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The Growth Of The Russian Orthodox Church In America: Influences During The Tenure Of Bishop Tikhon, Karl Robert Krotke

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Bishop Tikhon Bellavin spent eight years serving as the head of the Aleutian and North American Diocese for the Russian Orthodox Church. During this period the Diocese underwent structural changes that have had a lasting impact on the church. Tikhon was the right Bishop to lead these transformations because, as this thesis argues, he was educated in new theological thoughts and practices. He was forced into these decisions by the following major changes in the United States: a massive increase in immigration from Eastern Europe containing Orthodox parishioners, settlement of these parishioners predominantly on the east coast, a change in …