop John's flock was ethnically diverse, but shared the same faith and religious principles, with the number of active parishioners of ROCOR churches in Shanghai being around 5,500 Russians, nearly 500 Europeans (Germans, Austrians, Estonians, Lithuanians, Latvians, Polish, Czechs, Slovaks) and 1,500 ethnic Asians (Ding 2015, 244; Zhiganov 1936, 32).
2 Usually abbreviated as ROCOR, or ROCA (Russian Orthodox Church Abroad).
Fig. 1. Virgin Mary, the Warrantress of the Sinful, Cathedral, the main diocese cathedral of Russian Orthodox Church in Shanghai during 1930s-1940s. Currently it is out of service, according to Chinese Communist party prescriptions, and does not belong to Russian Orthodox Church. A photo of 2014.
© Russian Club in Shanghai. www.russianshanghai.com
The Chinese and Beijing Orthodox Diocese grew until 1948 - early 1949, when Mao Zedong revolutionary troops launched an active offensive march and broke the resistance of Chiang Kai-shek's Kuomintang army (Ablazhey 2007, 44). The communists were rapidly approaching Shanghai from the North. Bishop John, fearing that the Orthodox Christians in China would by and large share the doleful fate of their brothers in faith in the Soviet Union, decided to evacuate the entire White Russian diaspora, which was also joined by a significant number of Asian Orthodox believers (Bakich 2000, 55; Dunlop 2017, 64). As we know, only the Philippines responded to the call to all countries of the Southeast Asia and Australian-Pacific region to accept the refugees from Shanghai. Since January 1949, the evacuation of Russian-Asian refugees from China to the Isle of Tubabao (Guiuan locality), a small uninhabited island in the Eastern part of the country, the province of Samar, commenced (Dunlop 2017, 65). The fate of Russian émigrés who tried to return from Mao-ruled China to Soviet Siberia via Manchuria, was cheerless: even after Stalin's death,
most of the White Russian refugees who returned to Soviet Union, died in prison camps or were executed (Adams 2008; Manchester 2017).
Fig. 2. The construction of Virgin Mary, the Warrantress of the Sinful, Cathedral, was yet unfinished in 1936 when Vla-dyka John arrived to Shanghai. He accomplished it less than in a year. A photo of 1936 by an unknown.
© Orthodox Christianity in China. www.orthodox.cn
Just before the Orthodox Easter that in 1949 was celebrated on the 24 April, Bishop John arrived at the Orthodox refugee camp. He stayed on Tubabao Isle until 12 July 1949, performing everyday liturgies, communicating closely with his flock and instructing the people with his helpful archpastoral word (Zaitsev 1949, 24-25).
Many of his sermons of this period have not survived, nor been recorded by anyone. However, some St John's words were reflected in the diaries of a number of representatives of the Russian and Asian Orthodox White3 emigration.
3 Hereinafter by "White" Russians we shall mean the part of the Russian society that after October 1917 revolution continued to support Emperor and fight with Bolsheviks ("Red" Russians).
Fig. 3. St John of Shanghai and San Francisco, the Wonderworker. A photo of the 1950s. © Russian Club in Shanghai. www.russianshanghai.com
The purpose of this article is to analyse the unknown sermon of St John given on the Orthodox Pentecost (12 June 1949) in the Holy Virgin Orthodox Cathedral of Tubabao and the historical circumstances accompanying it. This sermon was fragmentary recorded in the diaries of the leaders of the White Russian emigration in Asia, Colonel Grigory Bologov (the Leader of the White Russian Emigration), Olga Morozova, Valentin Fedulenko, as well as some less well-known émigrés. In this sermon, Bishop John formulated his vision of the global goals and objectives of the Russian Orthodox emigration in the Asia-Pacific region, as well as made clear his anti-colonialist programme, in which he condemned political, social and military activities of European countries in Southeast Asia. According to St John, after the end of the World War II, the European colonisers had to immediately leave all the countries of Southeast Asia, because the colonialism activities was contrary to the idea of Eurasian unity of Russian and Asian peoples. At the same time, the goals and objectives of the White Russian political emigration, from the point of view of the Saint, corresponded exceptionally well to the Eurasian programme, under whose influence St John saw the future
development of the peoples of South, Southeast Asia and the Far East (Prekrestov 1995, 21, 54-55; Vengerov 1998, 36).
As a result of our analysis, we shall try to reconstruct - as far as possible - the logic, rhetoric and conclusions of St John of Shanghai in his 1949 Pentecost highly ideological sermon.
Whether John was a Eurasian thinker or the rhetoric of Eurasianism was necessary to him only to illustrate his different historical and socio-political ideas? What events in the Philippines could lead the Bishop to write such a non-canonical sermon, that focussed not on theological ideas, but on urgent and up-to-date social topics of ROCOR in Asia? Finally, how did St John of Shanghai understand the Russian idea and the global task of Russia in the Asian and Pacific world? Let us try to answer these questions.
HISTORICAL GROUNDS FOR THE CONTENT OF ST JOHN'S PENTECOST SERMON
The sermon, as it can be understood from its reconstruction, consisted of two parts. In the first part, St John focussed on the most actual, up-to-date and itching problems of the ROCOR in Asia and the Russian Tubabao diaspora. In the second one, he formulated his vision of the future of peoples of Asia and Australian-Pacific region.
The social content of the Pentecost sermon was influenced by the fact that the Orthodox settlers had to endure severe ordeals. In December 1948, St John bad farewell to his flock in Shanghai, but in May 1949 he did not recognise many of his regular parishioners. Many of them dramatically changed, the others died (Bologov 1949). At the same time, not only the climate and natural conditions led to the deprivation of the Orthodox diaspora situation, but also unfriendliness and abuse of the people on whom the well-being of refugees depended.
It should be emphasised that the Philippines as a country and the Filipino people have done everything possible to create comfortable living conditions for the White Russian émigrés who were forced to leave China. Only the Philippine government responded to the call for Southeast Asian countries to accept Orthodox refugees from China. No other country responded (Peterson 2015, 457).
We can positively argue that if it were not for the Philippine government and people, the fate of white Russian emigration in Asia would be sad and hopeless, and most of the people would have died at the hands of Mao's Communists, as well as because of disease and deprivation. The few Orthodox White émigrés who chose to seek help from the British authorities in Hong Kong rather than board the ship heading to the Philippines, soon found that the British hospitality was only ostentatious. During the 1950s and 1960s, none of the Russian refugees were able to obtain British citizenship, and all were forced to accept the situation of chip labour force deprived of social and political rights, in Hong Kong ports and warehouses (Pitt 2018; Scherr 2011).
Fig. 4. White Orthodox diaspora is fleeing Shanghai (A) and arriving at the Philippines (B) in 1949. © Museum of Russian Culture, San Francisco, USA
Fig. 5. Elpidio Rivera Quirino, the 6th President of the Philippines, is visiting the camp of White Orthodox refugees on Tubabao Isle on 28 October 1949. Because of this man, Orthodox émigrés in Asia survived and got a temporary house in the Philippines. From all the countries of Southeast Asia, only Philippines acceded to accept Orthodox refugees seeking asylum from Mao's Communist revolutionary army. A photo by Nikolay Khidchenko.
© Ayee Macaraig; Rappler.com
However, on the Philippine island of Tubabao, where a temporary camp for Orthodox refugees was built, almost all power was not in the hands of the Philippine police, but of the IRO (International Refugee Organisation) bureaucrats. The latter, according to a number of international treaties, were subordinate only to IRO headquarters in Switzerland (Chandler 1959, 27; Oyen 2015, 548). When the situation of the White Orthodox diaspora on Tubabao Isle became completely unbearable due to the abuse made by the IRO officials, only a direct appeal from the Russian leadership of the camp to the Philippine authorities - and direct interference of the Philippine President Elpidio Quirino - saved the fate of the refugees.
Bishop John, perfectly seeing and understanding all this, in his Pentecost sermon tried to concentrate the accusations of the offenders of Orthodoxy, a call to their conscience, and his never-ending hope for changes for the better.
As an administrator, St John has realised that an open hostility and confrontation with the people, on whom the future fate of the Orthodox diaspora depended, may have led to disastrous results. Therefore, he included an implicit, covered socio-political message in his
religious and political ideology contained in his Pentecost sermon. He had the fate of several thousand people in his hands, and he did his best for their future to be the decent destiny of emancipated members of society in USA, not pitiful lot of the deprived and powerless drudges in Australia (Moustafine 2002, 52, 57; Valcoff 2017, 23, 35-27).
MISUSE IN NUTRITION AND MANAGING THE ORTHODOX REFUGEES CAMP
Bishop John in his Pentecost sermon mentioned that the diaspora suffers greatly with poor nourishment. He tried to encourage his flock by pointing out that "a Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God" (Matt. 4:4, Deut. 8:3). He also mentioned that he shares all the hardships of the lack of good food his parishioners (Shevchenko 1952). Also the Bishop was joking, saying that his usual monastic diet is even scarcer than the diet of the inhabitants of Tubabao, therefore, now, sharing their daily food with his flock, he feels a great relief after the recently concluded Lent (Sokoloff 1999, 51). What is the reason for these words of the Bishop?
The resettlement of the Orthodox population from Shanghai to Tubabao was formally carried out by the International Refugee Organisation IRO, but in fact the US army and Navy, that maintained a strong position in Southeast Asia after the end of World War II. When the Orthodox refugees arrived at the island, the position of the Director of the camp was held by the US Army Captain J. L. Combs. He immediately noticed the abuses that IRO responsible persons allowed in relation to the nutrition of the émigrés, and tried to improve the situation of the Orthodox community (Anonymous 1951, 24). By this behaviour, he aroused the anger of his superior, the high-ranking IRO emissary from Geneva, a Scotsman Thomas Jamieson. Jamison quickly replaced Combs, who cared for the Orthodox people, by a Catholic priest from Shanghai Father Feodor Wilcock and a war-displaced person from UK to Canada Mr Dillon. All IRO officials except Captain Combs used to send the Orthodox people spoiled products, e.g. rotten potatoes, worm-eaten dried vegetables. They also did not provide meat and fresh fruits, which was discovered by Capt Combs.
On 23 June 1949, the Captain arranged a mass seizure and burning of tin cans with "hash" (stewed meat and vegetables), which remained from an American military garrison at Samar since 1945. This "hash," many cans of which were already swollen with botulism, was considered by Jamieson, Dillon and Fr Wilcock as an appropriate food for the campers. But even before that famous auto-da-fe, Capt Combs repeatedly ordered to throw out rotten, worm-eaten dried fruits and chocolate whitened since 1945. In return, the Captain increased the cost of maintaining the Orthodox settlers' conditions, demanded Jamieson to buy fresh food at the island of Samar close to Tubabao and bring it to the camp (Morozova n.d.).
Fig. 6. Arriving of St John to Tubabao in 1949. A photo by Olga Morozova. © Museum of Russian Culture, San Francisco, USA
Filipino peasants were officially prohibited to disembark at Tubabao. However, paying attention to plight and deprivations of the Orthodox refugees exposed to by IRO officials, Filipino fishermen and peasants came to Tubabao from Samar three of four times a week and, against the IRO prohibition, sold fresh fish, vegetables and fruits to the settlers, the products in great deficit in the diet of the poor (Kuchina 2016, 26, 51).
Of course, St John knew all this, when he was making his sermon.
According to Olga Morozova (n.d.), Bishop John mentioned in his speech about the plight of Ananias and his wife Sapphira (Acts 5:1-11). We guess he has done it in the context of condemnation of the misappropriation of funds supplied by the IRO for the maintenance of the refugee camp. There is every reason to believe that Jamieson, Fr Wilcock and Dillon (and possibly their superior Gerard Price) were dishonest and could steal the funds that Capt Combs planned for the Russian camp's funding programme. St John dwelt in detail in his sermon on the disastrous life of the first Christians, drawing a parallel between it and the difficult situation of the Russians on Tubabao (Bologov 1999, 4). As we remember from the Acts of the Apostles, some Ananias and his wife Sapphira concealed their great material possessions from the Church community, having brought only a small share of their wealth to the commune's treasury. They died an instant death according to the words of the Apostle Peter, because they "dared to deceive God, saying lies and robbing the Church." St
John obviously drew parallels between Ananias and Sapphira's actions with the hypocrisy and possible theft made by the IRO authorities supervising the Orthodox camp. These authorities, as now there is every reason to believe, could profit from the powerless Orthodox refugees on Tubabao. Before direct intervention of President Quirino, they organised the camp, having circumscribed it with barbed wire, as a prisoners' camp.
