The first Sunday of Pride is my own liturgical designation. I find it serendipitous that the first Sunday in the month of June falls on the same liturgical day that the Latin Church transfers the observance of Corpus Christi (Thursday June 3, 2021). Even more serendipitous is the remembrance and honoring of Bishop John Augustine Kazantks who along with Bishop George Hyde worked tirelessly to draw so many into the Body of Christ.
I first learned about Bishop John Augustine Kazantks when I read Julie Byrne’s informative and rich history of “independent catholics” The Other Catholics published in 2016. Bishop Kazantks and George Hyde are credited with founding the first Christian congregation in the United States to openly minister to and with openly homosexual parishioners in 1946.
Not much is known about Bishop Kazantks. A modern day web search only delivers references to his affiliation with George Hyde and the Eucharistic Catholic Church they both founded in July of 1946 in Atlanta, Georgia. Bishop Hyde will be celebrated and remembered later this week. I wanted to highlight and celebrate and remember Bishop Kazantks as he is often remembered in Bishop Hyde’s shadow. Yet it was Bishop Kazantks who ordained George Hyde to the priesthood on July 1, 1946.1
According to a netministries.org profile on the Eucharistic Catholic Church2 , Bishop John Augustine Kazantks was a bishop in the Orthodox Church in Greece. In 1944, he protested the defrocking of several priests in other dioceses of being “sodomites”. At this regional synod of bishops, he went on to acknowledge that while he had not violated his vow of celibacy, he like the other priests “was a person of same gender affectional and sexual orientation.”2
Bishop Kazantks was cast out of his church position and left Greece in 1946 and arrived in Atlanta, GA teaching high school Greek. It was there that he met George Hyde and God’s grace unfolded with the establishment of the first parish to openly minister to and with homosexuals and so many others who were marginalized from he sacraments by the denominational churches. Bishop Kazantks would stay in Georgia, later moving from Atlanta to Savannah and continuing to assist Bishop Hyde in the growth of the church.
In 1957, Bishop Kazantks desired to return to Greece and he left the United States to return to his homeland and would die later that year. I seem to have found a reference, although I can’t find it in the notes I took over the past week trying to find out more about Bishop Kazantks, that he died on August 1, 1957. If I find the reference, I will update this post.
On this First Sunday of Pride Month in 2021 — my own liturgical designation — may we honor and remember Bishop John Augustine Kazantks. It is no coincidence that we remember him today and in the Latin Church, today marks the transferred (from Thursday June 3, 2021) celebration of the Solemnity of Corpus Christi. Bishop Kazantks and Bishop George Hyde tirelessly worked to draw all people into the body of Christ especially those marginalized by most religious denominations.
Blessed St. John Augustine Kazantks — pray for us. Pray that our hearts may be kindled with that same zeal, love and compassion; that our mind may be illuminated with that same wisdom and light, and that our thoughts, words and actions be tempered with that same Divine Love, Divine Light that inspired you to draw so many into the body of Christ.
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