8,921
edits
Changes
m
edit duplicate footnotes into one entry
===Period in the Church of England===
He then came to England, where he joined the [[w:Church of England|Church of England]] and was sent to Sierra Leona to the [[w:Church Mission Society|Church Missionary Society]] Grammar School at Freetown. He studied Greek, Latin, and other higher-level subjects. Being poor, Robert had to work to support himself, and worked as second master of a public school. He took course in the Church Missionary Society [[w:Fourah Bay College|College at Fourah Bay]], and was soon appointed a missionary teacher and [[w:Lay reader|lay-reader]] by the Episcopalian [[Bishop]] of Liberia, the Right Reverend [[w:Samuel David Ferguson|Samuel David Ferguson]].<refname=Oliver>Fr. Oliver Herbel. ''Morgan, Raphael.'' '''[http://www.mywire.com/a/African-American-National-Biography/Morgan-Raphael/9463563?&pbl=27 The African American National Biography]''' at '''mywire.com'''. 1-Jan-2008.</ref> Robert later said that he served five years in West Africa, of which he spent three years in missionary work.<ref>''The Daily Gleaner''. ''[http://www.joyousjam.com/fatherraphael/id10.html West Africa]''. October 9, 1901. p.7.</ref>
After this Robert again visited England for private study, and then travelled to America to work amongst the African-American community as a lay-reader. He was accepted as a Postulant and as candidate for the Episcopalian [[deacon]]ate. During the waiting period, Robert again returned to England to study at Saint Aidan's Theological College in [[w:Birkenhead|Birkenhead]], but prosecuted his studies at [[w:King's College London|King's College]] of the University of London. The colleges however do not contain records of his attendance.
Once there, Robert visited various [[monastery|monasteries]] and churches, including sites in Odessa, St. Petersburg, Moscow and [[Monastery of the Kiev Caves|Kiev]], soon becoming quite the sensation. Sundry periodicals began publishing pictures and articles on him, and soon Robert became the Special Guest of the Tsar. He was allowed to be present for the anniversary celebrations of [[Nicholas II of Russia|Nicholas II's]] coronation, and the [[Memorial Services|memorial service]] for Alexander III.<ref>''The Daily Gleaner.'' ''[http://www.joyousjam.com/fatherraphael/id3.html Priest's Visit: Father Raphael of Greek Orthodox Church: His Extensive Travels].'' July 22, 1913.</ref>
Leaving Russia, Robert traveled Turkey, Cyprus, and the [[Holy Land]], returning to America and writing an article to the ''Russian-American Orthodox Messenger'' in 1904 about his experience in Russia. In this open letter, Morgan expressed hope that the Anglican Church could unite with the Orthodox Churches, clearly moved by his experience in Russia. People of African descent were generally well-received within the Russian Empire, Morgan believed. [[w:Abram Petrovich Gannibal|Abram Hannibal]] had served under Emperor Peter the Great, and rose to lieutenant general in the Russian Army. Visiting artists, foreign service officials, and athletes, such as famous horse jockey [[w:James Winkfield|Jimmy Winkfield]], were likewise welcomed. With his experience of Russia and Russian Orthodoxy fresh in his mind, Morgan returned to the United States and continued his spiritual quest.<ref>Fr. name=Oliver Herbel. ''Morgan, Raphael.'' '''[http://www.mywire.com/a/African-American-National-Biography/Morgan-Raphael/9463563?&pbl=27 The African American National Biography]''' at '''mywire.com'''. 1-Jan-2008.</ref>
===Study and Trip to Ecumenical Patriarchate===
Ellis Island records indicate the arrival in New York from Naples, Italy, of the priest, Raffaele Morgan, in December 1907.<ref>Lumsden, Joy. ''[http://jamaicanhistorymonth2007.moonfruit.com/#/father-raphael/4520858082 Robert Josias Morgan, aka Father Raphael].'' '''Jamaican History Month 2007.''' February 16, 2007.</ref> Once home, Fr. Raphael baptized his wife and children in the Orthodox Church. This is noted in the minutes of the Holy Synod of [[February 9]], 1908, which acknowledges receipt of a communication from Fr. Raphael.
The last mention of Fr. Raphael in Patriarchal records is in the minutes of the Holy Synod of [[November 4]], 1908, which cite a letter from Fr. Raphael recommending an Anglican priest of Philadelphia, named "A.C.V. Cartier",<ref>A.C.V. Cartier is listed on a list of Afro-American Priests as follows: ''"1895: Rev. A.C.V. Cartier, Denver Col."'' (Bragg, Rev. George F. (D.D.). ''Afro-American Clergy List. Priests''. In: '''[http://www.archive.org/details/afroamericanchur00bragiala Afro-American Church Work and Workers].''' Baltimore, Md.: Church Advocate Print, 1904. p.32.)</ref> as a candidate for conversion to Orthodoxy and ordination as a priest. Cartier was rector of the [http://www.aecst.org/home.htm African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas], in Philadelphia, from 1906-12.<ref>[[George Alexander McGuire]] was rector of The African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas in Philadelphia from 1902-05. He was succeeded as rector by A.C.V. Cartier (1906-12), the man whom Morgan recommended to the [[Church of Constantinople|Ecumenical Patriarchate]] for Orthodox ordination.</ref> Saint Thomas' served the African American elite of Philadelphia and was one of the most prestigious congregations in African American Christianity, having been started in 1794 by [[w:Absalom Jones|Absalom Jones]], one of the founders, together with [[w:Richard Allen (bishop)|Richard Allen]], of the [[w:w:African Methodist Episcopal Church|African Methodist Episcopal Church]]. According to the letter, Cartier desired as an Orthodox priest to undertake missionary work among his fellow blacks. Due to the fact that the jurisdiction over the Greek Church of the [[diaspora]] had been ceded by the Ecumenical Patriarchate to the [[Church of Greece]] in 1908, the request was forwarded there. However according to Greek-American historian Paul G. Manolis, a search of the Archives of the Holy Synod of the Church of Greece did not turn up any correspondence with Fr. Raphael. His letter about A.C.V. Cartier is the only indication we have from Church records of his missionary efforts among his people.<ref>Manolis, Paul G. ''Raphael (Robert) Morgan: The First Black Orthodox Priest in America''. '''Theologia: Epistēmonikon Periodikon Ekdidomenon Kata Trimēnian'''. (En Athenais: Vraveion Akadēmias Athēnōn), 1981, vol.52, no.3, pp.470-71.</ref>
In 1909, his wife filed for divorce, on the alleged charges of cruelty and failure to support their children. She left with their son Cyril to Delaware County, where she remarried.
===Last Known Records===
In 1916 Fr. Raphael was still in Philadelphia, having made the Philadelphia Greek parish his base of operations.<ref>* Namee, Matthew. ''[http://orthodoxhistory.org/?p=244 The First Black Orthodox Priest in America].'' '''OrthodoxHistory.org''' (The Society for Orthodox Christian History in the Americas). July 15, 2009.</ref> The last documentation of Fr. Raphael comes from a letter to the ''Daily Gleaner'' on [[October 4]], 1916. Representing a group of about a dozen other like-minded Jamaican-Americans, he wrote in to protest the lectures of Black Nationalist Marcus Garvey.<ref>Fr. Raphael signed the letter as ''' ''"Father Raphael, O.C.G., Priest-Apostolic, the Greek-Orthodox Catholic Church."'' '''The full text of the signed letter is printed in:<br>Robert A. Hill, Marcus Garvey, Universal Negro Improvement Association. ''Letter Denouncing Marcus Garvey.'' In: '''[http://books.google.ca/books?id=CKJrUKdSZwkC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_navlinks_s The Marcus Garvey and Universal Negro Improvement Association Papers: 1826-August 1919].''' University of California Press, 1983. pp.196-197.</ref> Garvey's views on Jamaica, they felt, were damaging to both the reputation of their homeland and its people, enumerating several objections to Garvey's stated preference for the prejudice of the American whites over that of English whites.<ref>Fr. name=Oliver Herbel. ''Morgan, Raphael.'' '''[http://www.mywire.com/a/African-American-National-Biography/Morgan-Raphael/9463563?&pbl=27 The African American National Biography]''' at '''mywire.com'''. 1-Jan-2008.</ref> Garvey's response came ten days later, in which he called the letter a conspiratorial fabrication meant to undermine the success and favour he had gained while in Jamaica and in the United States.
Little is known of Fr. Raphael's life after this point, except from some interviews conducted in the 1970s between Greek-American historian Paul G. Manolis and surviving members of the [http://evangelismos.us/default.aspx Greek Community of the Annunciation] in Philadelphia, who recalled the black priest who was evidently a part of their community for a period of time. One elderly woman, Grammatike Kritikos Sherwin, remembered that Fr Raphael's daughter left to attend Oxford; another parishioner, Kyriacos Biniaris, recalls that Morgan, whose hand "he kissed many times", spoke broken Greek and served with Fr. Petrides reciting the liturgy mostly in English; whilst another, a George Liacouras, recalled that after serving in Philadelphia for some years, Fr. Raphael left for Jerusalem, never to return.<ref>Manolis, Paul G. ''Raphael (Robert) Morgan: The First Black Orthodox Priest in America''. '''Theologia: Epistēmonikon Periodikon Ekdidomenon Kata Trimēnian'''. (En Athenais: Vraveion Akadēmias Athēnōn), 1981, vol.52, no.3, pp.469.</ref> The [[Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America]] has no record either of Fr. Raphael Morgan, nor of Fr. Demetrios Petrides, as the first records for the Philadelphia community in the archives only began in 1918.
===Legacy===
Although Fr. Raphael Morgan's work among Jamaicans in Philadelphia appears to have been transitory, nevertheless he did serve as an important precedent for current African American interest in Orthodoxy, especially that of Father [http://unexpectedjoychurch.org/administration.html Moses Berry], director of the [http://www.oaahm.org/index.html Ozarks African American Heritage Museum], who served as the priest to the [http://unexpectedjoychurch.org/ Theotokos, the “Unexpected Joy,” Orthodox Mission] ([[OCA]]) in Ash Grove, Missouri.<ref>Fr. name=Oliver Herbel. ''Morgan, Raphael.'' '''[http://www.mywire.com/a/African-American-National-Biography/Morgan-Raphael/9463563?&pbl=27 The African American National Biography]''' at '''mywire.com'''. 1-Jan-2008.</ref>
==See also==
