“Soft, calm, ready to listen”: what is known about the new head of ROCOR

The Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, which met in New York, elected a new ROCOR First Hierarch. There was no sensation. Before the elections, the chances of Bishop Nikolai of Manhattan (in the world, Nikolai Alexandrovich Olkhovsky) were quoted above all. He became the next head of the Russian Church Abroad.

“In my opinion, there will be no surprises, and Bishop Nikolai (Olkhovsky) will be elected First Hierarch in the first round,” Sergey Chapnin, the former editor-in-chief of the Journal of the Moscow Patriarchate, wrote on his social media page the day before the New York elections. , and now a senior fellow at the Center for Orthodox Studies at Fordham University (New York). And how he looked into the water.

Let us recall that the previous head of ROCOR, Metropolitan Hilarion (in the world Igor Alekseevich Kapral), died on May 16 of this year after a long illness. He was 74 years old. The new First Hierarch is 47 years old. Nikolai Olkhovsky was born in Trenton, the capital of the US state of New Jersey. But it is difficult to call him one hundred percent American.

“Our roots are in Belarus,” he said several years ago in an interview posted on the website of the Eastern American Diocese of ROCOR. “During the Second World War, my parents and their families managed to leave Russia through Poland to Germany, from there – in 1948 – to Brazil… In 1961, the Olkhovskys, my father’s family, and the Rusinovichi, my mother’s family, left for the US In America, there was freedom, work, Russian acquaintances, Orthodox churches were being built, and there was an opportunity not to betray or hide their faith.”

Under what circumstances the parents’ families left the territory of the USSR at the height of the war, Bishop Nikolai did not specify. But judging by the reported information, the Olkhoviches and Rusinoviches emigrated along with the retreating German troops. Other versions are hardly possible.

In 1993, Nikolai Olkhovsky graduated from high school, in 1998 – Holy Trinity Theological Seminary in Jordanville, in 2000 – SUNY (State University of New York Technology School) with a bachelor’s degree in computer science and communications.

In 2004 he was ordained a deacon, in 2012 he became a priest, and in 2014 he took monastic vows. In the same year, 2014, he was named Bishop of Manhattan. On May 12, 2022, he was appointed Head of the Office of the First Hierarch of the Russian Church Abroad. May 17 – acting Governor of the Eastern American Diocese.

As you can see, the career was swift: only 10 years passed from the assignment of the priestly rank to the holding of the highest post in ROCOR. What was the prestige?

“He is known as the guardian of the main shrine of the Church Abroad – the Kursk-Root Icon of the Mother of God, with which he traveled if not the whole world, then most of it,” Sergey Chapnin talks about the new ROCOR First Hierarch. “Gentle, calm, ready to listen and act without haste “He enjoys the confidence of the clergy and laity. Many associate with him the possibility of continuing the course that was taken by his predecessors.”

The Moscow Patriarchate, of which ROCOR is a self-governing part, is completely satisfied with the choice of bishops. However, any other would do. According to Chapnin, all the figures considered as possible candidates for the highest post in the Russian Church Abroad – in addition to Bishop Nicholas, were named, for example, the names of Metropolitan Mark (Arndt) of Berlin and Germany, Archbishop Gabriel (Chemodakov) of Montreal and Canada, Bishop of London and Western European Iriney (Strinberg) – absolutely loyal to Moscow.

And if it were not so, there was an opportunity to correct the choice. “The act of canonical communion gives Patriarch Kirill and his Synod the right to approve the candidacy of the elected first hierarch,” Chapnin recalls. “Surprises are practically excluded here.”

Nevertheless, the further course of events cannot be considered completely predetermined. “It is customary in the Church to say that a bishop who has become the primate of the Church should be reacquainted,” the expert writes. “Let’s see if this will be the case with the new primate.”

According to Chapnin, the newly elected head of ROCOR faces very difficult tasks: “The new First Hierarch will have to solve several tactical and strategic issues related to the system of church administration both within ROCOR and in relations with the ROCOR. The first and main question is whether it will be possible to maintain autonomy from Moscow or, taking advantage of the moment, Patriarch Kirill will try to bring ROCOR under tighter control.

It is hardly possible to say that the patriarch will try to give ROCOR his “curator”, but this possibility cannot be completely ruled out. The new First Hierarch will have to build relations with him, and a lot will depend on what distance he chooses.”

The appointment, or, in layman’s terms, the inauguration, of the elected First Hierarch, who is henceforth referred to as “His Eminence Metropolitan of Eastern America and New York,” will take place on Sunday, September 18. Like the election, it will take place at the Cathedral of the Sign in New York.

According to the ROCOR official website, the finale of the ceremony will look like this: “After reading the entrance prayers and the usual fall, 2 senior bishops will elevate the new metropolitan to the cloudy place and proclaim “Axios”, which is repeated first by the bishops and clergy, and then in chorus … At the end of the service a prayer service will be performed and the rite of handing over to the newly elected First Hierarch the archpastoral baton, consecrated on a sacred shrine with the relics of St. Tikhon, All-Russian Patriarch-Confessor.