Some old-Metropolia History

Video: 

Some old-Metropolia History:

'Fr. Vladimir Prislopsky Documentary'

(the founder of FROC,) 

born 3/15/1900, died 9/3/1970

And some historic photos: Russian Church life in America, before the Platon-Schism, and slightly after it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jIfrrwYWT0

8 minutes

My memory, when I was about 17-18  years old:

The first Orthodox Church and priest that I encountered in Cleveland, Ohio, about  1960 or 61. This priest and parish, were my Godfather's home parish.  (The northern Ohio region, then had a very large Orthodox ethnic population).  St. Michael's  then had two Sunday services, both packed with people., each with a full and quality large & beautiful choir. The first was an all-English 'Obednitsa', (a glorified/sung Typika), and the second one, the all-Slavonic Liturgy ...both served by Fr. Vladimir.

What is not mentioned in this brief documentary, is the fact that the majority of his parishioners, virtually all of Carpatho-Russian or 'Rusin' heritage and mostly born under Austro-Hungarian rule, or some under Polish rule,  

of his St. Michael's Church (on Union Avenue, the south-east side of Cleveland, an old ethnic Polish and Carpatho-Russian  neighborhood originally), were all former born-uniates, or their children, immigrants to America,  who had left the Latin-unia and their nearby uniate parish, and joined the North American Russian Metropolia, (i.e. they  became Orthodox and joined The Russian Church), as a group, but they were unable to take their beautiful large church they had built with their own labour and money,with them, as it was retained by the Catholic diocesan bishop.

 But they were the majority membership of that uniate parish.

Fr. Vladimir Prislopsky was dearly beloved by his flock.

Later, Fr. Vladimir was instrumental in founding their daughter parish, of St. Andrew's in Maple Hts., as it shows here, but also, some years after his passing, his old original parish of St. Michael's had to sell it's property, and move to the suburbs, and build a new St. Michael's Church, in Broadview Hts, as it's old neighborhood, had become a dangerous crime-infested racial ghetto.

  Rd. Daniel Everiss