Someone asked about the former Cathedral. It's still standing and is now being referred to as the proto-cathedral. One parishioner maintains a blog.

As to historical issues with Bishop Soter. There's a lot of historical information about him in the book Historical Mirror, edited by Fr. John Slivka, which can be read online.

Dearest Father Deacon John,


I believe you have hit the nail on the head.

"only the patriarch, with the consent of the synod of bishops, may modify an eparchy and transfer the eparchial see. Since our particular Church is not under the jurisdiction of an Eastern patriarch, the Holy Father acts as such."

This same ecclesiological principle is evident in the OOC (which, it should be noted, also reflects the same tension). Please correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the same principle at work among the EOC's as well (i.e., with regards to metropolitan Churches in relation to a Patriarch)?

I really, really don't understand why people are complaining that the Ruthenian Church is not a real Church because of this ecclesiological exigency. Until we have an Eastern Catholic Byzantine Patriarch for the Slavs, it seems perfectly normal for the Holy Father to fulfill that function and purpose.

Humbly,
Marduk

dochawk,

Stuart misspoke in refrence to the proto-Cathedral of St Mary. Although it suffered some minor damage in the Northridge Quake, it was never closed, condemned or otherwise rendered unusable. The eparchial office and bishop's residence did in fact suffer major damage and rendered unusable. As a result, Bishop George, of blessed memory, moved the chancery and his residence to facilities located at Saint Stephen, Phoenix, AZ.

As I recall, during that quake (1994, I believe) there was a large 3 story apartment building that collapsed and was featured on the nightly news for several days as rescue efforts were underway. I remember being told that Bishop George's residence was just across the street from that severely damaged building.

Dave,

In fact, the parishioner who maintains the blog is Steve Petach, a member of our forum community.

Many years,

Neil

May God grant many blessings to the Eparchy of Phoenix and its members!

Too back the news was accompanied by this bickering; hopefully with the start of the Great Fast this time will be spent in prayer.

Fr Deacon Paul

According to my own recollection and also according to Fr. James, Bishop William requested "Protection of the Theotokos Eparchy of Phoenix"...

Father James said that it is hoped that the Nuncio merely made a bad translation from the Latin of the decree.

Wow, I hadn't realised that the Proto-Cathedral was condemned.

The Eparchial offices were not on the actual Cathedral address in Sherman Oaks, CA rather they were located in Northridge, CA. The building the offices were in was conmemned and would have cost too much to rebuild. Fortunately the Cathedral, the rectory and the parish hall sufferd only minor damage that was easily repaired.

Earthquake insurance is available out here. At the time (1994) earthquake insurance was strictly optional. I don't think the Eparchy had earthquake insurance prior to Jan 1994.

The reason the offices are not at the cathedral address were mostly due to the high cost of construction and real estate at the time. Also, there is no room to expand the Cathedral property as we are surrounded by large apartment buildings on three sides and a major boulevard on the fourth.

The Cathedral (now Proto-Cathedral) is very much alive, active and open. I maintain an unofficial blog and a facebook group for the cathedral.

We all knew it was just a matter of time for the name change to be official. It does seem strange that while Rome encourages us to be a sui juris church, we still had to wait for a formal approval of a name change from Rome.

\\but continued to call it the Eparchy of Van Nuys as if there was any hope of rebuilding the old cathedral and moving back there.\\

Well, didn't the Eparchy of Mukachevo move to Uzhorod centuries ago, and it's STILL called "Eparchy of Mukachevo"?

The distance by road between both town in Ukraine is on only 40 kms (25 miles), so in effect both places are just down the road from each other. This is not the case of the recently renamed eparchy.

Paul, my brother,

But, 'just down the road from each other' is a relative description. Twenty-five miles was no mean travel feat in the days before motorized transport - about a day if one were traveling with any load, half that at a sustained gallop such as might have been done by troops under arms. The 400 miles distance between Van Nuys and Phoenix is, today, about a six hour journey by car - less than an hour by flight. BpBasil's point is valid - they are not the same place.

Many years,

Neil