8,923
edits
Changes
→Communist era (1917-1991): 1948
*1946 Reuben Spartas of the African Orthodox Church visits Alexandria; Holy Synod of the [[Church of Alexandria]] officially recognizes and accepts the African Greek Orthodox Church in Kenya and Uganda; state-sponsored synod is held at Lviv, Ukraine in March, which officially dissolves the [[Union of Brest-Litovsk]] and integrates the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church into the Russian Orthodox Church, Soviet authorities arresting resisters or deporting them to Siberia; first post-war ROCOR Council of Bishops is convened in Munich.
*1947 [[Dead Sea Scrolls]] discovered near Qumran in Egypt, pre-dating the Masoretic text by about a millenium, many fragments of which agree with the [[Septuagint]] version of the Bible over and against the Masoretic Text, proving that many of the variants in the Greek were also present in ancient Hebrew manuscripts; death of [[Alexis (Kabaliuk) of Carpathia|Alexei Kabalyiuk]], who played a major role in reviving Orthodoxy in [[w:Zakarpattia Oblast|Transcarpathia]] in the early 20th century.
*1948 Establishment Martyrdom of Protopresbyter Dr. [[Gabriel Kostelnik]], a Carpatho-Russian priest who returned to the Orthodox Church soon after the end of World War II, having presided over the Lvov Assembly in March 1946 calling for the return of all Uniates to the Orthodox Faith; establishment of [[w:State of Israel|State of Israel]] and end of [[w:British Mandate of Palestine|British Mandate of Palestine]]; [[Church of Russia]] re-grants [[autocephaly]] to the [[Church of Poland]] (after having revoked it in the aftermath of World War II); [[w:World Council of Churches|World Council of Churches]] is founded; [[Council of Moscow (1948)|Council of Moscow]] is held on the occasion of the 500th anniversary of the independence of the [[Church of Russia|Russian Church]] from [[Church of Constantinople|Constantinople]], with representatives of the local Orthodox Churches rejecting all participation in the World Council of Churches; after the Soviet Union recognized the state of Israel, Israel returned all Russian church properties on its territory to the [[Moscow Patriarchate]], including the [[w:Russian Compound|Russian Compound]].
*1949 Soviet authorities revoke the [[w:Union of Uzhhorod|Union of Uzhhorod]] of 1646, creating the Orthodox Eparchy of Mukachiv-Uzhhorod, under the Patriarch of Moscow; Communist takeover of China leads to oppression of religious groups.
*1950 [[w:Pope Pius XII|Pope Pius XII]] proclaims the [[w:Bodily Assumption|Bodily Assumption]] of the Virgin Mary as a dogma; [[Symeon (Du) of Shanghai|Symeon (Du)]] is consecrated Bishop of Tianjin in July, becoming the first Chinese Orthodox bishop, transferred in September to be Bishop of Shanghai (1950-1965).
