ALTHOUGH it was a thoroughly exhausting affair, being able to attend the IV All-Diaspora Council in San Francisco was a singular blessing, which brought with it many other blessings. First among these was the opportunity to venerate the sacred relics of St John of Shanghai the Wonderworker, which lie uncorrupted in the cathedral church, and to worship at the place where his feet have stood. Another blessing, especially for those of us who live in a rather remote area as far as the Russian Church diaspora is concerned, was the opportunity to meet and talk with clergymen and others whom previously we had only known through correspondence, and to meet old acquaintances and friends. Further it was good to see how people of widely differing views and very different personalities welded together in the work of the Christian ministry which their participation in the Council entailed.
As it happened, all six people from England - (Fr Alexis, Fr Andrew Phillips and his matushka Sabine, Michael Knupffer, Pavel Lisitsin and Dimitri Popov) - travelled on the same plane, and we arrived as the memorial service for the reposed hierarchs of the Church Abroad was in progress in the cathedral. That same evening we had an All-night Vigil Service and so the day was a long and tiring one, especially as here at Brookwood we had begun it with a midnight Liturgy for the feast of St George the great Martyr. On Sunday morning two Liturgies were celebrated: the early one with just five priests and three deacons in a side chapel, and the later one with eleven hierarchs, headed by Metropolitan Lavr and Metropolitan Amfilochije of the Serbian Orthodox Church. Some forty priests and numerous deacons celebrated at this Liturgy, which was followed by a moleben for the good success of the Council.
In the afternoon, all the delegates gathered in the church for the ceremony of the opening of the Council. Official greetings were read from the Patriarch of Moscow, the Patriarch of Serbia, the Catholicos of the Church of Georgia, the Patriarch of Bulgaria, Archbishop Gabriel of the Paris Exarchate, the Fathers of the Holy Mountain Athos, and the Fathers of the Optina Monastery. There was also a greeting from the Governor of the State of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger.
The work of the Sobor began in earnest on Monday morning. Each day began with the celebration of the Divine Liturgy in the Cathedral, served by one priest and a deacon. These services were a great contrast to the Sunday ones and were especially prayerful; the traditional Russian chants were used. Until Wednesday they were all in Slavonic, but then the intrepid Protodeacon Vasili Yakimov from Australia (see also Brookwood news below) served as deacon, and he introduced some English and Greek. Others then began to show a concern for the non- Russian speakers and the next day we had French, and by the end of the week Latin as well.
To the eye of this British beholder, the Council’s procedures seemed rather Chekhovian. Among our group from Britain we had the abbot of one of the five monastic communities in Europe who is also the chaplain of a second of them, but until a few days before the Sobor we did not know there would be a representative of monasticism in Europe. Also there was a representative of the Russian Sports Association in Sydney, but no one from the “Isle of Wight Mission Real Ale and Skittles Association”! One just has to assume that some things are a mystery.
One supposes that this is the way things are done at Sobors, but the daily routines were not entirely conducive to the free exchange and development of views. A series of lectures was arranged - readers can find out about these and see the texts on the website (http://www.sobor2006.com) - and after each there was a “discussion,” which, despite this name, meant only that people from the audience could take the microphone for four minutes (two when we were pushed for time) and express a view. Perhaps with so many delegates this is all that could be arranged, but it did mean that ideas could not be developed very constructively. It also seemed to encourage people who liked to say something to jump up and speak every time, and one had the thought that perhaps wiser counsels might had been heard had some other procedure been implemented. Much emphasis seemed to be placed on what was expedient, and relatively little on trying to ascertain what was right. One further criticism is that the lectures were intelligent and helpful, but, with the exception of that given by our own Archbishop Mark, rather peripheral to the matter in hand: the rapprochement between the Moscow Patriarchate and the Church Abroad. This was picked up by Bishop Agathangel, who spoke up wisely to suggest that the gathering was becoming something more of a conference than a council.
The “star of the show,” if one may use that expression without irreverence, was undoubtedly Metropolitan Amfilochije of Montenegro and the Coastlands. His devotion to the Royal Martyrs of Russia was moving, and his analysis of the spiritual dangers facing the Church and believers today was discerning and wise. On the several occasions when he took the microphone, he spoke not as the scribes, but with warmth, conviction and spiritual zeal, and with a sincerity which touched the heart. 
