In 2020 we mark 120th Anniversary of the first permanent priest assignment to Canada

Father Jacob Korchinsky was the first of many permanent priests in Canada. In 2020 we mark the 120 years anniversary of his assignment to serve in and around Edmonton. From this issue of our bulletin and on we begin publishing the outline of the life and the activity of father Jacob.

 

The life of the archpriest Jacob Kosminovich Korchinsky

“The first Orthodox Church in Edmonton was actually a chapel dedicated to St. Barbara. It appeared in 1902 thanks to the sincere missionary efforts of Father Jacob Korchinsky and by the blessing of St. Tikhon, the future Patriarch of Moscow. It was located in Father Korchinsky’s home. On July 19, 1941, Father Korchinsky, who was eighty years old, was shot to death in Odessa by the atheists for being a priest of the Russian Orthodox Church. It is my hope that he will be glorified as a priest martyr.”

From the Archpastoral Epistle on the Occasion of the 50th
Anniversary of the Consecration of St. Barbara’s Russian
Orthodox Cathedral in Edmonton, Bishop Job of Kashira, 2010

 

Early life

On 30 April/13 May, 1861, Jacob Kosminovich (Kuzmich) Korchinsky was born into a faithful Orthodox Christian family near the city Smela (Smila), in the Dnieper Upland, in what is now the Cherkasy County of the (at that time) Kiev Province in the Russian Empire.

He was baptised with the name of the Apostle James (Jacob), son of Zebedee, because he was born on that Feast-day.

It was in the Cherkasy County that he would have received his primary and secondary education.

Higher education

His 4-year post-secondary schooling in Elizavetgrad seems to have been in the Aleksandryjsky district, where he acquired the qualifications to teach. It is that school board which assigned him, after graduation, to teach in the village of Gurovka (Horlivka) in the Yekaterinoslav Governorate, now the Donetsk Province. He taught in the diocesan schools there from 1881 to 1887.

Marriage, 1886

In 1886, Jacob married Barbara (Varvara) Yakovleva. Details about her life are at present minimal and scarce. It is known that she seems to have suffered from quite fragile health, at least for a time.

Whilst he was working there, Archbishop Nikanor (Brovkovich) of Kherson and Odessa recognised that he was an excellent teacher.

Diaconal ordination, 1887

In response to a resolution of Archbishop Nikanor (Brovkovich), Bishop Memnon (Vishnevsky) of Elisavetgrad ordained Jacob Korchinsky to the Holy Diaconate on 8 November, 1887.

Diaconal service

In November, 1887, Bishop Memnon (Vishnevsky) assigned Deacon Jacob to serve at Saint Michael’s Church in Elisavetgrad.

In 1893 and 1894, he was given awards for his teaching ability.

Whilst he was a deacon and still teaching, Deacon Jacob Korchinsky enrolled at the Odessa Theological Seminary, from which he graduated in 1895.

Missionary in Alaska, 1895

In 1895, Deacon Jacob Korchinsky was invited to teach in the missions in Alaska in the northwest part of North America by Bishop Nikolai (Ziorov) of the Aleutian Islands and Alaska. Having taken the blessing, the young deacon and his wife set off for North America. They arrived in New York City, and in September, the deacon was given the assignment to serve in Alaska. First, however, he was examined by a committee (including Bishop Nicholas) in various theological areas in accord with courses taught in the theological seminaries.

Presbyteral ordination, 1896

On 25 March, 1896, Deacon Jacob Korchinsky was ordained to the Holy Priesthood by Bishop Nicholas (Ziorov) in Sitka, Alaska, and he began his missionary work in Alaska. At first, he was assigned to Holy Protection Church at Saint Michael’s Redoubt (that is, Sitka).

Pastoral service

On 2 May, 1897, Bishop Nikolai (Ziorov) assigned him to be the Dean of the Khvikhpakh Mission (Kwikpak, Qwikpak) in the Yukon River Delta, near the Bering Sea. He and his matushka served this region from the Temple of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross in the village of Ikogmut (now known as “Russian Mission”). In fact, the Khvikhpakh region extended north to the Arctic at that time. The territory would have included places as distant as Nome and Fairbanks, which since then have established Orthodox Christian communities. The founder of this mission, based from this village, Ikogmut, was the holy Archpriest Jacob Netsvetov.

On 30 October, 1898, Father Jacob was awarded the gold pectoral cross for bringing more than 250 indigenous Alaskans into the Orthodox Christian Church. By this time, under the influence of the government of the USA, there were already Protestant missionaries at work, proselytising in all the regions where the Orthodox Christian missions had been active since 1794.

In early 1900, Bishop Tikhon (Belavin) spent 3 months with the Korchinsky family in the missionary areas round about Ikogmut and other places. Afterwards, the Priest Jacob Korchinsky wrote an article “The Journey of Bishop Tikhon, Bishop of the Aleutians and North America, to the Far North of America in 1900”, which was published in the “Russian American Orthodox Messenger” (sometimes shortened to “American Orthodox Messenger”). It was reprinted in the “Moscow Journal”, Nos. 7 and 8, 2002.

Missionary in Canada, 1900

On 1 September, 1900, Bishop Tikhon (Belavin) blessed the request for the transfer of Father Jacob and Matushka (Mother) Barbara Korchinsky to Canada. Father Jacob was transferred and assigned to serve in and around Edmonton, in Alberta. He was the first resident priest to serve in Canada.

This choice by Bishop Tikhon was not accidental. He had seen the hard labours and missionary work of Father Jacob in the Yukon River region. Moreover, the young priest was from the Kiev region, and it was easy for him to find a common language and understanding with the immigrants to Alberta, who were arriving from the regions of Galicia and Bukovina.

After having sailed south from Alaska to San Francisco, California, Father Jacob and Matushka Barbara travelled by railway north to Vancouver, British Columbia, and then east to Calgary in the Northwest Territories, and finally north to Strathcona (now the south side of the City of Edmonton). They arrived on 26 November, 1900.

During his short time there, he was the founding priest of Holy Trinity Church in Stary (Old) Wostok, where he began his assignment. He was also the founding priest of Saint Barbara’s Church in Edmonton, of Saint Mary’s Romanian Church in Boian, and of others as well, including the Ascension Church near Rabbit Hill-Nisku, at Calmar. At that time, all these communities (and most of the others in Western Canada) were in the Northwest Territories. These particular parishes are, since 1905, in the Province of Alberta.

Saint Barbara’s Church in Edmonton had its beginnings on Jasper Avenue in a store-front near the building which was later constructed and known as W W Sales Hardware (later W W Arcade Hardware).

Services were advertised at this first Saint Barbara’s Chapel for the convenience of those who travelled there from the rural places.

By 1901, Father Korchinsky had found and purchased a half-block of land at the southwest corner of 96th Street and 100th Avenue, about a block to the east of the chapel. This purchase from the nearby Northwest Mounted Police, on the property where the current cathedral stands today, included a frame house (on 96th Street, south of Jasper Avenue) and several other lots surrounding the house. Under Father Korchinsky’s leadership, the parish had come to own a substantial piece of property, which proved to be useful in the future. The name of the parish was certainly determined with respect for Matushka Barbara, and in sincere honour of the Great Virgin Martyr Barbara. The Korchinskys lived in this same house, and they set apart a portion in which they and the parishioners could worship. Even though her health may have been fragile, Matushka Barbara may be said to have done her best. Truly, an active and productive missionary priest is hardly likely to be able to be so unless his wife is a stable co-worker, and strongly supportive. Such a purchase from his own money for the sake of the mission became characteristic of his activities throughout his life. He spared nothing for the sake of feeding the rational sheep of Christ, and spreading the Gospel of Christ.

During these early years, Bishop Tikhon (Belavin) visited twice (in 1901, and again in 1904).

After the first visit, Vladyka (Saint) Tikhon ordered icons, relics and other necessities for several Temples across the Canadian prairies, and one of these relics was of the Great Virgin-Martyr Barbara.

It was during 1902 and 1903 that Saint Tikhon strove to find a way to incorporate the bishop as a means to provide corporate status for the many Temples and communities being developed in Canada. Father Jacob was very much involved in this process. This incorporation was proved to be impossible in the Ottawa parliament, because the Québec-dominated Senate blocked the passage of the Bill of Incorporation in 1902 (there was prejudice against both the “foreignness” of Vladyka Tikhon and the Orthodox Church). Thus, incorporation was possible only in the then Northwest Territories (in the present provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan). The corporate status was also crucial in the struggle to retain the Church of the Transfiguration in Star, as Bishop Tikhon had been advised by the legal firm “Short and Cross”. The legal dispute about the ownership of this particular Temple between the Orthodox Church and the Uniats of the Roman Catholic Church was very prolonged. This particular dispute was resolved in Bishop Tikhon’s favour only when the matter was taken to the Privy Council in London, England.

It was because of Vladyka Tikhon’s success in at least the more local form of incorporation that there was an adequate foundation available for the corporate existence of the Bishop of Canada and the parishes that he would bless into existence.

The establishment of Saint Barbara’s Church is considered by the Greek Orthodox of Edmonton (Saint George’s Church) as being the beginning of their community as well, since Greek-speakers at first attended this house-church. In 1900, Father Jacob visited the Dormition of the Theotokos Church in Shandro, Alberta, where he baptised 33 children in a single day. One can get the sense, from reading about Father Korchinsky’s life, that this sort of event was rather commonplace for him. It was certainly commonplace for the other clergy who worked in this region thereafter. In 1901, Father Jacob was again given recognition for building a Temple whilst doing missionary work in Canada.

As Bishop Job (Smakouz) commented, “He also kept a liturgical diary, in which he noted the important events of his ministry. Part of the diary dedicated to the first year of his service in Canada has been preserved in the archives of The Orthodox Church in America”.

 

Return to Europe, 1902

On 1 January, 1902, Father Jacob Korchinsky requested that he be relieved of duties in Canada and the Aleutian Diocese because of his wife’s illness, and that he be allowed to return to Russia. He was blessed to do this, and he was transferred to the Kherson-Odessa Diocese, then in the southern Ukrainian part of the Russian Empire. There, Father Jacob was appointed to be rector of the Holy Resurrection Church in Bereznegova on the Black Sea coast. It is now in the Nikolaev Diocese of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. He also resumed his teaching duties there for the next 5 years, and during this time he received many teaching and service awards.

In 1906, Father Jacob was appointed to be rector of the Protection Church in the Kherson prison.

After 2 years of serving in the prison church, Father Jacob reapplied to return to North America.

Return to North America, 1908

After 6 years of service in Russia, in 1908, Father Jacob, with the blessing of the Most Holy Synod, returned to North America and he served in the parish of Saint Archangel Michael in Mount CarmelPennsylvania, USA.

In his report of 26 November, 1906 to the Holy Synod, the then Archbishop Tikhon (Belavin) wrote about Father Korchinsky :‘He did much to convert the heathen to the Christian Faith and returned many Uniates to the Orthodox Church.  He set the foundation for parish life in many places, built churches and assisted the unfortunate with his acquired medical knowledge’.

Whilst he was in Pennsylvania, Father Jacob was awarded the gold pectoral Cross by an Imperial Decree.

During this period of time in the USA, in parallel with his priestly activity, Father Jacob received a medical education. He graduated from a medical institute. This was required by the conditions of his missionary service when he visited the poor remote settlements of American Indigenous peoples. Of course, even before that, he was providing assistance, but he then decided to acquire the professional knowledge of a physician.

On 25 March, 1911, the Korchinskys were relocated to Newark, New Jersey, where Father Jacob was appointed to be the rector of the Church of Saint Michael, and also the visiting priest to parishes in Erie, and Carnegie in Pennsylvania, and Youngstown in Ohio. He was the first resident priest of the Church of Saints Peter and Paul in South River, New Jersey. During his years in this area, Father Jacob Korchinsky also served as the Dean of Pennsylvania.

The Mitred Archpriest Michael Protopopov is of the opinion that Father Jacob Korchinsky was  ‘one of the jewels of the Russian Mission in America, one of those super-priests who covered vast territories and founded numerous churches’.

Father Jacob was not alone, as indicated by the use of the plural in this comment. There were other very hard-working missionaries besides him. They did what they did, and were enabled to do so, because of their personal love for Jesus Christ.

Father Jacob was a member of the trustee board and the first manager of the Russian Émigré Society in New York City. He was a trustee of the Orthodox Orphanage of North America (at Saint Tikhon’s Monastery). He also served as a member of the Imperial Russian Palestine Society. At the suggestion of Archbishop Platon (Rozhdestvensky), he was elected to be vice-president and honourary member of the Russian Emigrant Society of North America.

Father Jacob also founded some Temples in the USA. Amongst them was the Nativity of Christ Church in Youngstown, Ohio, in 1915.

Mexico, adoption

In the midst of all these activities, there was an undocumented period of time before 1915, during which Father Jacob travelled to Mexico and served in Mexico City. During this period, it happened that as he was visiting and serving foster homes, he was given the infant girl Dominica (born 18 January, 1913), from a poor family of Spanish origin. He adopted the child, and she lived first with him, and then in his family. She, herself, later had children who lived in Odessa and in parts of what is now Russia. Father Jacob and Matushka Barbara’s granddaughter wrote about her mother and her grandparents in a recent article in “Faith”, a Russian religious periodical, dated May, 2006.

In 1915, the Priest Jacob Korchinsky was elevated to the dignity of archpriest.

Mission in Hawaii, 1915

Then, also in 1915, the Russian Orthodox community in Hawaii (with the support of the Episcopal Bishop Henry B Restarick), sent an official request to the Holy Governing Synod in Saint Petersburg for a priest. At this time, Hawaii was a Territory of the USA (after having been annexed in 1898).
On 30 September, 1915, the Archpriest Jacob Korchinsky was dispatched (with the blessing of Archbishop Evdokim (Meschersky) of the Aleutians) to shepherd the large population of Orthodox Russian faithful in Hawaii. Upon arrival there, he established permanent liturgical services in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Quickly, he developed a community of more than 250 people. Since there was no Orthodox Temple in Honolulu, Father Jacob accepted the offered help of the Episcopal Church, and their bishop provided him with a place in which he could hold services. In his report addressed to Archbishop Evdokim (Meschersky), he said :

‘On 29 November (1915), in the Hawaiian Islands, I, unworthy, was able to serve the first Orthodox Divine Liturgy in the Episcopal Church, which belongs to the Cathedral of the Apostle Andrew the First-Called, kindly provided to the Orthodox for the services by the Most Reverend Bishop.  In addition, the priest enlisted the support of influential non-Orthodox donors who were ready to contribute to the construction of an Orthodox church.’

On the Feast of the Nativity of Christ, 25 December/7 January, 1916, the Archpriest Jacob Korchinsky celebrated the Divine Liturgy at Saint Andrew’s Episcopal Cathedral in Honolulu. Thus, Orthodoxy was re-established in Hawaii.

It would, however, fall to others to continue this pastoral work. The Orthodox Christian Faith had been present in the Hawaiian Islands from 1815, while there was a monarchical government that had friendly relations with the Russian Empire. However, when the Republic of Hawaii was established in 1893, American Protestant missionaries were free to proselytise, and they were well-funded. The activities of Father Jacob had been preceded in 1910 with the establishment of a chapel which offered Reader’s Services, and that had led to the 1915 invitation.

Whilst he was in Honolulu (wrote Father Michael Protopopov), Father Korchinsky happened to meet a group of Russian Latvians who were sailing from Australia to Egypt via Honolulu and the newly-opened Panama Canal. They told him that there were Russians in Australia. Not long afterwards, Father Korchinsky read in the “Messenger” (the official publication of the Russian Mission in America) in January, 1916 :

‘In Australia, there live thousands of Russian people, who are spiritually ministered to by a Greek priest who visits once a year.  His services are conducted unwillingly and without a sense of piety, even though he receives a large amount of money for his services.  It has also been reported that a self-styled ‘priest’ has arrived in Australia from North America who has exploited the unsuspecting Russians with excessive fees for baptisms and weddings, so much so, that they complained to the police and the ‘priest’ was arrested.’

Father Korchinsky then wrote to the Russian Consul-General in Melbourne, who responded by asking him to come to Australia immediately.

With the blessing to do so, the Archpriest Jacob (Korchinsky) departed by ship in early February, 1915, for Australia.

Following the departure of Father Jacob Korchinsky to Australia in 1916, he was replaced by the Archpriest John Dorosh in that same year. Father Dorosh remained in Hawaii until his departure in the 1920s.

 

Mission in Australia, 1916

Father Jacob Korchinsky arrived in Melbourne, Australia, in March, 1916. In the months that followed, he visited 750 families and 500 isolated persons. He also baptised 16 children.

However, in part because of the climate, and the fact that he was suffering from fatigue, he found that he had contracted malaria.

By July, he found it necessary to return to Russia. He wrote the following to his bishop, Archbishop Evdokim (Meschersky) :

 We have elected a committee to oversee Church life, but my illness brought on by the excessive heat, has caused me to take to my bed and has deprived me of being of any further use. […] I most respectfully plead that Your Grace not forsake the Russian Orthodox in Australia and especially their next generation of youngsters.  I beg that Your Grace may raise the question of the Church in Australia at the forthcoming All-Russian General Council and if it be appropriate to appoint me as the permanent priest for Australia.

The result was that the Most Holy Synod placed Australia under the omophorion of the Bishop of Tokyo, Japan. Father Korchinsky, however, was in need of money. He had spent all his own funds on his missionary work. In addition, his wife and 3-year-old daughter had remained in America, and he wished to be reunited with them. He was given the blessing, and money, but then World War I intervened.

Father Jacob sailed to Vladivostok through the Philippine Islands and Japan, and he visited Orthodox parishes in these countries on the way. Six months later, he finally reached Petrograd (the newer, “less German-sounding” name for Saint Petersburg).

 

Return to Odessa, 1917

Father Korchinsky was assigned to be a chaplain for the 50th Engineering Battalion at the 109th military hospital in Odessa, and he served there from December, 1916, to August, 1917.

Father Protopopov wrote :

 Upon being demobilised from military service, Father Korchinsky was again faced with the problem of having nothing to live on.  On 29 August 1917, he again wrote to the Holy Synod asking that he be assigned a pension, as he was so poor that he needed to live in a rural village where the folk fed him out of compassion.  A second resolution was made by the Holy Synod for a pension to be granted to Father Korchinsky, but no documentary evidence is available to confirm a pension ever having been paid.  Nor is it known if he returned to his family in Pennsylvania. 

Somehow, Father Korchinsky’s family did, in fact, make it back to Russia. His granddaughter attests that between 1916 and 1917, Father Korchinsky returned to his home in Odessa, and that his adopted daughter was then about 3 or 4 years old.

In Odessa, Father Jacob Korchinsky remained throughout the Bolshevik Revolution and the terror that followed. It is not thus far well documented what he may have endured during the following 2 decades, although it is quite certain that he must have had some painful times. However, according to the research of Bishop Job (Smakouz), after the Revolution and until 1935, Father Jacob (as indicated in the documents of the interrogation) served in various parishes of the Odessa and Nikolaev dioceses. He was given various ecclesiastical awards, including the right to wear the mitre. After that, he became an “unassigned priest”, meaning he was in retirement.

The Mitred Archpriest Jacob Korchinsky was arrested on 23 June, 1941, the second day of the Great Patriotic War (World War II).

 

Arrest and interrogation, 1941

Following are the details as found in the research of Bishop Job (Smakouz) in documents which became available only in 2006 [shortened]:

The 80-year-old elderly archpriest perfectly understood what end awaited him. The answers of the interrogated priest are concise and honest. In his testimony, he categorically denied his participation in the “anti-state conspiracy” as part of the “anti-Soviet group”.
As can be seen from the interrogation materials, Fr. Jacob came to the apartment of his faith brothers for prayer together, as at that time almost all the churches in pre-war Odessa were closed. But the investigator Sergeant Kozhuhar, after numerous nightly interrogations, falsely summarized the same accusation, passing from protocol to protocol: ‘The anti-Soviet group, which included Korchinsky, gathered in the apartment of Petrishchev and Kovalchuk, using religious prejudices, carried out counter-revolutionary activities, propagandizing the restoration of the bourgeois system…

 

Repose, 1941

On 19 July, 1941, not long after his arrest, just as very many of his fellow priests, the Mitred Archpriest Jacob Korchinsky was executed in the Odessa region. He was 80 years old. This particular detail is derived from the letter of Father Jacob’s granddaughter.

It is not known at the present time just where and when Matushka Barbara reposed, nor under what circumstances. Suffice it to be understood that she seems to have been a strong woman interiorly, despite the fragility of her health at one time.

 

Sanctity

After the fall of Communism, on August 18, 1993, the Archpriest Jacob Korchinsky was rehabilitated posthumously.

It seems that the usual investigations are proceeding regarding his possible glorification. The Church, in order to do so, tries to make certain that he did, in fact, suffer the execution and tortures because he was an Orthodox Christian and a priest of the Orthodox Church. Little seems to be written about the details of the life of Matushka Barbara, but it is most likely that she, as well, suffered in some fashion at the hands of communists because of her faith in Christ.

However, in the database of the Saint Tikhon Humanitarian Orthodox University for the New-Martyrs and Confessors of Russia (it contains more than 30,000 names), the Priest Jacob (Iakov) Korchinsky is not listed for some reason.

Bishop Job (Smakouz) reminds us that at one time, the future Patriarch Tikhon (Belavin) had written about Father Jacob :

 He did much to convert the Gentiles to the Christian Faith and joined many Uniates to the Orthodox Church, laid the foundation for parish life in many places, built temples and helped the sick with his medical knowledge.

 

Feast-day

Although the Archpriest Jacob Korchinsky has not been officially glorified, many regard his martyrdom for the sake of Christ to be qualification in itself (not neglecting his life of self-denying missionary service along with his wife).

Were he to be officially glorified, he would be commemorated on the date of his death, 19 July, or on another appropriate date as determined by the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church.

 

Reflections

It is clear from the life of the Hieromartyr Jacob Korchinsky that he was a diligent sower of seeds of the Gospel of Christ (see Matthew 13:1-23). In every place he served, there grew good fruit, often despite adverse circumstances.

Bishop Job (Smakouz) rightly considered that the outstanding characteristic of Father Jacob is the fact that wherever he went during his lifetime, he was concerned with preaching the Gospel of Christ and with serving Christ. He was always a missionary for Christ. He further commented that the geography of his service covered very remote territories in Alaska and Canada, besides more populated areas of the USA and Hawaii, Australia and places within the Russian Empire and its successor the Soviet Union. Bishop Job considered him to be like the apostles.

Everywhere, he used many of his own personal resources, sometimes to their complete depletion, in order to nurture Orthodox Christian communities:

 He transformed his personal home into the first Temple in Edmonton; and when a typical wooden Temple was built later, he bought all the icons painted in Russia for the iconostas at his own expense.  To provide the necessary medical care, he studied medicine, received a medical education.  This was especially necessary in distant places of his service, such as Alaska, Ruthenian farming communities in Alberta, Mexico and Australia, travelling by land and sea.  Together with his matushka, he adopted a Mexican orphan girl.

Vladyka Job likened Father Jacob to Bishop Tikhon (Belavin): young, full of energy, talented and zealous, not afraid of difficulties, simple and accessible, open for communication with the flock, not sparing his own time and health for the flock.

There are two Temples in Alberta which keep alive the memory of the Mitred Archpriest Jacob and Matushka Barbara Korchinsky. The first is the Cathedral Church of Saint Barbara in Edmonton, Alberta, established in 1900. The second is the Temple of Saint Jakob near Mundare, Alberta, established in 1901. This couple was involved in the establishment of both Temples and their communities.

Bishop Job (Smakouz) acknowledges that there are some parishioners who miraculously resolved difficulties with documents and visas, …after they entered the name of Father Jacob in their personal memorial books, and took part in a panikhida for him…

It is not simply we who determine who is especially holy. The Lord reveals to us who is holy. It is He who gives indications about a person to whom He has given the blessing to intercede for us and for the world. In fact, there are very many persons throughout the world who are locally recognised as being holy persons, but whose names have not been added to more official calendars. There are also persons who are recognised by the Faithful as being holy, but whose names have not in any way official been recognised. Fundamentally, it may be said that everyone who is admitted by the Lord into the Kingdom of Heaven by definition becomes holy, by being fully in the Presence of the Lord, “before His Face”, as members of the Body of Christ, and in harmony with the Lord’s direction: “Be holy, for I am holy” (3 Moses 11:44,45; 19:2; 1 Peter 1:16). We in this life are given to know those particular persons whose intercession has been blessed by the Lord to be effective for our health and salvation.

In 2021 we celebrate the 120th Anniversary of consecration of the first Orthodox church in Canada and the first visit of the Orthodox Bishop, St. Tikhon

God grants, in the next (March) issue we shall start publishing the materials on the historical visit with the article written by Father Jacob Korchinsky that was published in the “Journal of the Moscow Patriarchate”, No. 07, July 2002.

http://orthodoxcanada.ca/Mitred_Archpriest_Jacob_and_Matushka_Barbara_Korchinsky