Bishop Sipovich new file

39 came back from the N.S. Hostel, 50 Onslow Square, South Kensington. Talked with the boys about the need of unity among Belarusians. A few, hostile to my mission, did not come to the meeting. Thank God for everything. There is hope to start services, but one must act very cautiously and sensibly. Saint Peter, help me!" Three days later there is the following entry: "15.6.47. My first Liturgy at the Brompton Oratory took place. There were about 15 persons present... I preached the sermon ‘On the need of prayer’... After lunch there was a meeting of Belarusians at Linden Gardens. Mr Babik had an interesting talk about life in Soviet Belarus in 1920s and 30s... Mr Bulak (vice-chairman of the Belarusian Association – A.N .) tells me in confidence that the Orthodox priests are not pleased with my activity". The priests in question belonged to the Polish Orthodox Church. Some of them had served as chaplains in the Polish army during the war, others arrived from Germany as EVWs and worked in factories. Many of these priests were Belarusian by origin but took no part in the life of the Belarusian community. Their superior was Archbishop Sava (Sovetov), a former Russian imperial army officer who after the First World War embraced the monastic life and became a bishop in the Polish Orthodox Church. During the Second World War he was chief Orthodox chaplain in the Polish army with the rank of general. As emigrés, he and his priests remained nominally in charge of a flock, whose views and national aspirations they did not share. Obviously they looked with suspicion at a young and energetic Catholic "Uniate" priest who from the day of his arrival was accepted as part of the Belarusian community. Incidentally Father Sipovich, soon after his arrival, on 3 May 1947, paid a visit to Sava who, as he noted in his diary, received him politely. Having settled the problem of the place of worship in London, Father Sipovich began visits to the hostels of European Voluntary Workers in search of Belarusians. The first visit on 5-6 July was to Bedhampton near Havant in Hampshire, where among various ethnic groups he found 20 Belarusians. On 13 August it was the turn of Market Harborough near Leicester. Then came Newark, Horsforth near Leeds and others. Usually the visits took place at weekends, with a Liturgy on the Sunday. After Liturgy there would be a meeting, at which Father Sipovich informed those present about Belarusian life in London, invited them to join the Association of Belarusians in Great Britain and form a local branch of this organisation. Incidentally, Father Sipovich, through the medium of the Apostolic Delegate in Great Britain, asked the Ministry of Labour to give him official permission to visit Belarusians in the EVW camps. The answer came on 21 July 1947, stating that the Ministry had no record of any workers of Belarusian origin in their hostels. The reason was that soon after the war, in accordance to the agreement between the Western powers and Soviet authorities, all refugees in Germany from the Soviet Union were due for deportation. Belarusians fell into this category. In fact a number of them was deported against their will to the Soviet Union where they ended up in prison camps. To avoid this fate many Belarusians hid their true nationality and declared themselves Poles, Latvians or Lithuanians. It was under this assumed nationality that they had come to Britain. In London, in addition to his pastoral duties, Father Sipovich was active in the Association of Belarusians. He worked closely with Dr Zhuk-Hryshkievich, especially in the matter of representing Belarusians in dealings with the British authorities and various institutions, as well as in contacts with other refugee organisations (Polish, Ukrainian, Lithuanian, Czech etc.). Sometimes things became hectic as in mid-July, when Mikola Abramtchyk, President of the Belarusian National Council in Exile, visited London for the first time. Here is the entry in the diary: