The funeral of the Benedictine Old Rite Monk Ambrose Moorman was served on May 1, 2012.

The rite of burial was served in the Church of the Ascension (Belokrinitski Hierarchy) at Gervais, Oregon, by Father Parfirij.

The service started at 10:00 and was attended by the Benedictine monks from the Abbey of Mt. Angel.

In the Church they were standing on the left side. Along with them was his family of 5 people - unbelievers. Old Believers stood on the right side.

Brother Ambrose Moorman was buried at the Russian Cemetery in Gervais, better known as the Masonic Cemetery.

His Californian relatives placed a small obituary in the San Francisco Chronicle on May 5 and also thanked the Prior Vincent Trujillo, the monks of the Abbey of Mt. Angel and the Russian community for their assistance and participation in the burial of Brother Ambrose Moorman.

Did Br. Ambrose live with the Benedictines and attend their Roman Rite services at Mt. Angel or did he live with the Old Believers? If he lived with the Benedictines, I wonder how he managed to live as an Old Rite monk amongst a "Latin Sea"?

In the late 1960's, an emigrant community of Old Believers, consisting of Harbintsev (those from Harbin in China), began to form in ... Oregon, in the same area as the Abbey of Mount Angel, a Latin Catholic community of Benedictines, whose Abbot Damien was a fan of the (Chevotagne, Belgium) Benedictine Monastery of the Byzantine Rite.

Around this time, he (Abbot Damian) discovered the existence of an Old (Believer) Catholic community and was seeking to provide for their pastoral care. Their existence also became known to Fedor Pal′činskomu (Father Theodore Palczynski, MIC, of blessed memory), a priest from the order of the Marian Fathers, associated with that order's monastery in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. Father Fedor, of Polish-Ukrainian origin, (was bi-ritual) (Latin Catholic and Eastern) and convinced his superiors to allow him to go to Oregon to serve the Old Believers who were in communion with the Roman See.

Abbé Damien cordially accepted him at Mount Angel, where he soon joined his brother Ambrosiû Moorman, a Benedictine, who was also found by Abbot Damian.

A chapel for services in the Old Tradition was built on the grounds of the Abbey under the patronage of the Mother of God of Tikhvin. The Catholic Old Believer community was not ever very big and after the death of Hieromonk Theodore, Catholic Old Believers retreated back into the Orthodox parish communities as Brother Ambrosij was never ordained to the priesthood.

The Abbey still retains the chapel as a small museum, designed to preserve the cultural and religious heritage of the communities. The Museum was staffed by the Old Believers themselves. Brother Ambrosij, though elderly, is devoted to the Museum and maintains active contact with the Old Believer community. This Catholic monk, Ambrosius, prays along with the Old Believers in church, reading the Psalms with the blessing of Archbishop Sophronia, and advises on legal issues for the Old Believers, and informs the authorities in Oregon regarding deaths among the Old Believer communities. On transition in the staroverie he did not even think. He remains a Roman Catholic and wears Benedictine vesture. Archbishop Sophronius blessed him to come to the Old Believers and when coming to the Old Liturgy, Brother Ambrosij habitually wears Old Believer monastic robes.

Not only Archbishop Sophronius, but Metropolitan Leonty, (pray?) with Ambrose Moorman in prayerful communion and have committed to joint ecumenical pilgrimages. Such a case occurred in Milan, when Metropolitan Leonty, Archbishop Sophronius, the Benedictine Ambrose, and a (Russian Orthodox) hieromonk from Turin also named Ambrose made a joint pilgrimage to Milan to venerate the relics of St. Ambrose.