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When in 1939 the increasingly nationalistic Japanese government passed a law requiring government authorization of all religious bodies in Japan for them to be legal. The government implementation of the law included the requirement that religious groups must be headed by Japanese nationals. In this [[Sergius (Tikhomirov) of Japan|Metr. Sergius]], who was the [[Archbishop]] of Tokyo and [[Metropolitan]] of All Japan, and the governing bodies of the Japanese Orthodox Church faced a grave predicament that resulted in a split among the church authorities into two groups on how this would be accomplished.
In early 1941, one group (Iwasawa) appeared set on a course wherein the registered head, the ''Tori'', would be a layman. This approach apparently was based on the model familiar to those educated in Russia before the revolution; that is, of church governance headed by a layman, the Oberprocurator [[Ober-Procurator]] named by the Emperor. Dissatisfaction with this course led to a second (anti-Iwasawa) group that elected [[Archpriest]] James Shintaro Tohei as the episcopal candidate and ''Tori''.
In the meantime the Iwasawa group had approached the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia ([[ROCOR]]) for [[consecration of a bishop]]. Archpriest John Ono was elected as the Japanese candidate to episcopacy. Fr. John was then the oldest [[priest ]] in the Church of Japan.
As he was married, he and his wife traveled to different monasteries in Harbin, Manchuria, which at the time was ruled by Japan. In Harbin, Fr. John was [[tonsure]]d a [[monk]] under the name of Nicholas and his wife Vera was tonsured a [[nun]] with the name Helen.
[[Image:Harbin Church.jpg|left|thumb|150px|St. Nicholas Cathedral, Harbin, Manchuria, China]]
On [[April 6]], 1941, Fr. John was consecrated the Bishop of Tokyo and All Japan in St. Nicholas Cathedral in Harbin by the hierarchs of the ROCOR: Metr. [[Meletius (Zaborosky) of Harbin and Manchuria|Meletius (Zaborovsky) ]] of Harbin and All Manchuria, Abp. [[Nestor (Anisimov) of Kamchatka]] and Petropavlovsk, Bp. Juvenal of Qiqihar, Bp. Demetrius of Hailar and Bp. [[John Maximovitch|John (Maksimovich) of Shanghai]]. (Some sources name Abp. Victor (Svyatin) of Beijing instead of Bp. John.) Thus, Bp. Nicholas became the first Japanese national to be consecrated an Orthodox bishop.
After the end of World War II, the [[jurisdiction ]] over most of the communities of the Japanese Orthodox Church was assumed by the American Metropolia, the predecessor of the [[OCA]], while a minority, under the leadership of Bp. Nicholas aligned itself with the Moscow Patriarchate. On [[May 27]], 1954, Bp. Nicholas was reconciled with the Japanese Orthodox Church, then led by Bp. [[Ireney (Bekish) of New York|Ireney (Bekish)]]. Bp. Nicholas died at the age of 83 on [[November 19]], 1956. He is buried in Yanaka Cemetery in Tokyo, alongside his predecessors: St. Nicholas, the Enlightener of Japan, and Metr. Sergius.
==Sources==
[[Category:Bishops]]
[[Category:Bishops of YokyoTokyo]][[Category:20th-century bishops]]
