Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. I know that he knows Marina.
Mr. JENNER. There are two Greek Orthodox Churches, are there not, or
sects or groups, in Dallas?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. That is right.
Mr. JENNER. Tell me how that developed.
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Well, it is just some sort of schism in the Greek
Orthodox Church. I am not too interested in religion, so I could not
tell you how it originated. But anyway, one church seems to be purely
Russian, and the other one seems to have a lot of Americans in it. The
one that Father Dimitri is the head of--he is an American and quite a
large membership of Americans--they have converted. And the services
are in English, although the others--some services are in Russian also.
Sometimes he has visiting priests. But I don't know why they are
segregated into two groups.
Mr. JENNER. Mr Raigorodsky is interested in the old guard group, let us
call it?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Yes; probably, that is right.
Mr. JENNER. And also Mr. Bouhe?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Yes; but Raigorodsky supports also the other
group.
Mr. JENNER. Yes; he does.
Now, are the acquaintances largely formed, when new people come into
Dallas, through these church groups?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Yes; most of the time I would say so.
Mr. JENNER. Now, at least during the time--I don't know what your
propensities are at the moment, but you were somewhat irreligious when
you were in Dallas, were you not?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Well, I actually contributed to this church, to
the formation of that first church, that Raigorodsky was interested in,
the old guard church.
Mr. JENNER. Yes.
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. And I actually organized even a choir. But then I
got less interested in it. I didn't like the priest, you know.
Mr. JENNER. You didn't like Father Dimitri?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. No; the previous one.
Mr. JENNER. What was his name?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Well, I forgot his name. He is in South Africa
now. It was some time ago. It was 10 years ago maybe. He was sent to
South Africa. Let them convert the Negroes there, in South Africa.
Mr. JENNER. It has been said or reported by--from a few sources, during
the course of your lifetime that you were an atheist; is that correct?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. No; I am more or less an agnostic. I would not
call myself an atheist; an agnostic. I do not believe in organized
religion. Sometimes if I see a group like that, like the Russian group
there, I wanted to help them a little bit to be together. And it is
amusing to meet those people. So I contributed a little money and a
little bit of my time for the services--for instance, as I said, to
sing in the church. But I do not go for going every Sunday to church,
if that is the answer.