Fig. 7. Bishop John Maximovitch and Colonel Grigory Bologov, the leader of Russian White emigration in Asia, on Tubabao Isle. A photo by Irene Kounitsky. © Ayee Macaraig; Rappler.com
According to Olga Morozova's testimony (Mrs Morozova was one of the leaders of the White Russian emigration in Asia), Bishop John spoke a lot about the first Christian community in Jerusalem, about the fact that all believers had one heart, and no one called anything his own, but everything was common (cf. Acts 4:32) . He also called those who shared their possessions with the Church worthy of all the praise (Morozova n.d., 111). According to St John, they deserved a great grace in the Kingdom of Heaven (Ibid, 112). In his sermon, the Bishop seemed to allude to the benefactor of the camp and the Orthodox Church Capt Combs, because the future Saint also mentioned that even many Gentiles, being struck by the courage and piety of the first Christians, made their financial contribution to the Jerusalem Apostolic community.
It is interesting that notwithstanding Combs being an Anglican, he revered the Orthodox religion very much and treated the Orthodox Church and Orthodox clergy of ROCOR on Tubabao with utmost respect (Dunlop 2017, 160). In addition to continuous small personal donations to the Orthodox community, Capt Combs financially supported the maintenance of the clergy of the two Orthodox tent churches and the Holy Virgin Cathedral, in which St
John served. He did this as a separate item in the list of IRO camp expenses. Of course, Vladyka,4 from whose eyes no trifle was hidden, could not fail to notice such truly zealous a behaviour of a man of another faith. St John metaphorically expressed it in the words of his sermon.
Fig. 8. St John of Shanghai Chapel in Davao province, island Mindanao, the Philippines, and the local Orthodox commune. These people voluntarily converted themselves from Protestantism to Orthodoxy because of their acquaintance with the life feat of St John of Shanghai. Hieromonk Philip Balingit, administrator of the Philippines mission of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia, is in the centre. A photo of 2013.
© Rev Fr Georgy Maximov; https://yurij-maximov.livejournal.com
Olga Morozova fully confirms this high assessment of Capt Combs, who was "the only sincere friend of the refugees." "So far, Combs was the only representative of the authorities, who saw people in us, not slaves and not cattle... Today (6 August) Combs left the camp" (Morozova n.d., 148). On the resignation of its only true friend the whole camp lamented.
4 A Russian unofficial title for the Bishop, Archbishop and Metropolitan.
The commander of Russian scouts A. N. Knyazeff in a farewell letter to Combs expressed the opinion of the majority of Orthodox émigrés:
The news about your departure upset the scout organisation of Tubabao very much, and with the most profound regret and sorrow we say goodbye to you. We all felt that we had a true friend in your person who was often present at our camp fires, sang our songs with us and helped us in difficult moments, helped not only our organisation as a whole, but also its individual members... There are no words proper enough to express our deep gratitude and sympathy for all that you have done and tried to do for us... (Kniazeff 2000).
On the contrary, the enemies of the Orthodox community, IRO officials Price, Bogen, Lerou, Director of IRO Headquarters in Geneva Dr Tak inspired highly negative emotions in St John's sermon. That was reflected in his homiletic comparing them with the Romans who persecuted the early Christian Church.
RUSSIAN TRANSFORMING TUBABAO ISLE
St John also said that it is impossible to block the mouth of the ox threshing (For the Scripture saith, Thou shalt not mousell the ox that treadeth out the corn: and, The labourer is worthy of his reward) (Deut. 25:4; 1 Cor. 9:8; 1 Tim. 5:18), especially among those oxen who
work hard to sweat, work to the extreme exhaustion, but do not give up their work... And where these oxen have passed, the gardens begin to bloom... The eye did not see, and never did the ear hear that these oxen can do... Therefore, to beat these oxen means to beat a force that turns the desert into an oasis of fertility... and this oasis should not become an abomination of desolation (Shevchenko 1949.
What could Vladyka mean by this phrase?
We believe these words represent an allusion to the great and positive role of the Orthodox émigrés in the transformation of Tubabao Isle. Before the arrival of the Russian diaspora and the accompanying Orthodox ethnic Asians, the island was completely uninhabited and, in fact, represented an impassable swampy jungle teeming with poisonous snakes, lizards and frogs. On the sea shallows near the island, deadly electric rays found their refuge in winter times (Ristaino 2002, 245).
The Orthodox emigrants have changed the face of the island beyond recognition. Based on the diaries of a number of émigrés (Olga Morozova, Kyra Tatarinoff, Irene Kounitsky, Valentin Fedoulenko and some others), we can summarise the titanic changes of the island that have been made by the White Orthodox diaspora during six months of its stay on Tubabao before the arrival of St John (summarised by: Dunlop 2017, 202-204):
Fig. 9. Tubabao jungle, its uncultivated state. A photo of 2019. © www.idreamedofthis.com
1) impenetrable jungle is thinned out, cleared of fallen trees and turned into forest land;
2) a network of roads, paths and swaths is made;
3) several sawmills are built and put into operation;
4) most dangerous swamps are drained;
5) drinking water sources are purified;
6) the tent and barrack city for approximately 8,000 people is built;
7) water pipelines are constructed, sewerage and drainage system are constructed;
8) two tent Orthodox churches and a wooden Holy Virgin Cathedral are built;
9) the construction of one Catholic Church and three Anglican churches is assisted;
10) a school, hospital, pharmacy, dentist clinic are built;
11) a thermal power station is constructed, columns with lanterns are erected, the lighting in various points of the island is put into operation;
12) cables are stretched, wired connection is established;
13) more than ten canteen and food centres with food warehouses are equipped;
14) the island is cleared of rats and other pests, the sanitary and epidemiological situation is improved.
Bishop John stressed that
all this was done by the Orthodox settlers not under pressing, but in their good will, in
order to have a single roof over their heads and to be a truly unified community... Hardly any other nation in the world could achieve such amazing results in such a short time and in such intolerably difficult circumstances (Morozova n.d., 106).
Fig. 10. Orthodox refugees' camp on Tubabao. A photo of 1949 by Larissa Krassovsky. © Ayee Macaraig; Rappler.com
So, we are coming to a conclusion that, speaking of the oxen treading corn (in Russian theological tradition it is usually said "the threshing oxen") and the barrage of their mouths, St John of Shanghai had in mind a really astonishing and almost unique example of the Russians converting the island. Speaking about the desert and the oasis of fertility, the Bishop could metaphorically emphasise the possibility of using the achievements of the Russian diaspora on the island by local residents or IRO representatives in the future after the diaspora departure. "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man" is a quotation from the prophet Isaiah repeated by St Paul the Apostle (Is. 64:4; 1 Cor. 2:9). But St John used the Old Testament phrase slightly out of context; he added from himself "what these oxen can do" instead of "the things which God hath prepared for them that love him." Here St John, we believe, could hint at the deepest injustice committed by the IRO officials towards the Orthodox refugees from Shanghai, the injustice even more serious because it was done deliberately.
In fact, the Philippine government initially planned to place Orthodox migrants in Eastern
Samar, in a well-equipped former American military camp, where there were about a hundred reliable wooden barracks with telephones, refrigerators, kitchens and amenities, where infrastructure was already set up, and the jungle was cleared (Wyman 1998, 124). Colonel Grigory Bologov, the leader of the White Russian emigrants in Asia, insisted that the camp should have been located there (Bologov 1999, 3). But Gerard Price, the head of the IRO in the Philippine Republic, turned the Filipino authorities against the Russians, writing a clearly false denunciation that among the refugees, according to his private data, there were Soviet agitators who could have threatened the Philippine state, and besides, the Russians did not deserve such large financial expenses (Nazareno 1949, 2). As a result, the refugees were settled on the uninhabited Tubabao island fully covered with jungle. They had to fight the ados of toil, diseases, swamp fumes, pests and parasites, poisonous animals, unsanitary conditions and other deprivations.
Fig. 11. Hieromonk Philip Balingit near the remnants of the Virgin Mary Orthodox Cathedral on Tubabao. The wooden building was completely destroyed by multiple typhoons common for this part of the Philippines. A photo of 2013.
© Rev Fr Georgy Maximov; https://yurij-maximov.livejournal.com
Fig. 12. Virgin Mary Cathedral looked like this in 1949. A photo by an unknown. © Rev Fr Georgy Maximov; https://yurij-maximov.livejournal.com
But the Orthodox people have won.
Besides, Filipinos or IRO officials could use all the achievements of the Orthodox emigrants after their departure from the island, as mentioned by St John in his sermon. He warned the authorities not to let the Russian settlement on the island become an abomination of desolation (L. I. 1999, 35). However, nothing useful was extracted from the results of the Orthodox people efforts, and the abomination of desolation did come. After 1953, when the last Russian émigrés left Tubabao, the island gradually became uninhabited again, and the Orthodox city was overgrown with jungle (Tabolina 2016, 163). Thus far, the Orthodox clergy of the ROCOR in Manila have repeatedly attempted to restore the wooden Holy Virgin Cathedral on the island, but these tries have not yet been successful (Maximov 2013). Perhaps, one of the reasons is the complete absence of a potential Orthodox flock on modern Tubabao Isle.
THE HOSTILITY OF ROMAN CATHOLICISM TOWARDS THE ORTHODOX MISSION IN THE PHILIPPINES
Quite unusual in the theological aspect is the citation by St John of the prophecy of Obadiah. It surprised even the Treasurer of Holy Virgin Cathedral G. Larin (1949). Let us think, why this prophecy could be of interest to the Bishop. The book of the prophet Obadiah is one of the most concise and laconic prophetic books of the Old Testament, containing only one short Chapter. The topic of the prophecy book concerns exclusively the Edomites (the inhabitants of Edom, or Idumea, the descendants of Esau), the
judgment of God over them for their betrayal of the fraternal people of Israel, and the subsequent triumph of Israel. This prophecy is considered one of the least cited in the history of Christian homiletics. Indeed, the Book of Obadiah contains no prophecies of New Testament events, only the last verse implicitly refers to the distant future times of the Kingdom of God.
St John speaks the word against Esau in his sermon. Who could this metaphorical Esau be in the historical perspective of the Tubabao camp? Most likely, Vladyka gave an indication of the Roman Catholic brothers in faith. Really, who, besides Roman Catholicism, might have been called a brother of Orthodoxy in Tubabao? In St John's mouth, a link to the Book of the prophet Obadiah receives a new meaning of ideological rhetoric in defence of Orthodoxy, which was threatened by the local Catholics.
The two things are to be taken into consideration here. On the one hand, St John in all his writings - beginning with the earliest ones that he wrote while he was a hieromonk in Serbia - exhibit a very cautious, sometimes even hostile sentiments towards Roman Catholicism (John of Shanghai 2004; Prekrestov 1995). Usually there is no political anti-Catholic rhetoric in them, there are no attacks against Vatican, just warnings to White Russian Orthodox émigrés who left their Homeland after the revolution of 1917, so that they should not beguile themselves about Roman Catholic priests who, under a brotherly disguise, would try to persuade them to renounce the Orthodox faith (John of Shanghai 1938).
On the other hand, the Bishop in his Pentecost sermon directly stressed the treachery of Catholic priests, who in a situation of extreme ordeal of Orthodox refugees, tried to persuade them to betray their faith and be converted to Roman Catholicism.
The pride of your heart has deceived you, the Bishop of Shanghai is quoting the prophet Obadiah and adds from himself, and you despised your brother, your twin that came out of the one womb together with you. You have common parents, a common home, a common childhood, but you forgot all that. Your brother felt poor, and you took advantage of it, you did not remember in your heart your kinship, did not think about how to protect your brother from an oppressing gentile, from an hostile foreigner. You broke all your blood ties... the prophet said: For thy violence against thy brother Iacob shame shall cover thee, and thou shalt be cut off for ever (Obad. 1:10). I do not think that all modern Edomites want to be exterminated; may the shame serve as their cleansing and repentance... Your brother does not wish a war with you, and seeks peace and mutual assistance. But if you betray your brother to the end, do not think that during your visit the angels will stand up for you (Morozova n.d., 94).
So, St John did not want a complete quarrel and break-up of relations with the Catholic priesthood, who played the first violin in the camp management. He did so rather taking care of the future of his Orthodox flock than out of respect for the Catholics themselves. The spiritual state of Russian emigrants was perpetually causing St John's large concern (John of Shanghai 1938). At the Pentecost service, the Bishop already knew that soon he shall go to Washington to intercede with Congress for a new house for several thousands of
Orthodox refugees, mainly Russian, which many countries refused to grant a residence permit (Lednev and Lukianov 1996, 56-59). St John found the overall spiritual condition of the Tubabao Orthodox diaspora unsatisfactory (Fitzpatrick 2015, 117).
He also knew that his long-term Orthodox parishioners would have to be subordinated to Catholic clergy for a long time, and, perhaps, the Catholics were just waiting for a reason to complicate the process of the Russians departure from Tubabao and their repatriation. We believe it is for this reason that St John made a call for reconciliation with "Esau" at the end of the first part of his sermon and expressed his hope for the restoration of fraternal friendship between Catholicism and Orthodoxy in the Philippines.
How did it happen that the fate of the Russian Orthodox emigrants was largely in the hands of Roman Catholics?
First, most of the population of the Philippines has been converted to Roman Catholicism during the times of the Spanish colonial rule. IRO, constantly flirting with the Philippine government, apparently did not want to strengthen Orthodoxy on any island, even as tiny as Tubabao. The heads of the IRO in the Philippine Republic, in coordination with the headquarters in Geneva, appointed Catholic or Uniate priests to key positions in the camp, for example, Director of the school, Director of the hospital, and finally the Director of the camp itself (Khisamutdinov 2003, 188; Prekrestov 1995, 124).
Secondly, a number of Roman Catholics, headed by Fr Feodor Wilcock, a Uniate priest, an ethnic Russian by his mother and an Englishman by his father, left Shanghai together with the Orthodox refugees. It was he who became the head of the camp after Captain Combs. Fr Wilcock not only tried to starve Orthodox refugees, but together with other Uniate priests, Frs Andrey Urusov and Joseph Fontano, tried by any means to persuade the Orthodox settlers to renounce their faith and become Uniates, just like these priests (Dunlop 2017, 141). Any means were at their disposal: threats, exhortations, expostulations, promises. Olga Morozova writes in her diary of 15 February 1949 (Candlemas Day) that
An American, father Joseph brought many assurances from American Catholics. Since many Russians began to express their desire to convert to Roman Catholicism, hoping that in this way they will more easily reach America... the fathers Fontano and Wilcock in their sermons among our emigrants were talking about America as the Promised Land all the time... This land, they say, will open only to those who are of correct faith, and those who are not, will never enter it (Morozona n.d., 218).
Is it not for this reason that in his Pentecost sermon St John, who understood the treachery of the three renegades in cloth, stressed the following?
Esau thought in vain, having betrayed his brother Jacob, to enter the Promised Land, he did not enter it, nor his children, but he remained to live in the Edom wastelands with jackals and ostriches. In vain does he hope now to enter the Heaven Jerusalem up above, if only by the utter repentance he will cleanse the sins of his betrayal, and by good deeds wash the memory of them (Bologov 1999, 5).
The following fact may testify the hostility of Fr Wilcock in relation to Orthodox belief (Morozova n.d., 168-169). On the evening of 20 September 1949, during the all-night vigil before the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin was served in the Orthodox St Seraphim tent Church. Wilcock blessed the youth, who was considered Orthodox, to go to the disco in spite of the strict ban of St John for singing and dancing at or just before the great religious feasts, and even advised them to do the music louder. Wilcock knew perfectly well that the disco was held by the young people just in front of St Seraphim temple. The debauchery of the shameless young people resulted in hard drinking and street fights. Father Athanasius, who conducted a festive service, was forced after the service to go along with several male parishioners to pacify the profligates by means of force. Olga Morozova concludes: "Of course, the lads are guilty, but much more guilt remains on Wilcock who probably did it out of hatred for Orthodoxy" (Ibid, 169).
Esau, personified in the figure of Uniate Catholic Father Feodor Wilcock, paid no heed of St John's warning.
IRO'S ANTI-RUSSIAN NATIONALISM
Finally, the last social problem that influenced the content of the historical part of Bishop John's sermon is Russophobia, anti-Russian nationalism, a form of hostility in which religious and ethnic-national hatred intertwined. Vladyka mentioned the "new Philistines who hate the people of God," the inadmissibility of such a behaviour in the future and at the same time the prohibition for the Russian emigrants to respond to such provocations by symmetrical measures .
Analysing the possible historical circumstances that could serve as a foundation for the inclusion of such lines by the saint in his Pentecost sermon, we came across a description by Nikita Valerianovitch Moravsky (b. 1923). Mr Moravsky is an eyewitness of those events. In his book The Island of Tubabao 1949-1951, he narrates of nationalist anti-Russian sentiments inspired by the chief physician of the camp, Dr Han Lee Min, an ethnic Chinese national, and his closest Chinese acquaintances. The aforementioned Dr Han tried to cause indignation among local Filipinos from the nearby island of Samar and incited them to attack the Russian émigrés (Moravskii 2000, 84). When he failed with this plan, he feigned the X-ray films of the emigrants, announcing to IRO officials that more than 500 people in the camp are sick with tuberculosis, and they need to be cast off to the jungle, in fact left to certain death. In such a way did Dr Han thwarted the first wave of immigration to Australia (Balinth 2017; Dellios 2016). In addition, such a diagnosis would forever close the doors of all countries of the world for allegedly ill refugees, and they would live at Tubabao to their death (Tatarinoff and Tatarinoff 1999, 39). When this anti-Russian attack did not work, Han declared all Russian refugees mentally ill for the reason they were experiencing phobias because of uncertainty about their future (Moravskii 2000, 85).
Finally, the indignation among the Russians caused by Han's behaviour reached a critical
point. When the Russian-Chinese armed clashes and street fights began in the camp, IRO officials and the Philippine police were forced to start an investigation (Dunlop 2017, 177). It showed that Han and his closest Chinese friends fled Shanghai together with the Russian colonists, fearing the attack of Mao's Communist troops. The testimony of these Chinese featured a permanent idea of the superiority of the Chinese nation over the Russians and the explanation of their Russophobia. The Russians allegedly constantly humiliated and harassed these Chinese in Shanghai, and the Chinese now pay them back the same (Dunlop 2017, 176; Le Caro 2006, 202-204).
Fig. 13. A line of White Orthodox refugees to IRO employment office. A photo by an unknown of 1949, before arrival of St John.
© Nikita Moravskii (2000); Russian Club in Shanghai
Bishop John, having achieved the replacement of Dr Han by a Filipino doctor, Dr Al-temirano who was loyal to the Russian diaspora (Morozova n.d., 162), in his sermon made every effort to calm the ethnic Russian-Chinese emerging hatred that was to break out at Tubabao (Le Caro 2006, 202-204). St John's conciliatory rhetoric was logically connected with the two topics: 1) the topic of God's punishment the Russian for the sins of the nation, which the Russian people was to bear, and 2) the one of the Eurasian mission of the Russian people in the Asia-Pacific region. Now we shall consider these two topics in details.
Finally, St John severely rebuked the Orthodox congregation itself, the refugee society (Dunlop 2017, 180f). As we have noted, Bishop John was annoyed that the spiritual state of Russian émigrés was constantly deteriorating. Many were willing to sell their faith and convert to Uniatism or Roman Catholicism just to be admitted to the United States of America for permanent residence. The Bishop shamed the fainthearted, who were ready to give up the holiest thing for the sake of their temporary prosperity. In his sermon, he promised everyone that he would go to Washington to petition Congress for the permission of entrance and residence in US can be given to them. The main thing - and the Bishop stressed this several times - was that the Orthodox people should not have fallen into cowardice and renounce their faith.
