The San Fernando Bell: Repatriation Efforts Spanning Christian East and West

In recent years significant religious and historical artifacts held by the Catholic Church originating in the Christian East have been repatriated. Among these artifacts is a bell struck for use by an Alaskan Russian Orthodox congregation that had, until recently, been owned by the Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles and housed at the San Fernando Rey de España Mission in Southern California. Efforts to return the bell to the Orthodox Church spanned from 1987−2013. Though a long and, at times, confusing process, the repatriation initiative proved successful not only in its attempt to return an artifact to its place of origin but also in its efforts to build bridges between Catholic and Orthodox Christians, particularly U.S. Christians of indigenous descent.