Alexander Kukulevsky’s reform project of the American orthodox exarchate

Abstract

A report from the archive of the Orthodox church of America is analyzed as the project of reform of church management of 1937. It is researched firstly in domestic historiography as the independence scheme of the American exarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) by A. Kukulevsky, who was active Church leader, the author of many organizational and functional reforms. Claiming the priority of his own project and the analysis of his own experience, A. Kukulevsky listed the historical achievements of the North American metropolitanate. Putting forward the key idea of the exarchate’s unity, religion as analog of ideology, the protopresbyter explained the need for change not by the atheistic policy of the Soviet Union, but by disagreement within the foreign Orthodox episcopate. The content of the project listed the difficulties of the Archdiocese, primarily, the protest of part of the priests, the overproduction of them, loss of unity, financial problems, and the spread of ecclesiastical separatism. Like other theories from the 1930s, A. Kukulevsky’s scheme proclaimed nationality as bases of religion’s social institutes and as opposition to Bolshevism. At the same time, the option of leadership as proposed in the Church was like the Soviet scheme of government: It put forward the collective model (Council of bishops) as senior administrative authority and in its absence, the Metropolitan as the initiator and head of all administrative Affairs. The Metropolitan Council was a major financial agency. A. Kukulevsky as the project author contradicted himself. Striving for mutual control of the proposed management bodies, he tried simultaneously to protect the bishops from interfering with each other. Maxim independence was declared for members of the Church Federation and unity as their goal. The author of the document contradicted himself in the declaration of the high number of church’s officials as a difficulty of a metropolitanate and at the same time increasing its religious bureaucracy. One of the main goals of A. Kukulevsky was to expand the social base of Orthodoxy in America by intervention in education, culture, journalism and contacts with the national and patriotic organizations. A. Kukulevsky did not take note of these troubles and announced own scheme as the most practical, emphasizing the warlike atmosphere that was sensed by competent people. Refs 33.