EURASIAN IDEOLOGY IN ST JOHN'S SERMON
In the second part of his sermon, as far as it can be understood from its reconstruction on the basis of diary entries of the people present in the Holy Virgin Temple on Pentecost, the Saint formulated the main provisions of his Eurasian anti-colonial ideology.
In this part of his speech, he was constantly comparing the Russians with the first, primitive Christians. Here Vladyka no longer used metaphorical references to sacred texts, but spoke openly. Colonel G. K. Bologov, the leader of White Russian emigration in Asia, draws attention to the fact that St John wove the two separate topics together in one preaching context: 1) the Russians' penance of their sin and 2) the great preaching mission of the Orthodox people in Asia (Bologov 1999, 8). The Russian people, according to the Bishop, was being punished by God for the three monstrous sins: 1) apostasy; 2) perjury; and 3) regicide (Ibid, 9). The perjury, an oath transgression, committed in the form of a violation of the oath to the Emperor and violation of the decisions of the Zemsky Sobor (Council) of 16135, was aggravated by the sins of apostasy from the true religion and regicide. Col Bologov does not describe in detail the words of St John, but points out, "Vladyka said that the circumstances forced him to recall the sad lines of his report at the All-Diaspora Russian Orthodox Council of Archbishops of 1938... [He] did not yet see changes for the better in the fate of the White Russians, because their sins are not yet swept away completely" (Ibid, 8).
In his report entitled "The Spiritual Condition of Russian Emigration" at the Second All-Diaspora Russian Orthodox Council of Archbishops in 1938 held in Sremsky Karlovtsy in
5 On this account St John wrote in his report to the All-Orthodox Council of ROCOR Bishops in 1938, "Meanwhile, there was a violation of the oath given to the Emperor and his legitimate heirs, and in addition on the head of the perpetrators of this crime did the curse of their ancestors fall. Zemsky Sobor (Council) in 1613 sealed its decisions with a curse that would fall to anybody who violates it" (John of Shanghai 1938, 5).
Serbia, the Bishop of Shanghai described in detail the negative impact of Western culture on the Russian emigration. According to him, this influence became apparent in the following negative points (John of Shanghai 1938, 7-8):
1) the Russian intelligentsia (intellectuals), including many high-ranking aristocrats and former imperial officials (even including several imperial ministers), abandoned the model of brotherhood with Asian peoples and moved to Euro-centrism, which ultimately destroyed the country;
2) European secularisation had a negative impact on the Russian emigration, leading to numerous cases of Russian Orthodox faith oblivion; only about 10 per cent of the population of the Russian diaspora in Europe visited the Church on a regular basis;
3) European lifestyle, indifference to their national traditions, the weakening of the role of the family, were corrupting examples for the White Russians abroad;
4) with the destruction of the Russian Empire, Roman Catholicism intensified its attacks on Orthodoxy throughout the world (John of Shanghai 1938, 7-8).
Fig. 14. Local Council of Archbishops in Shanghai in 1945. St John is in the first line, second right. © Temple of Great Martyr Irene
We may put forward an idea that Bishop John strengthened and developed his anti-European rhetoric on Tubabao. V. Sokoloff notes:
Vladyka was not afraid to speak boldly with the IRO European leaders, but spared all of us, knowing that we were entrusted by the will of God to their hands—for a long time or not, the life will show. He urged us not to immediately agree to the promises and assurances of the Australians. The reason was that the Australians, being virtually Europeans, wanted to make us slaves, as they made slaves or killed the natives... He would make every effort to create for us an unhindered entry into those countries whither we wish to enter, but not only in the countries that were the strongholds of European trampling Asian traditions, countries wishing to become even more unscrupulous in their colonial policy... [He] said the Russians should not become slaves on plantations deprived of their civil rights... The fact that we are now without our own country does not mean that we are without the highest aid and mighty protection of our Lord the God (Sokoloff 1999, 42).
Here St John openly and unreservedly was criticising the policy of the Australian authorities, who, through their representative Lerou, at the end of March 1949 had suggested that the most strong and healthy Russian refugees (women up to 35 years and men up to 50 years) should have agreed to the unbearable conditions of immigration to Australia (Dellios 2016; Fitzpatrick 2015; Le Caro 2006, 211):
1. Families, including spouses, must agree to separation.
2. A newcomer must sign a blank sheet of paper, on which the officials of the Ministry of Labour will afterwards write a two-year contract with those employers who want to take this particular employee.
3. For the two-year term, the immigrants will not have civil rights and will not be able to leave Australia.
It is interesting that many scientific works of Australian scientists do not take into account this important detail. For example, Nicholas Pitt's recent Master's thesis in History defended at the Australian National University (Pitt 2018) does not contain any information on the activities of Lerou and the first two Australian delegations to the Philippines, whose representatives wanted to get several thousand zero-cost Russian labourers to Australian plantations. Mr Pitt describes in detail the memoirs written by those few who reached the Australian continent and perceived it later as "the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth."
Lerou was personally walking around the camp and choosing people by physical data, health, age, height and condition of their teeth (Dunlop 2017, 176). Olga Morozova was shocked by the fact that Australians and IRO officials turned the application procedure for immigration to Australia by the Orthodox settlers into a slave market (Morozova n.d., 101). Why did St John talk about the European suppression of Asia, the continuation of the colonial regime? The fact is that Australian officials rejected all Orthodox Christians whose
personal files contained evidence of the presence of at least a small amount of Asian blood in their veins (Moravskii 2000, 74).
It is interesting that in parallel with the criticism of Europe in his Pentecost sermon St John moulded his Eurasian idea. According to Irene Kounitsky,
He called us, the Orthodox Russians, to self-discipline, to be like sheep among wolves (cf. Mt. 10:16 - Editorial note)... to shine like the lights of the world (cf. Phil. 2:15), containing and preaching the Orthodox faith in all those lands whither the Lord will lead us (Kounitsky 1999, 20).
The Bishop, thus, saw both the penance and the highest divine task of the White Russian emigration that lost its homeland, in spreading the gospel and the Orthodox faith in the countries of Southeast Asia, Oceania and finally America. In America he would go on 12 July 1949, to intercede with the Congress for the permission of immigration and residence in US of several thousand Orthodox refugees from China.
