Original article
Rev Fr Antony P. Gerilovych,
PhD, Dr habil (Veterinary), Professor, Ukrainian Orthodox priest, 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, Ukraine
Address: Institute for Experimental and Clinical Veterinary Medicine of the National Academy of Agrarian Sciences of Ukraine, 83 Pushkinska st, Kharkov, Ukraine, 61023
E-mail: antger2011@gmail.com
Natalia P. Sharova,
PhD, Dr habil (Biology), Deputy Director of Koltzov Institute of Developmental Biology of Russian Academy of Sciences, Head of Laboratory of Biochemistry of Ontogenesis Processes, Russia
Address: Koltzov Institute of Developmental Biology of Russian Academy of Science, 26 Vavilov st, Moscow, 119334, Russia
Article ID: 010110012
Published online: 21 March 2020
HANDLE: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12656/thebeacon.3.010110012
DOI: https://doi.org/10.55269/thebeacon.3.010110012
Quoting (Chicago style): 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.” Beacon J Stud Ideol Ment Dimens 3, 010110012. https://doi.org/10.55269/thebeacon.3.010110012
Language: English
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The paper covers the analysis of an unknown public sermon of St 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: St John of Shanghai and San 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
In the article, based on the analysis of unpublished diary notes from the archives of Stanford University, USA, as well as a number of published memoirs of Orthodox refugees from China in 1949–1953, an attempt is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.
© 2020 Rev Fr Antony P. Gerilovych; Natalia P. Sharova. Licensee The Beacon: Journal for Studying Ideologies and Mental Dimensions.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) that permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
