ARCHBISHOP TIKHON (BELLAVIN's) SPEECH

ON THE OCCASION OF HIS ELEVATION TO THE RANK OF ARCHBISHOP

11/23 DECEMBER 1898

Translated from the original Russian

By Sergei D. Arkhipov

TIKHON'S SPEECH ON THE OCCASION OF HIS ELEVATION TO

THE RANK OF ARCHBISHOP, 11/23 DECEMBER 1898

On this, my first visit to you, my dear brethren, I recall the words once spoken by the Lord through the Prophet Hosea: "I will say to that which was not my people, Thou art my people; . . . I will love her that was not loved." These words referred to the pagans, and meant that when many people in Israel, God's chosen people, did not accept Christ, the Lord revealed Himself to those "who did not seek Him," (Rom. 10:20; Isaiah 65:1) and He called the pagans to His Church.

By God's boundless mercy, the pagan inhabitants of Alaska and the Aleutian Islands were called to the Church of Christ. They were surrounded and illumined with the Light of the Christian Faith by the monks of Valaam, who first sowed the seeds of the Gospel's Good News here. After them, their holy work was continued by your previous priests and Aleutian hierarchs, especially by Archpriest John Veniaminov (later Innocent, Metropolitan of Moscow), and by my predecessor, His Grace Nicholas, who was a man strong both in word and deed. And I, by the will of God, was summoned to the Apostolic Mission here, and now I will call "that which was not my people," my people and those I have not loved, my beloved. Up until now we were strangers to one another, and we have never before seen one another. But the Lord Himself has placed us into an intimate relationship - that which exists between a bishop and his flock, and the flock and its bishop. In the writings of the Holy Fathers, this relationship is likened to a marriage, where the bishop is the bridegroom, and the flock is his bride. And as the husband loves his wife so much, that he leaves his father and mother and goes to his wife, marries her, and lives with her, so must a bishop love his flock. Likewise, as a wife gives herself to her husband, so must the flock give itself to its bishop. By understanding this, the relationship of a bishop to his flock, and being betrothed to the Aleutian flock, I have left my beloved Homeland, my very, very old mother, my relatives and friends dear to my heart, and I have come to a distant land, to you, a people completely unknown to me, so that from now on you would become "my people and my loved ones." From this moment on, I dedicate all my thoughts and efforts only to you and to your welfare; my strength and my ability, I dedicate to your service. Brethren, I come to you with love, and I ask that you accept me with love. My love will be expressed in my care for and protection of you, in my serving you; and your love must be shown in your obedience to me, in your trust in me, and in your cooperation with me.

These words of cooperation I direct first of all to my closest associates - the clergy of the Aleutian Church. I am here in this country for the first time, and I know little about it. But you have been here long before me, and many of you have adopted it as your own. Others among you have been born here. I pray that during my stay with you, you will show me great assistance with your knowledge of this land and of its people; and with your expertise you will truly become my associates - men of wisdom and counsel.

But I ask for cooperation, not only from the clergy, but also from my entire beloved flock. The Holy Apostle Paul wisely likens the church to the body. The body has not one, but many parts (I Cor. 12:14) and they each have a separate function (Romans 12:4). The eye has its own, and the hand has its own; but every part is necessary and cannot do without the other, and each part is equally concerned for all the others. (I Cor. 12:25-26.) Likewise, you, brethren, together "are Christ's Body," (I Cor. 12:27), and everyone of you has been given a gift by Christ (I Cor.

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