Fig. 15. Tubabao Island is a part of Guiuan location, East Samar province of the Philippines. A map. © Positively Filipino
In addition, St John obviously inclines here to the Eurasian idea, although his Eurasianism is quite different from that of Prince Nickolas Trubetskoy, Peter Savitsky, Lev Gumilyov or George Vernadsky. The distinct features of St John Eurasianism, distinguishing his ideas from the classical White emigrant Eurasianism of Prague, and later Parisian circle, on the basis of the reconstruction of his Pentecost sermon, can be considered as the following:
1. St John saw the Eurasian mission of the Russian emigration in religious and cultural
Orthodox missionary work, the formation of a single spiritual space in the Asia-Pacific territory, but not in the creating any political blocs and alliances.
2. He said nothing (or almost nothing) about the Asian origin of the Russian statehood.
3. He was against considering the power of the Bolsheviks as "natural" Eurasian political heirs of Imperial Russia, the successors of the old Eurasian monarchs, Russian Great Princes, Kings (Czars) and later Emperors. The position of the St John was consistently irreconcilable with the Soviet regime and did not allow any compromises until his very death in 1966.
4. The Orthodox influence of Russians in Southeast Asia and Australian-Pacific region should have inspired local peoples to struggle against European colonialists and remove all the traces of political and ideological regimes that "grounded" the legitimacy of colonialist activities of Europeans.
5. Australia is a legitimate ideological heir of Great Britain, the main locomotive of European ideologu in the region.
6. Orthodox Christianity is a religion that has more in common with traditional beliefs of Southeast Asia and Far East than with European Roman Catholicism.
Nevertheless, as we have seen, like the classical Eurasianists St John saw a disaster in the convergence of Russia and Europe in the late 19th - early 20th centuries and the oblivion of the Asian and Siberian cultural and ethnic heritage of Russian Empire. This strategy of repudiating Asian roots of Russia by the intellectuals and Imperial officials during Nicholas II reign led to the World War, three Russian revolutions and the overthrow of the legitimate monarch (John of Shanghai 2004, vol. 3, 42).
Blessing his Orthodox flock on immigration to different countries of Asia, Oceania and America6 (the Pacific coast of both Americas was considered by St John in the context of the unity of the Asia-Pacific region), the Bishop of Shanghai reposed his sincere hopes on the conscientiousness of the Russia Orthodox refugees as Eurasian missionaries. He expressed his strong belief that they would be carrying the light of the faith of Christ to different Asian, Pacific and American peoples (Prekrestov, 1995: 230). Thus, we believe that Bishop John can certainly be considered an Eurasian thinker, but with the stipulation that his Eurasian ideas were formed by a religious worldview and seriously differed from the rhetoric of the leaders of the classical Eurasian emigrant movement.
6 E.g., Bishop John spoke positively about the intention of Russian emigrants to go to the countries of Southeast Asia, New Zealand, Argentina, Paraguay and the United States. At the same time, he strongly opposes their plans for Australia, Germany and Austria. Australian authorities have acted treacherously and badly towards the Russian refugees. Germany and Austria were known for the fact that they constantly extradited the representatives of the White émigré movement to the Soviet government (Elliott 1982, 121-122).
Vol. 3 (2020) THE BEACON:
010110012 ENG Journal for Studying Ideologies and Mental Dimensions
Fig. 16. Orthodox Hieromonk Philip Balingit (to the left) is talking to an aged witness of the events of 1949 when he was a little boy. This man said at that time about Bishop John "How the Russians must be happy that they have an alive Saint between them." A photo of 2013.
© Rev Fr Georgy Maximov; https://yurij-maximov.livejournal.com
St. John understood well the plight of Russian emigrants; he saw the deprivation of their civil rights, need and desolation of people left without their Homeland after the revolution - people who had to cope with any hardships and trials in a foreign land without any indignation and with great patience. He sympathised with his flock, who found themselves without their Fatherland, but warned them against returning to Russia, now Soviet Russia.
Vladyka understood that if most of the representatives of the White émigré movement left in Asia, returned to their Homeland, they would be repressed, exiled to prisoners' camps and executed by the Stalin government.
CONCLUSION
In this work, based on the analysis of a number of diary entries, we have tried to restore the content of the unknown Pentecost sermon read by St John of Shanghai, the Wonderworker, in the Holy Virgin Cathedral of ROCOR on Tubabao Isle, the Philippines, on 12 June 1949, after the Pentecost kneeling prayers.
Fig. 17. The centre of the camp for the Orthodox refugees was once here. A photo of 2019. © tripadvisor.com
Based on our reconstruction, we assumed that St John divided his sermon into two semantic blocks. In the first part, he widely used the techniques of historical and religious metaphors and allegories. He drew many parallels between the current situation of the Orthodox refugees from China and examples from Old and New Testament history. He also used the techniques of socio-political allegory, incarnating the virtues of Orthodox immigrants in specific images. He also commented on the great ordeal the Russian people were to suffer, on hostility, animosity and abuse of IRO officials, in whose hands the fate of the Russian diaspora in Asia was since 1949. In the second part of his sermon, St John used in a straightforward and undisguised manner the anti-European rhetoric and criticism of European chauvinism, colonialism and nationalism. He formulated a number of Eurasian ideas about the fate and future challenges of the White Russian emigration in the Asia-Pacific region.
The 1949 Pentecost sermon of St John can be considered non-canonical, because he made its semantic core based on contemporary and urgent problems of ROCOR and the Russian diaspora in Asia, Oceania and America—primarily in the Philippines and China, and he did not dedicate his text to the common topics of Pentecost theological sermons. From a philological point of view, this sermon can be considered an important milestone in the
development of non-canonical Orthodox homiletics of the twentieth century.
Fig. 18. A group of former refugees visiting Tubabao in 2015. Now they are citizens of different countries around the globe.
© tripadvisor.com
Fig. 19. A plaque from the grateful Russians to the people of Philippines. © Positively Filipino
St John saw one of the main missions of the Russian Orthodox emigration in Asia, in the establishment of the anti-colonial ideology.
The Pentecost sermon of St John is non-canonical, because its semantic core contains acute and urgent issues of the ROCOR, the Orthodox Russian-Asian Diaspora in Asia and Australia-Pacific region, primarily in the Philippines, Australia and China, but not theological themes of the Pentecost itself. The refugee city on Tubabao Isle was unique in that its people formed a religious diaspora, not a national or ethnic one, since this diaspora united
Russians, Chinese, Filipinos, Malays, and Koreans on equal terms.
A B
Fig. 20. St John's of Shanghai icon with his relic in Novosibirsk, Russia. A photo of 2018 (A). St John's photo by an unknown Orthodox parishioner in San Francisco (B).
© Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in Novosibirsk. http://www.ansobor.ru; ROCOR, San Francisco and West American Diocese
Even if restored only in fragments, St John's sermon shows the presence of all features of a well-developed Eurasian anti-colonial ideological apparatus.
The charm of the personality of St John, his elevated tone, noted by many listeners, the firmness of his spirit, self-confidence, calmness and the call to rely on God in everything were the constituents of the style of his sermon. He breathed such feelings into the hearts of his Orthodox parishioners and undoubtedly positively influenced not only the Orthodox Church in the Philippines, but also the entire Russian diaspora on Tubabao Isle. In the future, the personal tireless work of the Bishop of Shanghai would lead to the fact that by the end of 1953 all Orthodox emigrants, surviving the harrowing trials of their faith and spirit in the tropical jungle of Tubabao, safely reached the coasts they were striving for.
Funding. This work was funded by Ukrainian Orthodox Church and Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia, Western American Diocese, without specific grant numbers.
Conflicts of interest. None declared.
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EXTENDED SUMMARY
Gerilovych, antony P., Rev, and Natalia P. SHarova. Development of Orthodox Diaspora
in Southeast Asia: Anticolonial Ideology in St John's Unknown Non-Canonical Sermon
for the Members of the Orthodox Mission on Tubabao Isle, the Philippines. In the article, based on the analysis of unpublished diary notes from the archives of Stanford University, USA, as well as a number of published memoirs of Orthodox refugees from China in 1949-1953, an attempt is made to reconstruct the sermon of St John, Archbishop of Shanghai and San Francisco, the Wonderworker. This sermon was read by him in the Holy Virgin Cathedral on Tubabao Isle, the Philippines, on the Pentecost (12 June 1949). The sermon can be considered as an ideological narration, since it was constructed by St John around acute and urgent up-to-date social and political issues of his flock, and not common Pentecost Evangelical readings and interpretation of theological questions.
A full text of the sermon is not recorded anywhere and can only be restored in fragments. Nevertheless, the sermon is extremely important for our understanding the development of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia at the early post-war period, both at the Philippines and throughout the Asia-Pacific region. As well the fate and future purposes of Russian emigration in Asia are considered by St John. The objects of the analysis were the diary notes of the leaders of the Russian Emigrant White movement in Asia, Colonel G. K. Bologov, O. Morozova, V. Fedulenko, A. Knyazev, N. Moravskii, K. Tatarinova, I. Kunitskaya, L. Krasovskaya and a number of other Orthodox emigrants. The methodology includes procedures and principles of philological inter-textual analysis and historical reconstruction.
On the basis of the research made, it is possible to assume that St John divided his sermon into two distinct parts. In the first part, St John used methods of historical and religious metaphor and allegory. He drew many parallels between the current situation of Orthodox refugees from China in Southeast Asia with the examples taken from Old
and New Testament history. He also used the techniques of socio-political allegory. In the second part of his sermon, the Bishop in a straightforward, undisguised form used severe anti-European rhetoric, criticism of European chauvinism, colonialism and nationalism, and formulated a number of Eurasian ideas about the fate and future challenges of young Asian nations that just recently got rid of their colonial yoke. St John stressed the religious and ideological mission of Russian Orthodox emigrants in Southeast Asia and Australian-Pacific region. One of his main ideas was emphasising the primary role of Orthodox Christianity as an Eurasian religion in the ideological struggle with European colonialism and overcoming colonial ideological influence in politics, culture and social life of young Southeast Asian states.
Blessing his Orthodox flock on immigration to different countries of Asia, Oceania and America (the Pacific coast of both Americas was considered by St John in the context of the unity of the Asia-Pacific region), the Bishop of Shanghai reposed his hopes on the conscientiousness of the Russia Orthodox refugees as Eurasian religious and political missionaries. He expressed his strong belief that they will be carrying the light of the faith of Christ to different Asian and Pacific peoples as well as to the Americans. St John can be considered an Eurasian thinker, but with the stipulation that his Eurasian ideology was formed by a religious and anticolonial worldview and seriously differed from the rhetoric of the leaders of the classical Eurasian White emigrant movement (Prague and Paris circles).
The three pillars of St John's ideology, therefore, were: 1) the religious missionary task of Orthodox emigrants from China, both Russians and representatives of Asian nationalities; 2) asserting the idea of Holy Rus that left the political borders of Stalin's Soviet Union and relocated in Asia; 3) understanding Orthodox Christianity as an ideological catalyst of Southeast Asian young nations reassessment of their future. That reassessment must have swept the colonialist ideology of imaginary European supremacy over Asian cultures and civilisations.
Authors / Авторы
Reverend Father Antony Pavlovich Gerilovych, PhD, Dr habil (Veterinary), Professor, is an Ukrainian Orthodox priest, the Deputy Director for Scientific Research of Institute for Experimental and Clinical Veterinary Medicine, Head of the Department of Molecular Epizootology, and Corresponding Member of the National Academy of Agrarian Sciences of Ukraine. Professor Fr Antony is the author and co-author of eleven diagnosticums, fifteen methodical recommendations, seventeen patents of Ukraine, more than one hundred articles on molecular diagnostics, epizootology and biotechnology, one monograph and scientific-methodical manual. Fr Gerilovych is the youngest corresponding members in Ukraine. As well he is one of the most influential Ukrainian
theologians.
Natalia P. Sharova is a Russian biologist, a specialist in the field of mechanisms of regulation of cellular processes in normal and pathological conditions with the participation of the ubiquitin-proteasome system. Currently she occupies the position of Deputy Director of N. K. Koltsov Institute of Developmental Biology of Russian Academy of Sciences. She is the author of 75 scientific articles and 3 patents, the supervisor of six PhD students. Under her guidance, innovative anticancer drugs and methods for the diagnosis of malignant neoplasms, are developed. For her professional achievements, she was awarded the medal "In memory of the 850th anniversary of Moscow" (1997).
Rev Fr Antony P. Gerilovych,
Institute for Experimental and Clinical Veterinary Medicine of the National Academy of Agrarian Sciences of Ukraine, 83 Pushkinska st, Kharkov, Ukraine, 61023
Natalia P. Sharova,
N. K. Koltsov Institute of Developmental Biology of Russian Academy of Science, Vavilova st 26, Moscow, 119334, Russia
© Rev Fr Antony P. Gerilovych; Natalia P. Sharova
Licensee The Beacon: Journal for Studying Ideologies and Mental Dimensions
Licensing the materials published is made according to Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence
