Warren Commission (09 of 26): Hearings Vol. IX (of 15)United States. Warren Commission
History
Warren Commission (09 of 26): Hearings Vol. IX (of 15)
United States. Warren Commission
Kennedy, John F. (John Fitzgerald), 1917-1963 -- Assassination; Oswald, Lee Harvey
Mr. RAIGORODSKY. You can have that--I have a photostat of it.
Mr. JENNER. Well, I want to copy it in the record.
Mr. RAIGORODSKY. All right. "Some Historical Information Concerning St.
Seraphim Eastern Orthodox Church."
In April of 1954, a small group of converts to the Orthodox Faith (Rev.
Ilya Rudolph Rangel, rector of the already existing Mexican Orthodox
Church under the jurisdiction of Bishop Bogdan, Dimitri Robert Royster,
a subdeacon in Bishop Bogdan's jurisdiction, and Miss Dimitra Royster)
sought permission of their bishop to organize an English-language
Orthodox mission in the city of Dallas. It may be stated parenthetically
that the three above-mentioned persons were working, at the time of the
organization of St. Seraphim's, in close cooperation with St. Nicholas
Russian Orthodox Church, of which Father Alexander Chernay of Houston
was pastor and which held services periodically in the chapel of the
Sunday School building at St. Matthew's Episcopal Cathedral.
Father Rangel and Subdeacon Royster set out to find a building that
would be suitable to house the activities of the projected mission.
Property was located at the corner of McKinney Avenue (3734) and
Blackburn Street. The sale price of the property was $15,000, and since
the financial resources of the organizers were limited, Father Rangel
and Subdeacon Royster went to seek the aid of Mr. Paul Raigorodsky,
a member of St. Nicholas' Parish. Mr. Raigorodsky agreed to make it
possible for the group to acquire a loan from the First National Bank
in Dallas in order to purchase the property (on which there was an
eight-room two-story house). The property was bought in the name of St.
Seraphim's Church.
Services in English began to be held in June of 1954. Father Rangel
conducted occasional services--Sunday Vespers weekly and an early
Liturgy once a month. Father Rangel and Subdeacon Royster constructed
an iconostas and made a number of shrines and articles, and a chapel
was arranged on the first floor of the house. After a month or 2 the
members of St. Nicholas' Parish were invited to use the chapel, since
one of their members had been so instrumental in the acquisition of the
property.
On November 6, 1954, Subdeacon Royster was ordained to the priesthood
by Bishop Bogdan and became rector of St. Seraphim's Church. Shortly
afterwards, it was agreed to transfer the title of the property at 3734
McKinney to St. Nicholas' Church. It was further agreed that the two
groups would use the chapel, St. Nicholas' Church 1 weekend per month
and St. Seraphim's Church the rest of the time.
In January of 1955 an extensive renovation program was undertaken, and
both floors of the house were redecorated, sheet-rocked and painted.
Father Hilarion Madison had been ordained by Bishop Bogdan on October
31, 1954, and had worked with Father Rangel as assistant pastor at the
Mexican Church until December 1954, when he joined the work at St.
Seraphim's and became assistant to Father Royster.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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