ВЕРНОСТЬ - FIDELITY № 41 - 2006

The Editorial Board is glad to inform our Readers that this issue of “FIDELITY” has articles in English, and Russian Languages.

С удовлетворением сообщаем, что в этом номере журнала “ВЕРНОСТЬ” помещены статьи на английском и русском языках.

∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ APPEAL TO OUR READERS ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙

The Blessed Metropolitan Anthony (Khrapovitsky) Memorial Society is in need of your help!

With the All Diaspora Sobor barely a month away, your support is essential. If we are to continue our efforts in providing an alternative forum for articles, information, and views different from those officially sanctioned by the proponents of union, the financial support of our readers is needed. There are costs associated with maintaining this website, conducting mailings, registering the Society, and attending to administrative duties that must be immediately met. We are currently financing most of these costs ourselves out of our own pockets.

Websites in favour of union have access to funds that substantially defray their costs. As a result, certain of these websites are VIRTUALLY GUARANTEED an operating budget from various sources who would like nothing better than to see opposing voices silenced.  We remain one of only two or three web sites in the world committed to providing information that corrects the distortions and rewriting of history pro-union factions engage in.

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To support our continued efforts, please send your donations to the following address:  

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                                                     Contents -  Оглавление

1. МНЕНИЕ ПРЕОСВЯЩЕННОГО ЕПИСКОПА ДАНИИЛА ОТНОСИТЕЛЬНО  "ПОСЛАНИЯ ВЕРНЫХ ЧАД РПЦЗ".

2.  "THE STATEMENT FROM BISHOP AGAFANGEL IN CONNECTION WITH THE OPENING OF THE NEW SITE MP-ROCOR"

3. КАМО ГРЯДЕШИ, ЗАРУБЕЖНАЯ ЦЕРКОВЬ?  Протодиакон Герман Иванов-Тринадцатый.

4. QUO VADIS, OH CHURCH ABROAD?  Protodeacon German Ivanoff-Trinadzaty.

5. " ДЕЯНИЯ РУССКОГО ВСЕЗАГРАНИЧНОГО  ЦЕРКОВНОГО СОБОРА"  (Продолжение)

6.  "К МОИМ СОБРАТЬЯМ МИРЯНАМ И КЛИРИКАМ". Г. Ракитин

7  "TO MY FELLOW BRETHREN LAITY AND CLERGY". G. Rakitin

8.  "METROPOLITAN ANTHONY BLOOM: A PERSONAL TESTIMONY". Olga Moss

9.   "AWAKE!". Eugenia Richard

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Многоуважаемые читатели вестника "Верность"!

От Его Преосвященства, Епископа Даниила, сегодня получил письмо. Считаю своим долгом поделиться этим письмом с читателями "Верности".

Необходимо добавить,  что "Послание",  на которое ссылается Владыка,  не было одобрено редакционной коллегией "Верности",  которая является официальным органом Общества Блаженнейшего Митрополита Антония. Весьма прискорбно, что своевольный поступок, по существу, двух прежних членов нашего "Общества" ввело в заблуждение не только Владыку Даниила, но также и многих членов духовенства РПЦЗ, а также и мирян.

                                                                                    Валентин Щегловский

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The Statement from Bishop Agafangel in connection with the opening of the new site MP-ROCOR

“Let us confess with one mind”.

The company you keep infects you.

On the new website of the commissions of the Moscow Patriarchate and the Russian Orthodox Church www.pravos.org, which appeared only yesterday and was announced as a joint project of the ROCOR and MP, an article is posted entitled “Metropolitan Agafangel of Odessa directed the attention of the first hierarch of ROCOR to the phenomenon of ‘priests jumping ship’”.  I had already been compelled to clarify to our Synod this slanderous denunciation (regrettably this work cannot be defined otherwise), sent to our Synod at one time.  Despite the fact that this ill-begotten document was being circulated through every information channel of the MP back in 2002, I did not consider it necessary to respond to it.  But since it appears to have suddenly been revived on the official page of the ROCOR commission, I am forced to explain myself.  It is obvious that great significance is being attributed to this article.

I don’t know what sources Metropolitan Agafangel uses as his basis, but such statements as, for instance, that I am a “former active worker of the comsomol” (Young Communist League – transl.) are in no way factual. Approximately 20 years before “perestroika” I was indeed entered into the comsomol list in school for being among those who had good grades.  This was part of a compulsory soviet ritual, and I had already repented long ago for this sin.  While studying at the institute which I entered immediately upon graduating from school, I  consciously refrained from being entered in the comsomol report, since I had never sympathized with this organization.  I did not spend a single day doing comsomol work, nor did I  carry out a single instruction from this organization and was not a member of it in any capacity.  I don’t quite understand why Metropolitan Agafangel needs to spread this deliberately calumnious lie.  And even more so, I don’t understand why the editors of that site need to do this on behalf of our Church.  Furthermore, the assertion  that “protopriest Valerii Alexeev was relieved from his position as rector because of financial improprieties” is also deliberate slander.  Fr. Valerii, who had made the decision to join ROCOR, having served his last liturgy in the church of St. Alexei in the capacity of an MP clergyman, announced his decision to his parishioners from the ambo.  There exists an audiotape of this address.  While in the MP, he had never been under suspension.  He handed over the inventorized list of church property to the new rector with a signed receipt and the latter witnessed that Fr. Valery had no debts to the parish.  This document also exists.  Why does the MP metropolitan assert something that never was?  Metropolitan Agafangel very ambiguously presents information on the conviction of Fr. Valery.  Fr. Valery was convicted as a child for being the son of an “enemy of the people”.  His step-father fought and died in Spain with other white émigrés, and his mother served sentences in prisons and labour camps as a political prisoner. Even the soviet regime recognized the conviction of Fr. Valery as unjust, the conviction was expunged and he was included among those persons repressed by the communist regime.  Is it just to reproach Fr. Valery for this supposed sin?

The information regarding cohabitation of my clergy is also contrary to reality.

Also, I learned for the first time from Metropolitan Agafangel, that Fr. Igor Yavorsky “suffers from frequent spells of alcoholism”.  Not prior to this statement, nor after it did I ever see Fr. Igor in an intoxicated state.  As for the hierodeacon Dionisii, mentioned in the epistle, who had stayed with us a month or two, and then learning that we would not receive the Innokentian sect, he anathematized all of us sinners and safely returned to the MP (incidentally, during his stay we did not notice him drunk once).  How is it that they received him back with open arms, the drunk and heretic,  knowing aforehand what he is?

The same response may be written to every point of Metropolitan Agafangel’s denunciative report to our Synod, since there is literally no truth to any of his accusations.

Later, Fr. Valery was defrocked for going over to ROCOR, but not at all by “His Mother the Russian Orthodox Church”, but by the Moscow Patriarchate which are far from one and the same thing.  Also, abbot Georgii (Kravchenko) who left the MP, fleeing the immoral solicitations of that same Metropolitan Agafangel, was defrocked.

Archbishop Mark of Berlin and Germany (ROCOR) emphasized more than once that the ecclesiology of the new martyr and confessor Kyrill, metropolitan of Kazan and Sviazhsk is irreproachable and that the Church Abroad always did and must continue to follow this ecclesiology. It is known that Metropolitan Kyrill did not recognize suspensions from Metropolitan Sergius of Nizhegorodsk, of which there is documented proof.

In his first letter written in 1929, Metropolitan Sergius (Starogorodsky) reproaches Metropolitan Kirill (Smirnov) because: “each priest, according to your directions, can refuse subjugation to a “sergianist” hierarch, can cease concelebrating with him, can seek spiritual care from “his own” hierarch of an alternate diocese (just as the clergy from Viatsk turn to bishop Dimitrii (Liubimov) in Leningrad); one may even disregard suspensions issued by a “sergianist” hierarch (your advice to Fr. Shilov from V. Ustiug)”.  Indeed, this ordinance of the new martyr was always followed, and I feel, must be followed by ROCOR, until the Patriarchate repents for its “sergianism”.  Of course, one must remember that Metropolitan Kirill is speaking only of “ideological” differences.

To conclude what has been said, I wish to note that I completely understand the criticism against me and my clergy by the MP. But I don’t completely understand the deliberately untrue information posted on the “semi-official” site of our Church.  The name of this joint project of our commissions on dialogue is “Let us confess with one mind”.  The question is, what exactly are we confessing with one mind?  Can it be all of this falsehood?  For lies are not our weapon.  Is this not so?

March 24, 2006

In Russian on:  Portal-credo.ru

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Камо  грядеши,  Зарубежная  Церковь ?

Протодиакон Герман Иванов-Тринадцатый. Представитель Общества на Францию

Для нас, с самого начала, с 2000-го года, было ясно, что внутри Зарубежной Церкви появилось два противоположных лагеря. Это не было два совместимых разночтения истории и миссии нашей Церкви, но именно – два взаимоисключающих подхода к ним. А ещё вернее сказать : один из лагерей, незыблемо стоящий на 80-летних принципах РПЦЗ, пытался оставаться верным традиционной Зарубежной Церкви, тогда как другой, продолжая Ею именоваться, с каждым днём всё больше отходил от Ея устоев. Если для некоторых наша позиция долгое время могла казаться неоправданной поспешностью, то сегодня приобретает характер неопровержимой необходимости. 

Тем не менее, мы никогда не придерживались манихейского взгляда, что с одной стороны, мол, все исповедники, а с другой все предатели, с одной стороны всё благополучно, а с другой всё скверно. В частности, не сомневались и в том, что среди пошедших за Вл. Лавром были не только рьяные сторонники слияния с МП, но была огромная масса теплохладных, и даже ядро непримиримых, которые по разным соображениям, а чаще всего по некоторой инерции, оставались при Нью-Йоркском Синоде с надеждой, что в один прекрасный день все проснутся, как после леденящего кошмара, все опомнятся и всё войдёт опять в нормальную колею. Сегодня, менее, чем за 6 недель до пресловутого “Собора”, питать такие надежды никто серьёзно уже не может.

Ко всем этим нашим братьям мы и обращаемся.

Не раз писали мы, что Владыка Митрополит Виталий – наше духовное, нравственное знамя. Всезарубежное знамя. Знамя всей нашей Белой Русской Эмиграции. Знамя Зарубежной Руси. К нему, к нему лично, и следует всем обратиться. Естественно, что в 96-летнем возрасте, достойнейший преемник своих троих предшественников Первоиерархов, Владыка Митрополит сегодня не в состоянии руководить Церковью. Но Церковь – не предприятие. Это Бого-Человеческий организм, в котором духовное начало занимает первостепенную важность. Бл. Митрополит Антоний говорил, что самое плохое, что можно сказать об Архиерее, это что он хороший администратор. Архиерей – это в первую очередь добрый пастырь, это молитвенник, чем и является Митрополит Виталий. А наш старец-Первоиерарх ещё и всепрощающая чистая душа.

Обратись к нему сейчас значительное число священнослужителей, искренне страдающих и скорбящих, младых и маститых, именитых и безвестных и тут же, моментально, затея под кодовым именем «IV Всезарубежный Собор» рухнет, рассыплется в прах и на небеси и на земли воцарится велия радость. У кого сердце клонет в сторону МП, те и перейдут в МП, зато Церковь “от них очистится”, как говорил Вл. Марк, употребляя это же выражение, но в противоположном конечном смысле.

О том, что надеяться уже не на что, можно привести поток всесторонних высказываний, документов и актов ; один из последних – открытие совместного патриархийно-“зарубежного” сайта, с неприкрывающимся названием «Да единомыслием исповемы» и со всё тем же елейно-лицемерным содержанием. Нами однажды уже цитированный крупный франкоязычный информационный сайт “Orthodoxie”, представляя новоявленного собрата пишет, что это ответ на требование мірян и духовенства, жаловавшихся на собрании в Наяке о недостатке информации по поводу переговоров и отмечает, что имеется «Отдел 'Мнения архиереев, клириков и мірян', в котором помещаются реакции, как сторонников объединения, так и противников». На самом деле, каждый может проверить, что этот сайт есть чисто пропагандистское начинание и убедиться, что туда и близко не допускаются сторонники Зарубежной Церкви. Надо же было кому-то подкинуть эту ложь неискушённой Редакции сайта “Orthodoxie” ! Но следует ли возмущаться появлению совместного сайта, когда узнаём, что в самый день Торжества Православия, Вл. Марк попросил патриархийного архиерея рукоположить ему клирика ! Чем объяснить такую провокационную надменность, такое чувство безнаказанности всего за полтора месяца до “Всезарубежного Собора” ? Не плевок ли это в душу всех тех, кто ещё на что-то надеется ? И всё это без малейшей реакции со стороны администрации РПЦЗ(Л) !... Не лучшее ли это свидетельство того, что всё уже решено, что Сан-Францисское собрание – всего лишь театральная формальность. Ведь, даже законно избранных делегатов, о которых предполагают, что они могут выступить против объединения, всякими правдами и неправдами исключают из числа делегатов !

Что это показывает ? – Что боятся они пуще огня, и не намерены допустить, даже малейших возражений, малейшего оспаривания того, что, мол, творят они волю Божию, вдохновенные Духом Святым ! Так представьте себе, дорогие наши братья, какую уничтожающую силу может, в такой обстановке, представить Ваше групповое, открытое, дерзновенное выступление, Ваш – non possumus, если он прогремит в этот промежуток времени, отделяющий нас от “Собора” !

Исполнив Ваш долг перед Церковью, перед Вашей совестью и перед Вашей паствой, которая только этого от Вас и ждёт, в одночасие окончательно растворится мнимая легитимность этой злосчастной затеи, которой они до сих пор прикрываются, и которая никого не будет уже в состоянии обмануть.

В недавно прошедшем совещании духовенства Восточно-Американской епархии, судя по опубликованной резолюции, сказано, что Вл. Лавр “выслушал весь спектр мнений о происходящем ныне процессе примирения нашей Русской Зарубежной Церкви с Московским Патриархатом”. Если перевести это с дипломатического на общепринятый язык, то это значит, что самая крупная епархия не согласна идти одним шагом на самоуничтожение Зарубежной Церкви. Честь и слава Вам !

Вы вступили на путь очищения. Он чреват опасностями, ибо и не легко и не свойственно священнослужителям, как и мірянам, идти против воли Архиереев. Непослушание может быть простым непослушанием и как таковое достойно порицания, но может быть оно и свидетельством, исповедничеством. К этому – вся Церковь Вас призывает !

Но унынием наполняются сердца наши, когда вслед за этим читаем, что : “Несмотря на это, в конце нашей беседы духовенство единогласно выразило готовность проявить послушание предстоящему Архиерейскому Собору” ... Ведь поймите, дорогие, что “они” только этого от Вас и ждут – чтобы Вы дали им возможность безшумно и безпрепятственно провести своё отступническое мероприятие, после которого они готовы даже будут Вас, не задерживая, отпустить. Дело будет сделано ! Им нужна эта внешняя, мнимая, показная легитимность, будто творят дело Божее, будто действуют согласно учению и примеру предшествовавших нам Отцов, будто выполняют волю св. Патриарха Тихона, будто представляют чаяния всего Зарубежного народа !

Неужели Вы готовы участвовать в организуемом притворстве, где кощунственно будут петь “Днесь благодать Святаго Духа нас собра”, где снова будут читаться лицемерные доклады “Дать место благодати Божией”, снова выслушивать придётся лживые заверения о том, что св. Иоанн Шанхайский был сторонником сближения с МП, когда Вы отлично знаете всю подноготную, знаете,  что всё тут подтасовка, обман, лицемерие, плутовство, мошенничество, неправда ... Неужели Вы готовы в этом участвовать ? С какой целью ? Ради послушания ? Послушания – кому ???

Нет ничего нового в Поднебесной. Сегодня, увы, Синод РПЦЗ(Л) идёт по стопам не доброй памяти митр. Михаила Рагозы и тех православных епископов, написавших в июне 1595 г. папе Клименту VIII о готовности их перейти с паствой в подчинение римских пап. Но ведь нашлись же тогда и верные Православные, отказавшиеся от предательства своей Церкви. Не побоялись они проявить непослушание своим архиереям. А непослушание грозило им куда больше, чем кому либо из нас, так как за спиной епископов стояла ещё карающая гражданская власть. И эти верные собирались в православные Братства и тем самым спасли Веру православную в этих краях Речи Посполитой. Не долг ли каждого истинного Зарубежника следовать именно их дерзновенному примеру, а не проявлять послушание епископам, ведущих паству неспасительными стезями.

Возвышенную миссию тогдашних Братств ведёт сегодня Общество Ревнителей Памяти Бл. Митрополита Антония, напоминающее каждому, и вещающее на весь свет, истинный путь Зарубежной Церкви. Общество родилось по инициативе горстки верных и самоотверженных мірян, не могущих согласиться на отказ от Зарубежных принципов и примириться с исчезновением Зарубежной Церкви, к чему однозначно ведут согласительные переговоры с МП. За сравнительно короткий двухлетний срок существования плоды, пожатые Обществом – неоценимы и превышают всякие надежды. Даже печальнейшие распри, постигшие недавно Общество ничуть не умалили его значение. Издаваемый Председателем Г.М. Солдатовым электронный журнал “Верность” пользуется сегодня большим числом посещений, чем когда-либо. Не хочется полемизировать, но как бледно выглядят жалкие заявления тех, кто уверяет, что в Обществе осталось 2 человека ! Ряды постоянно пополняются, выдвигаются Представители в разных местах нашего рассеяния и, что утешительно, приходят не только именитые люди, но и пишущие. Ещё раз, можно только горько жалеть о произошедшем в Обществе расколе, но когда читаешь непристойные выступления некоторых отпавших, становится ясным, что вульгарности нет места в Обществе, имеющем своим покровителем Блаженнейшего Митрополита Антония. Как и нет места в Обществе, поставившем себе целью защиту истины, для каких-либо сомнительных компромиссных лазеек, что и послужило причиной раскола. Тем не менее знаем, что и с отпавшими осталось немало вернейших людей, которых призываем вернуться в Общество. “Умоляю вас, братия, остерегайтесь производящих разделения и соблазны, вопреки учению, которому вы научились, и уклоняйтесь от них” (Рим. 16,17).

Перед лицом надвигающейся опасности, сейчас время объединения, а не дробления. Но не объединения ради объединения, а объединения в истине, “которой мы научились”. К чему призываем и всех верных священнослужителей, не заявивших ещё решительно о своей непримиримости к отказу свидетельства Зарубежной Церкви : “уклоняйтесь от делающих соблазны”. От Вашего поведения в ближайшие дни много будет зависеть, – как в одну сторону, так и в другую.

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Quo Vadis, Oh Church Abroad? 

Protodeacon German Ivanoff-Trinadzaty.

Representative of the Metropolitan Anthony Society  in France

From the very beginning, since 2000 it was clear to us that within the Church Abroad two opposite camps had formed. These were not two concurrent yet differing interpretations of the history and mission of our Church, but namely two mutually exclusive approaches to them. But to be more precise: one of the camps standing immovably on the 80 year old principles of ROCA, attempted to remain loyal to the traditional Church Abroad, while the other, continued to bear Her name yet with each day moved farther away from Her foundations. If for a long time for some our position might have seemed as unjustified haste, today it acquires the character of indisputable necessity.

Nonetheless, we never adhered to a bi-polar view, that on one side, supposedly there were only confessors, while on the other only traitors; on one side everything is fine, on the other, everything is foul. In particular, we didn’t doubt that among those who had followed Vladika Laurus there were not only the dire supporters of amalgamation with the MP, but there was an enormous mass of lukewarm people and even a nucleus of irreconcilables, who according to various reasons, but most often because of a degree of inertia, remained with the New York Synod in the hope that one fine day everyone would wake up like after a chilling dream and that all would come to their senses and everything would return to normal. Today, when less than 6 weeks remain before the notorious “Sobor”, no one can nurture such hopes any longer.

It is all these, our brethren whom we address.

We have written more than once that Vladika Metropolitan Vitaly is our spiritual, moral banner – the pan-abroad banner. The banner of our entire White Russian emigration. The banner of Rus’ Abroad. It is to him, to him personally that everyone must turn. Naturally, at the age of 96, the most worthy successor of his three predecessors is not capable of directing the Church. But the Church is not an enterprise. This is a Divine-Human organism, in which the spiritual basis is of utmost importance. Blessed Metropolitan Anthony used to say that the worst thing one could say about a Hierarch is that he is a good administrator. A Hierarch must primarily be a good shepherd, a man of prayer, which Metropolitan Vitaly is. Moreover, our elder First Hierarch is a pure, all-forgiving soul.

If now a significant number of clergy, who are sincerely suffering and grieving, young and venerable, famous and unknown would turn to him, then instantaneously, the whim under the name “IVth Pan-Abroad Sobor” would collapse, disintegrate into ashes, and in heaven and on earth great joy would reign. Those, whose heart leans toward the MP, will be the ones who join the MP, but then the Church will be “cleansed of them”, as Vladika Mark had said, using this _expression but in the opposite ultimate sense.

The notion that there is nothing left to hope for, can be reflected by the flood of multilateral statements, documents and acts; one of the latest is the launching of the joint patriarchate-church abroad web site, with the unconcealed name “Let us Confess with one Mind”, again with the same unctuous hypocritical content. The major French language information site “Orthodoxie”, which we had once quoted, by way of introducing the newly emerged colleague writes, that this is a response to the demands of laity and clergy, who complained at the meeting in Nyack about the shortage of information regarding the dialogue, and notes that there is a “Section ‘Opinions of Hierarchs, Clergy and Laity’ which contains reactions from both supporters of unification as well as opponents”. In actual fact, everyone can verify that this site is a purely propagandistic endeavor and become convinced that the supporters of the Church Abroad are not permitted to get anywhere near the site. Someone saw it necessary to toss this lie to the inexperienced editorial board of the “Orthodoxie” site! But should one be distressed over the appearance of a joint site, when we know that on the very day of the Triumph of Orthodoxy, Vladika Mark asked a patriarchate hierarch to ordain a cleric for him?! How can one explain such a provocational arrogance, such a sense of impunity only a month and a half before the “Pan-abroad Sobor”? Is this not a slap in the faces of those who still harbor hope? And all of this without the slightest reaction from the ROCOR(L) administration!…Is this not the best proof that everything has been decided, and that the San Francisco meeting is nothing more than a theatrical formality. For even the lawfully elected delegates, who are presumed to possibly voice opposition to the unification, have been subjected to attempts, through truths and falsehoods to exclude them from the delegations.

What does this show? That they fear more than fire and have no intention of permitting even the slightest objection, the slightest dispute over their supposed doing the will of God, inspired by the Holy Spirit! So imagine, our dear brothers, given this situation, what a debilitating impact your collective, open, bold stand would have, your – non possumus, if it resounds during this interim period which separates us from the “Sobor”!

In fulfilling your duty before the Church, before your conscience and before your flock, which is expecting precisely this from you, the imaginary legitimacy of this ill-fated whim which they have used as a cover until now, will completely dissolve in a flash and will no longer be in any condition to deceive.

In the recent meeting of the clergy of the Eastern American diocese, judging from the published resolution, wherein it is stated that Vladika Laurus “heard the entire spectrum of opinions on the current process of reconciliation between our Russian Church Abroad and the Moscow Patriarchate”. If one translates this from diplomatic to generally accepted language, it means, that the largest diocese does not agree to proceed in step toward the self-annihilation of the Church Abroad. Honor and glory to you!

You have embarked on the path of purification. It is fraught with peril, for it is not easy nor natural for clergy or even laity to go against the will of the Hierarchs. Disobedience may be common disobedience which deserves reprimand, but it can also be a witnessing and confession of faith. The entire Church calls you to this!

But our hearts fill with despondency when next we read that “Despite this, at the end of our discussion, the clergy unanimously expressed readiness to demonstrate obedience to the coming Hierarchical Sobor”… Please understand, dear ones, that this is precisely what “they” expect of you, that you would give them the opportunity to conduct their apostatic endeavour without noise or obstacles, after which they will be ready to let even you go without delay. The deed will be done! They need this superficial, imaginary, ostentatious legitimacy to create the illusion that they are doing God’s work, as if they are acting in accordance with the teaching and example of the Fathers who preceded us, as if they are fulfilling the will of St. Patriarch Tikhon, as if they are representing the desires of all the Abroad people!

Can it be that you may be preparing to participate in the orchestrated sham, where they will sacrilegiously sing “Today the grace of the Holy Spirit has gathered us”, where again hypocritical reports will be read such as“Making way for the grace of God”; one will again be forced to hear the false assurances that St. John of Shanghai was a proponent of the rapprochement with the MP, when you know full well all the background, you know that everything in this regard is a juggling act, a scam, hypocrisy, trickery, swindling, falsehood.. Can it be that you are prepared to participate in it? With what purpose? For the sake of obedience? Obedience to whom???

There is nothing new under the sun. Today, alas, ROCOR(L) is following in the footsteps of metropolitan Mikhail Ragoza of notorious memory and those Orthodox bishops who wrote to pope Clement VIII in 1595 of their readiness to subjugate themselves and their flock to the Roman popes. But true Orthodox people came to the foreground, refusing to betray their Church. They were not afraid to demonstrate disobedience to their hierarchs. Yet disobedience threatened them far more than any of us, since the punitive civil regime backed the bishops. And these faithful gathered together in Orthodox Brotherhoods and by doing so saved the Orthodox faith in the regions under Polish domain. Is it not the duty of each true member of the Church Abroad to follow their daring example and to not demonstrate obedience to bishops who are leading the flock along non-salvific footpaths?

The exalted mission of those ancient Brotherhoods is being conducted today by the Blessed Metropolitan Anthony Memorial Society, which reminds each of us and broadcasts to the entire world the true path of the Church Abroad. The society was created on the initiative of a small group of faithful and selfless lay people who could not agree with the rejection of Church Abroad principles nor reconcile with the disappearance of the Church Abroad which is the synonymous goal of dialogue with the MP. Over the relatively short two-year history of its existence, the fruits reaped by the Society are invaluable and exceed every hope. Even the most sad quarrels which recently afflicted the Society have not diminished its significance in the least. The internet journal “Fidelity” published by its Chairman G.M. Soldatov is experiencing a larger number of visits than ever. I don't wish to polemicize but how pale appear the pitiful comments of those who assert that only two people remain in the Society! The ranks are constantly growing, representatives are emerging in various locations of our diaspora, and it is comforting that not only prominent people, but those with writing skills are joining in. Again, one can only regret the split which occurred in the Society, but when one reads the obscene comments of some who have left, it becomes clear that there is no place for vulgarity in the Society, which has the Most Blessed Metropolitan Anthony as its protector. Similarly there is no place in the Society for those who have made the defence of truth their goal because of some dubious compromising loopholes, which have served as the basis for the split. Nonetheless, we know that among those who left there are many faithful people, upon whom we call to return to the Society. “Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them” (Rom. 16:17).

We face imminent danger, now is the time for unification, not fragmentation. But not unification for the sake of unification, but unification in the truth “which we have learned”. To this end we call upon all the faithful clergy, who have not yet decisively expressed their irreconcilability with the rejection of the witnessing of the Church Abroad: “flee the workers of temptation”. Much will depend on your conduct in the days at hand – in one direction as well as in the other.

            * * *

ДЕЯНИЯ

РУССКОГО ВСЕЗАГРАНИЧНОГО  ЦЕРКОВНОГО СОБОРА

Состоявшегося 8 – 20 ноября 1921 года (21 ноября – 3 декабря)

в Сремских Карловцах в Королевстве С., Х. И С.

(Начало см. в № 35-37)

КО ВСЕМ ВЕРУЮЩИМ В БОГА ПРАВИТЕЛЬСТВАМ И НАРОДАМ МИРА.

Среди многих воззваний и объявлений о сборе пожертвований на погибающий от неурожая и голода русский народ, к вам, народы всего мира, обращается теперь с той же мольбой о несчастных жителях России ее заграничный Церковный Собор, собравшийся в Сремских Карловцах в Сербии 8-22 ноября ст. ст. сего года в составе 13 епископов и представителей всех заграничных русских колоний. Собор сей, собрало Высшее Русское Церковное Управление заграницей, временно заменяющее для русских эмигрантов верховного пастыря православной России Патриарха Тихона, который первый возвысил голос с призывом всего мира на помощь голодным.

Однако он лишен возможности почтовых сношений с заграницей и потому Заграничный Церковный Собор вслед за своим Патриархом вторично возвышает голос и сообщает всему миру о невыносимом бедствии, постигшем несчастную Россию. Двадцать пять миллионов русских людей в разнообразных местностях ничего не получили от своих возделанных нив: все сожжено солнцем, и несчастные земледельцы, а также жители городов, обезумев от ужаса и голода, несутся, куда глаза глядят в разные стороны, разоряя все по пути и десятками тысяч умирая по дороге от голодного изнеможения и холеры.

Народы всего мира! Ваша помощь для этих несчастных беглецов уже опоздала: они в большинстве своем обречены на ужасную смерть, но, если не подоспеет помощь для прочих жителей голодающих местностей, для тех, которые еще доедают в домах своих последние крохи, то и они бросятся бежать на ту-же неминуемую гибель, и все современное человечество будет виновато в этих ужасных миллионных жертвах.

Много различных учреждений, международных русских, обращаются ко всем за помощью голодающим. Русский Заграничный Собор не думает препятствовать или соревновать им, но с благодарным чувством желает им всякого успеха. Если же и он протягивает миру свою просящую руку для голодных соотечественников то вот почему. Голодом охвачены нас многие племена едва-ли не всех известнейших вероисповеданий: православного, старообрядческого, католического, армянского, протестантских учений, магометанского, буддийского, иудейского. Наша духовная организация будет озабочена тем, чтобы последователей всех этих учений получили лепту помощи потому, что мы будем распределять ее по возможности через учителей религии. Затем, мы знаем, что большая часть человечества склонна творить милостыню именно, как дело Божие, в надежде, что она будет подаваться и приниматься с молитвою.

В нашей Божией книге – Новый Завет – написано, что когда, вскоре после Христа в Иерусалиме случился голод, то верующие других стран положили, каждый по достатку своему, послать пособие братьям, живущим в Иудее, что, и сделали, послав собранное пресвитерам чрез Варнаву и Савла (Деян., 11, 29-30). И ныне верующие во Христа среди всех народов стараются творить все так, как было при Его учениках, и потому они предпочли свою собранную милостыню послать в Россию чрез здешних представителей церкви к тамошним пресвитерам.

Но многие и из тех народов, которые не знали Христа и Его Апостолов, желают, чтобы милостыня их шла через служителей Бога их единоверцам в России или всем вообще голодающим не только добрым, но и грешникам: «да будете (по слову Христову) сынами Отца вашего Небесного: ибо Он повелевает солнцу Своему восходить над злыми и добрыми, и посылает дождь на праведных и неправедных» (Матф,, 5.45).

Тем народам и отдельным лицам, которые желают поступить по сему правилу, мы советуем посылать свою денежную милостыню, а также почтовые посылки, по адресу:

YOUGOSLAVIE,

SREMSKI KARLOVCI,

Patriarchie, Administration Ecclesiastique Russe.

(Сербия, Сремски Карловци, Патриархия, Высшее Русское Церковное Управление заграницей, а снаряжаемые вагоны и пароходы на имя Всероссийского Патриарха Тихона в пограничные города или в Константинополь, Российское Посольство, Архиепископу Анастасию; или в г.г. Ригу, Ревель, Гельсигфорс, местному православному архиерею для Патриарха Тихона в Москве).

Председатель Русского Загран. Церковного Собора

Митрополит Антоний.

* * *

Русский Всезаграничный Церковный Собор,

В который были приглашены все пребывающие заграницей русские иерархи в числе 14 владык, а также представители клира и мирян всех русских церковных округов, рассеянных по Европе, устрояя насущнейшие церковные дела нашей эмиграции, обращается ко всем православным, русским беженцам с тремя посланиями. В одном он увещевает вас к покаянию и к молитве о духовном благоустроении нашего отечества, в другом утешает беженцев в их беде и одобряет их указаниям на те добрые свойства русской души, которые обнаружились в эти лихие годы нашей жизни, а в этом третьем послании напоминает вам, русские православные люди, с призывом поддерживать Св. Церковь так, как это устроено в большинстве наших колоний в Сербии, где члены каждой из них обложили себя по одному динару в месяц на общецерковные нужды и вносят эту сумму (динар - 1/3 франка)  чрез управление колонии или чрез свой приходской совет.

Если и по всей заграничной эмиграции будет выполнено такое самообложение, то Церковное Управление получит возможность рассылать разъездных священников в места, наиболее в том нуждающихся, приобретать молитвенники и Новый Завет для беднейших колоний и т.д.
В настоящее же время Управление наше лишено таких средств, и члены его – иерархи, клир и миряне служат безо всякого жалования, часто не имея средств прибыть на его заседания в Сремских Карловцах.

Тем менее может наше Управление в своем настоящем положении печатать молитвенники или Евангелие или учреждать хотя-бы маленькую духовную школу.

Если же последует самообложение наших беженцев хотя бы по одной монете ежемесячно, то все это станет доступным, ибо беженцев русских заграницей имеется около двух миллионов.

Пожалейте же, добрые люди, ваших собратов, помогите их духовному просвещению, их церковной жизни.

Председатель Собора

Антоний Митрополит Киевский.

* * *

ПОСЛАНИЕ

Ко всем православным русским беженцам заграницей от Русского Всезаграничного Церковного Собора.

На реках Вавилонских,  тамо седохом

и плакахом,  внегда помянути нам Сиона.

Глубокая скорбь  о лишении нас своего отечества и еще более о том, что отечество наше попало под власть безбожников, евреев и китайцев, ужасает ваши души, а разорение, постигшее вас, гнетущая забота о том, чтобы заработать себе кусок, хотя бы черствого, хлеба и прикрыть свое тело, хотя-бы рубищем, терзает ваши души. Горе, соединенное с покаянием, спасительно, но горе, исполненное учения, погибельно. Правда, большинство наших беженцев, и молодых и престарелых, многому научилось чрез страдания, но и на них продолжительность испытания, нас постигшего, может нагнать дух безысходной тоски и даже, от чего сохрани Господь, ропота. В предохранение от такого греха Русский Всезаграничный Церковный Собор, собравшийся в г. Сремски Карловци в день Св. Архистратига Михаила и Бесплотных Сил, долгом своим почитает обратиться к вам, русские беженцы, со словом утешения... Первым утешением нашим, конечно, является мысль о том, что мы не забыты Богом, но наказываемы Богом за то, что забыли Его и Его заповеди. Однако наказание Божие есть не иное что, как явление Божественной любви; так и пишет Апостол Павел: «его же любит Господь, наказует, бьет же всякого сына егоже приемлет». Впрочем, не о грехах и заблуждениях русского общества будем писать вам, а о том добром, что открылось в жизни русских беженцев заграницей. Доброго обнаружилось в их жизни очень много, больше, чем можно было ожидать. И первое доброе это то, что вспомнили Бога, а одни научились Ему молиться, не знавшие раньше силы молитв, а другие, молившиеся в юности, но отвыкшие от молитвы под напором греховных страстей и под влиянием ложных учений, вновь возвратились к подвигу молитвы. Многие в эти грустные месяцы и годы нашей жизни обратились к чтению Священного Писания, чего прежде никогда не делали, а некоторые стали углубляться в изучение научных книг, богословских и философских, пожелав разумно и сознательно руководиться соответствующими убеждениями, тогда как прежние свои взгляды на вещи они хранили просто  по привычке, а привычки усваивали по причинам совершенно случайным. Многие модные предрассудки, модные заблуждения в роде теософии, спиритизма и всяких лжелиберальных бредней, в которые прежде верили с постоянством, достойным лучшего применения, они теперь совершенно оставили и не только отказались от шаблонных фраз, заменявших им христианский катехизис, но с благородною откровенностью признаются, как они были неразумны в своих прежних самоуверенных теориях, точнее – предрассудках.  Далее, хотя не по доброй воле, а под давлением нужды, но, сколько благородных и когда-то изнеженных женщин, юношей, и даже стариков принялись за исполнение черных работ, и в своих маленьких домовых хозяйствах, и в качестве наемных поденщиков, обнаруживая завидную выносливость, трудолюбие и мудрое смирение души. Когда видишь уважаемую мать семейства с графским или генеральским титулом, собственноручно моющую белье, или гвардейского офицера, проживавшего прежде по 10ю000 в год, а ныне тачающего сапоги или грузящего уголь на судах; когда затем убеждаемся в их благодушном настроении и безропотной покорности выпавшим на их долю лишениям вместо заслуженных военными подвигами почестей и славы: тогда убеждаешься, что наш народ, не только в лице своего крестьянства,  ни и в составе своего просвещенного общества, имеет славную будущность, ибо обнаруживает глубокую душу и христианское терпение, и большую живучесть, и мощную применительность к переменам изменчивой судьбы.

Не будем закрывать глаз и на теневую сторону дела, на то, что, поддаваясь голоду и угнетенные нуждой, многие русские люди в своем изгнании потеряли понятие о честности и супружеской верности и мужчины продают свою совесть, а женщины свою честь. Эти печальные явления среди миллионного числа беженцев, к сожалению неизбежны, но не по ним, а по тем отрадным явлениям должно судить о теперешнем настроении русских беженцев и гадать о будущей участи русского общества; падения естественны во всяком обществе, повергнутом в нищету и скитальчество, а тот нравственный подъем, который мы видим в другой, и более значительной, его части, свойственен только народу с будущностью, народу или обществу, которое в своей душе гораздо лучше, чем в своей обычной являемости, чем о нем думали поверхностные наблюдатели. – Теперь именно выяснилось, что наши интеллигентные и благородные беженцы имели христианскую душу под светскою и не церковною внешностью, что они таили в глубине своих душ, может быть сами того не сознавая, высокие евангельские правила смиренномудрия, покорности Промыслу Божию и готовности страданиями искупить свои прежние грехи. О, если бы они надолго сохранили благие плоды той тяжелой школы, которую они прошли в своем изгнании.  О, если бы они, возвратившись в Россию и вновь окруженные довольством, даже богатством, а также властью и возможностью влияния, не утратили этих сокровищ духа, которые  приобрели своими страданиями. Сколько добра они тогда внесли бы в жизнь возрождения России, сколько любви они оказывали бы меньшей братии, как чутко стали бы относиться к чужим страданиям и как сгладили бы остроту взаимоотношений классов общества во исполнение слов Христовых: «больший в вас да будет всем слуга». Все, начиная от Русского Царя, без которого конечно не может быть и речи о возрождении России, и, кончая последним гражданином, который хоть одного из ближних своих превосходит достатком или талантом, обратят тогда свое сердце к слабейшим себя и не дадут места взору зависти сильнейшим, той диавольской зависти, чрез которую впервые вошла смерть в беспорочный мир Божий, как свидетельствует Писание (Прем. 2, 24) и которая по свидетельству Евангелия возвела на Крест Господа Иисуса Христа (Марк 10, 15).

Мы не напрасно упомянули о Царе, ибо такой дух взаимной уступчивости, а не борьбы за свой собственный успех в ущерб ближнему, борьбы классовой, племенной и профессиональной, дух нравственного строя общенародной жизни, возможен только при монархическом христианском укладе, когда во главе государственной жизни стоит личная совесть человека, совесть, торжественно исповедавшая свою покорность Евангелию и Церкви словами Символа Православной веры, - совесть, а не компания на время избранных лиц, борющихся друг с другом за преобладание.

Русские люди! Да не будет для вас бесплодным великое посещение Божие, та великая наука, которой научиться, возможно, было только тяжкими страданиями. Возблагодарим за них Господа, как Праведный Иов и тогда сподобимся его награды. Не в роскоши, не в искании власти, а в послушании и терпении будем искать цель жизни, и личной и общественной. В первом помог нам сам Бог Своею карой, а во втором да поможет нам общее стремление воссоздать христианский, т.е. богоучрежденный уклад теократический уклад жизни и притом в более последовательном строе братского попечения сильнейших над слабейшими, чем было у нас до злосчастной революции. Да послужит нам наше невольное переселение из родины тем-же, чем послужил древнему Израилю Вавилонский Плен. До сего пленения иудеи хуже, чем русское общество последнего полстолетия, забывали Бога, предаваясь ложным учениям, а после своего плена поставили главной заботой всего народа охранение истинной веры и любовь к отечеству, и с того времени уже никто не посмел и подумать о почитании идолов.

Наше переселение длится не 70 лет, а только 3-4 года; но и этого срока довольно, чтобы сознать свои прежние заблуждения и возвратить свое сердце Богу, Церкви, Царю и своему народу.

Пока этого не совершится, не возвратить нам и самой России, не возвратиться нам в Россию. От Вас русские люди, от вашего внутреннего возрождения зависит, чтобы Господь сократил годы, и месяцы своего прощения, чтобы возвратил нам радость спасения Своего (Псал. 50, 14). Уготовляйте же себе путь в нашу благословенную страну,  объединяйтесь в патриотические группы, взаимно учитесь, друг у друга познанию Бога и своей Родины, своей прошлой истории и разумному строю земли нашей в будущем. «Воссияй в сердцах наших, человеколюбче Владыко, Твоего богоразумия нетленный свет».

Председатель Собора Антоний,

Митрополит Киевский и Галицкий.

* * *

Русским старообрядцам – беженцам в Лондоне и заграничных городах и весях.

Общее горе сближает людей и побуждает забыть взаимные обиды и ссоры, оплакивая общую гибель и разорение нашей Православной Родины.

Между тем, кроме прежде испытанных обид, у старообрядцев, отделяющихся от нашей православной Церкви, не остается более причин отделения от нас,  судя – по крайней мере – по беседам г. Мельникова до 1917 года. Тогда он ссылался на не совсем каноническое устроение Русской Православной Церкви, но в настоящее время каноническое устроение восстановлено, и во главе ее стоит законный православный Патриарх Московский и всея Руси.

Кроме того,  на тех же беседах говорилось о необходимости снять клятвы 1653 и 1667 г.г., но и это, с помощью Божией, устроено на Московском Церковном Соборе 1917-1918 г. К сожалению, у меня здесь нет актов его, но, как председатель Единоверческой Комиссии, я помню, что и Епископов Ваших решено было принять в сущем сане и у нас учредить 5 единоверческих епископов. Первым из таковых был Епископ Охтенский Пр. Симон Шлеев, из овдовевших протоиереев, постриженный в монашество, - и, к прискорбию, недавно мученически умерщвленный злодеями в г. Уфе.

Посему, слышав о Вашем добром расположении, желал бы я теперь узнать, что Вы думаете о соединении с Церковью уже не «господствующей», но гонимой от врагов Христовой веры. Не пора ли нам едиными усты и единым сердцем славить Триединого Бога?

Смиренный Антоний,

Митрополит Киевский и Галицкий.

* * *

Послание Русского заграничного церковного Собора во Вселенский Патриархат.

Русские люди всегда почитали самым священным и дорогим для своего сердца местом на всем земном шаре Святую Землю и Св. Гору Афонскую. Огромное большинство паломников Ее были русские, хотя Россия отстояла от Св. Афона на большом расстоянии, нежели все прочие православные земли. Пожертвования на св. обители Афонские, не только русские, но и греческие, шли преимущественно из России.

Ее грады, ее столицы отвели на своих стогнах обширные участки для устроения афонских метохов и храмов, принадлежащих не только русским монастырям на Св. Горе, но и греческим, например Николаевский монастырь в Москве, а также и Бессарабские имения и метохи на Кавказе.

Кроме тех многочисленнейших русских людей, которых Господь удостаивал посетить святыни Афонские, еще вчетверо большее число наших соотечественников стремилось на Св. Гору помолиться, но не могли осуществить своего желания по различным препятствиям, связанным с дальностью пути.

И когда они спешили спасти свою жизнь от убийц, воцарившихся в России, и приближались к берегам Босфора, то одним из утешений их душам была надежда на то, что теперь им удастся осуществить свою давнишнюю мечту и сподобиться взойти на Гору Господню. Эта мечта укрепилась особенно в тех десятках тысяч русских, которые поселились на острове Лемносе, с коего хорошо видны афонские вершины и очертания священных монастырей.

Увы, приближение к Св. Горе было воспрещено для них и для всех русских, как бы для прокаженных, и тщетно присылали они письменные мольбы к проживающим временно на Св. Горе двум русским архиереям о разрешении поклониться афонским святыням: даже всем прочим архиереям русским не дано было разрешения посетить Св. Гору. Афонский Кинот, отвергая их мольбы, отвечал холодной и формальной ссылкой на свое же собственное распоряжение 1919 года о недопущении на Афон русских впредь до окончания русской революции. Но русские беженцы, стремящиеся на Св. Гору, не участники революции, а – напротив – ее жертвы. Революционеры и большевики никакого лишения не потерпели от упомянутого распоряжения, а ложится оно всей своей тяжестью на бедных, но верных чад Христовой Церкви.

Неужели же и старшая братия во Христе, то-есть высшая власть Вселенской Патриархии и Афонский Кинот будет и впредь прилагать к большевистским заушениям и свои собственные на беззащитных русских христиан, и лишать их возможности поклоняться чудотворным святыням Афона?

Всероссийский Заграничный Церковный Собор во главе с 13 архиереями смиренно просит Патриархат и Священный Кинот Афонский разрешить приезд на Св. Гору, по крайней мере, тем русским паломникам, которые будут иметь удостоверение о своей благонадежности от русских архиереев.

Председатель Собора Антоний,

Митрополит Киевский и Галицкий.

* * ***************************************************

К МОИМ СОБРАТЬЯМ МИРЯНАМ И КЛИРИКАМ

Г. Ракитин

Поучающий кощунника наживет себе безславие и обличающий нечестивого - пятно себе. Не обличай кошунника, чтобы он не возненавидел Тебя; обличай мудрого и он возлюбит тебя». (Про. 9. 7-8)

Эти строки – призыв пробудиться, осознать важность происходящего в РПЦЗ и стать на защиту того немногого, что у нас еще осталось от православия. На 6-ое мая, почти сразу после Светлой Седьмицы, созван «Всезарубежный Собор». Но может ли он называться «всезарубежным» если в нем не будет участвовать та часть нашей Церкви, которая осталась с митрополитм Виталием? Собор, на который наверное не пошлет делегатов Южно-Амриканская епархия?

К сожалению, большинство из нас не заметили, что велась секретная многолетняя работа, направленная на уничтожение РПЦЗ, когда-то бывшей маяком для наших соотечественников на родине. Сейчас архитекторы немедленного объединения с МП прибегают к разным приемам. Один из них, имевший успех среди эмигрантов, это игра на патриотических чувствах, обвиняя противостоящих их замыслам в денационализации.

Тут они отделяют любовь к родине от любви к вере православной. А для нас эти чувства нераздельны и пополняющие друг друга.

Патриотизм зиждится на двух столпах: вероисповедании и традициях. Оба они расшатывались советской властью, но расшатать до конца их не удалось, хотя из наших традиций постарались создать многонациональную смесь.

Теперь, с помощью МП и её зарубежных сотрудников нам стараются преподнести другую, куда более ужасную, религиозную смесь – экуменизм взамен Православия.

Поэтому, стоянием за Православие мы спасаем и наше патриотическое сознание.

Сейчас для нас очень важно добиться, совместными усилиями, чтобы те, кто хочет или должен по каким-либо причинам участвовать в майском соборе, проявили мужество и – действуя по совести – подняли вопрос о том, что для созыва полноправного собора необходимо сначала приложить все усилия для восстановления единства РПЦЗ.

В том, что происходит в нашей Церкви – виноваты мы все, потому что не исполняли наш долг соблюдения Православия. Для того чтобы постепенно вернуться к полноте Православия нам всем необходимо проявить великодушие, забыть обиды, принести покаяние, восстановить соборность.

Автор этих строк обращается с призывом к мирянам: выражайте поддержку своему духовенству, защищайте его от «карательных» запретов в служении и выбрасывании с семьями на улицу за противостояние Патриархии.

Только оказав такую поддержку, мы будем вправе ожидать от духовенства открытого выражения несогласия с подчинением РПЦЗ Патриархии.

Дорогие собратья, проснитесь! Необходимо высказываться сейчас! Да поможет нам Бог!

* * *

TO MY FELLOW BRETHREN LAITY AND CLERGY

G. Rakitin

“He that reproveth a scorner getteth to himself shame: and he that rebuketh a wicked man getteth himself a blot. Reprove not a scorner, lest he hate thee: rebuke a wise man, and he will love thee.” (Proverbs 9: 7-8)

These lines are a call to wake up, realize the importance of what is occurring in ROCOR and rise to the defense of what little is still left of Orthodoxy. On May 6^th, almost immediately following Bright Week, the “Pan-abroad Sobor” is to convene. But can it be called “pan-abroad” if the part of our Church which remained with Metropolitan Vitaly will not be participating in it? A sobor, to which the South American diocese will likely not send its delegates?

Regretably the majority of us did not notice, that secret work was being conducted over many years, aimed at destroying ROCOR, which at one time had been the beacon for our compatriots in the homeland. Now, the architects of swift unification with the MP are resorting to various methods. One of these, which has been successful among immigrants, is to play on patriotic sentiments, accusing those who oppose their schemes of denationalization.

In this regard they separate love for one’s homeland from love for the Orthodox faith. But for us these feelings are inseparable and enrich each other.

Patriotism is based on two pillars: confession of faith and tradition. Both of these were shaken by the Soviet regime, but could not be totally shaken down, even though they attempted to create a multinational mixture out of our tradition.

Now, with the help of the MP and its co-workers abroad, there is an attempt to present us with yet another, far more horrible religious mixture - ecumenism in place of Orthodoxy.

Therefore, in defending Orthodoxy, we are also saving our patriotic consciousness.

Right now what is very important for us to achieve, through joint efforts, is that those who wish or must participate in the May conference for whatever reason, must demonstrate courage and, following their consciences; they must raise the issue that in order to convene a sobor, which is completely full-fledged, first it is imperative to use every means to restore the unity of ROCOR.

We are all at fault for what is happening in our Church, because we did not fulfill our duty of observing Orthodoxy. In order to gradually return to the fullness of Orthodoxy, it is imperative for us all to demonstrate magnanimity, forget our offences, offer repentance and restore sobornost’.

The author of these lines appeals to the laity: express support for your clergy; defend them against “punitive” suspensions and being evicted onto the street with their families because they stood up against the Patriarchate.

Only by providing such support can we be entitled to expect our clergy to openly express disagreement with ROCOR subjugation to the Patriarchate.

Dear fellow brethren, awake! It is imperative to speak out now! May God help us!

* * *

METROPOLITAN ANTHONY BLOOM: A PERSONAL TESTIMONY

Olga Moss

Introduction: Recent reports from Russia and Serbia that the MP's Metropolitan Anthony (Bloom) of Sourozh is considered to be a saint and may be canonized, together with the fact that the St. Herman Calendar for 2006 included the date of his death as if he were a righteous man, led me to ask my wife, Mrs. Olga Moss, who was very close to him for several years in the 70s, to write down what she knew about him. Some will object that one should not speak ill of the dead. Our reply is: if, by not knowing the true facts about a dead man, the living are going to be led into soul-destroying error by venerating and praying to a pseudo-saint whose teaching was heretical and his life unclean, then it is better - better, perhaps, even for him, wherever he may be now -  that the truth be told.

Readers will excuse us if, in order to put these facts into context, my wife includes some biographical details about her own life.

Vladimir Moss.

I was born in Batavia, Indonesia. My father was Dutch and worked for a Dutch bank. My mother, born Maria Arsenievna Morozova, was a White Russian from Moscow. Every six months or so we had to move to a different town. All the schools I went to were Protestant. When the war broke out my mother and I were in prison under the Japanese for three and a half months, exactly 100 days, and after that we were in a concentration camp for approximately two years.

After the war I came to England with my first husband, an English officer serving in the Gurkhas in Java. I joined the Anglican Church and had my four children baptised in it. Looking at the beautiful churches with their stained-glass windows depicting the apostles and the saints, and hearing the creed being recited, I presumed that the Anglican Church had the Apostolic Faith. But when I was about 40 years old, I felt something missing in the churches. I was also weary with listening to sermons on third-world poverty and politics, and never about spiritual subjects such as the angels, death, hell, etc., or with a profound interpretation of the Scriptures. Then I met someone who belonged to the Moscow Patriarchate in Ennismore Gardens, London. That Sunday I visited it and when I entered and heard the choir sing: "Iisus Khristos", I realized how hungry I had been for the worship of the Lamb. My heart longed for spiritual food and worship.

Always as a child I had believed in the Divine Mystery of the Body and Blood of Christ. My mother, being Orthodox, used to take me to Orthodox liturgies, while my father, being a Protestant, took me to the "Apostolic" Church. When I was about nine years old, when my father was on leave and we were staying with relatives of my mother in Paris, I met Vladyka John Maximovich.

Since as a child I had never been stopped from receiving communion in the Orthodox Church, although I was baptised in the Lutheran Church, I went up to receive communion in Ennismore Gardens without first doing confession. But when I was told by Fr. Michael Fortounatto that I had to do confession first, I readily agreed. Then my mother pointed out that I should be received into the Orthodox Church since I had only been baptised in the Lutheran Church. So I phoned up Metropolitan Anthony Bloom, who told me to come to his house in Upper Addison Gardens, where he gave me chrismation. I asked my youngest daughter, Sonia, to come with me to be a witness.

Metropolitan Anthony then asked me to arrange retreats that were to be conducted by him. So we had retreats in St. Teresa’s convent school in Effingham and other places.

In 1970 I went to the Lebanon and then to Jerusalem. After three weeks in Beirut and one week in Jerusalem, I joined up with a wonderful Orthodox group from America belonging to the Russian Church in Exile, as she was then called. They took me to Hebron, where I met the saintly Igumen Ignaty. They complained to him that I belonged to the Moscow Patriarchate. He looked at me intently and smiled: "Olga does not know, but when she finds out the truth about the Moscow Patriarchate, she will act and leave it." I was bewildered! What was wrong with the Moscow Patriarchate? I asked to do confession with Fr. Ignaty, and suddenly tears poured out of my eyes. But then they stopped as abruptly as they had started. I felt as if I had been cleansed from soot like a chimney. Fr. Ignaty had the gift of giving people tears of repentance. I went back to may seat and wondered in what way I had sinned so much!

Returning to England, I began to listen carefully to the sermons of Metropolitan Anthony, and to the talks he gave at the retreats I organized. I was shocked when I heard him say to an Anglican girl who had a fiancée who could not accept that the Lord went up with a human body at the Ascension: "Of course not! What would God the Father say to Christ: 'What is this human flesh sitting next to me?'" She laughed in a relieved way, thinking it was not essential to believe that the Lord went up with His human body! I was at a loss and ignorant, but I knew in my heart that the reason why Christ died for us was in order to carry His humanity into the life of the Holy Trinity. I eagerly started to read the Church Fathers, to learn how to answer heretics and in that way learn the truth more exactly.

On another occasion I gave Metropolian Anthony a lift to Woodham church in Woking, where he gave a talk on the Orthodox Church. One speaker asked: "Do you believe that the Orthodox Church is the True Church?" He replied: "It is for me! But if you are English, then it is your culture to be an Anglican." I was very angry, and had words with him when I drove him to Ennismore Gardens. Surely, I said, there is only One True Church, which is the Bride of Christ, and there cannot be thousands of different Christian Churches all believing something different? He did not answer, but changed the subject, saying only that we have to be tolerant with "beginners". I was alarmed and thought: How would the Apostles and Saints have answered that question?

I also noticed that Metropolitan Anthony never liked to speak about the Church as the elect.

At one retreat, Vladimir, who had just come on the scene in Ennismore Gardens, asked Metropolitan Anthony a question about the Holy Spirit. He gave an evasive answer, and Vladimir looked puzzled. As I had been in the Lebanon and talked with Abbot Elias and his monks about the Holy Spirit, I went up to Vladimir and said: "God the Holy Spirit is a Person in His own right - the third Hypostasis of the Holy Trinity." For Vladimir, this came as a revelation. I continued: "I’ve discovered that Fr. Anthony can speak neither about the Holy Spirit nor about the Church." I also told him that, according to the Arab Orthodox whom I had visited in the Lebanon, all the words for the Holy Spirit in Syriac and Aramaic, such as "ruach" and "shekinah", are feminine.

Once someone asked Metropolitan Anthony about the ten virgins, and why the five wise virgins did not share their oil with the foolish ones. He laughed and said that in fact the action of the five wise virgins was quite unchristian! I looked up St. John Chrysostom on this passage, and found that, according to him, the source from which the wise virgins get their oil is the Holy Spirit, and that oil is grace and one cannot share grace with anyone else. One can only tell him where to get it.

Once my mother came to England and spoke to Metropolitan Anthony for quite a long time after the liturgy. He seemed quite scared of her. Then she told me: "He’s not Orthodox", and compared him unfavourably with the bishops and priests of the Russian Church in Exile whom she had known.

He once told me that as a bishop he could break the canons. When I told this some years later to Metropolitan Epiphanios of Cyprus, he laughed and said: "It is precisely we bishops who have to uphold and protect the canons!"

Once a member of the Russian Church Abroad who was a practising homosexual was told by Vladyka Nikodem of Great Britain that he was not allowed to receive communion as long as he practised this sin. He went to the senior priest at Ennismore Gardens, Fr. Michael Fortounatto, who put his arm around him and told him that in Ennismore Gardens they would allow him to receive communion since the Moscow Patriarchate was the Church of Love!

Archimandrite Barnabas, who had a small monastery in Wales, told me the following story. He said that he and Anthony Bloom and one other person had been living in a skete in France shortly after the war. (It should be pointed out that Metropolitan Anthony was a French citizen, a surgeon by training, who had worked for the maquis, the communist underground, during the war.) Once a man from Moscow came to the skete and asked to speak to each of the monks separately. The three monks gathered afterwards to compare notes. Anthony Bloom refused to reveal the contents of his conversation with the man, but Archimandrite Barnabas and the other monk found that he had made them both the same offer: if they joined the MP, opened a parish for the patriarchate in London, and supplied them with information about the parishioners gleaned from confession or gossip, then they would be well looked-after by Moscow.

Archimandrite Barnabas and the other monk rejected the proposal, but very soon Metropolitan Anthony and his mother turned up in London in a house with a plaque saying "Moscow Patriarchate", and proceeded to divide the parish of the Russian Church in Exile, bringing many people to his new MP parish. Within a few years he was promoted to the episcopate.

On Good Friday, 1975, I was sitting outside the cathedral in Ennismore Gardens waiting for the burial service to begin. Two women came up to me separately and began to talk to me. One was a young Frenchwoman. She cried and said that Metropolitan Anthony had raped her. I could not believe it! But then the other woman, an Englishwoman who worked for Church Times, and said that she had been raped by him. The descriptions given by the two women, who did not know each other, were almost identical! I went to Fr. Michael Fortounatto and told him what I had heard. He looked at me haughtily and said: "Are you not used to sin?!" I was stunned!

After Pascha I went to the church again, to the place where confessions were heard. Metropolitan Anthony came out, and I told him: "I haven’t come to do confession, but to ask you if it is true that you have raped Francoise and [the other woman’s name]?" He said: "I have! But I’ll tell you something. I know that when I die I will go to hell. But not because of the sins I’ve committed against women – that’s nothing! “ but because of the sin I’ve committed against the Church." I said that even Judas could have been saved if he had repented and not lost hope in the mercy of Christ. But he said: "It’s too late!"

What could this sin against the Church be? I did not dare to ask. Everything was happening at once. It was like a pack of cards falling down!

Metropolitan Anthony once told me that Metropolitan Nikodem of Leningrad was a great friend of his and a wonderful Christian, and that they had gone together to represent the MP at the General Assembly of the World Council of Churches in New Delhi in 1961. At that time I did not know that Metropolitan Nikodem was a KGB bishop, and there was nothing written against him in the English newspapers. However, my father sent me from Holland a large article from De Telegraaf which claimed that Metropolitan Nikodem was a major-general of the KGB. I went to speak to the foreign editor of De Telegraaf, and he told us that Metropolitan Nikodem had been spotted as good material for the KGB already in his childhood. But he also told us: "Your greater enemy is Anthony Bloom, since he is an arch-ecumenist and erodes the Orthodox faith from within."

It is certainly true that Anthony Bloom was an ecumenist. He was even given a decoration by the Anglicans for his ecumenical work. He wore this on many occasions.

I was still in the MP when once I was drinking some tea after the liturgy. Metropolitan Anthony came up to me and said: "Today I’m going to your country." He meant Holland, which is where my parents lived. I asked him: "Why?" He replied: "I have to see Bishop Dionysius, as he has caused a crisis in the Church." I asked: "Why? Is he a Mason?" He replied: "It is worse than that. I have to discipline him." At that time his driver used to be a Russian woman from Cambridge called Irene, so I asked him: “Is Irene taking you to the airport?" He replied: "No, I’m going by taxi." I asked: "When will you be back?" He said: "Today, I’m just going over to see him."

Now on that day, which was Sunday, I did not know that I myself would be going over to Holland soon. My father phoned me and asked me to come. When I had arrived and was sitting with my parents in their sitting room, my father said: "Isn’t it awful that Bishop Dionysius died so suddenly last Sunday?" I said that I had not read anything about it in the English newspapers. My father told me that Bishop Dionysius had asked reporters from all the Dutch newspapers to come and see him. This was on a Friday. He told them that he had left the Moscow Patriarchate because Patriarch Pimen had been telling lies publicly on television and radio, saying that there was no persecution of the faithful in Russia and some other lies. The next day, Saturday, the papers published this head-line news. Then, on the Sunday, Fr. Arseny, the monk who lived with Bishop Dionysius, and who had left him in the morning after the liturgy, returned in the evening to find him dead. On Monday the newspapers announced that Bishop Dionysius had died of a heart-attack. I was stunned!

I went with my parents to visit some friends, and Fr. Arseny happened to be there. He told me with tears that nobody wanted to bury his bishop. The MP refused to do so, and the Russian Church in Exile also refused because, although he had applied to join them, he had not yet been officially received by them. Instead, he had been buried by the local council with Fr. Arseny and his parishioners standing round his coffin crying. I said to the monk: "Of course you know that Metropolitan Anthony visited him on Sunday?" "What?!" exclaimed Fr. Arseny. I told him of our conversation and how he had told me himself that he was going to visit Bishop Dionysius that day because he needed to be discipline because of the crisis he had caused in the Church. Fr. Arseny went pale and said: "I had better disappear from the scene now that I know this..."

Coming back to England after the nightmare of all these discoveries I had been making about Metropolitan Nikodem of Leningrad, the women who claimed they had been raped by Metropolitan Anthony Bloom, his confession that he would go to hell for his sins against the Church, I consulted with the other members of our parish, and on the feast of the Dormition we decided to leave the Moscow Patriarchate. Then I decided I had to go and see him to tell him personally that I was leaving. He granted me an interview in his house in Upper Addison Gardens. We sat opposite each other with the window on either side of us. Not knowing how to begin, I asked him to pray to the Holy Spirit to guide us. He seemed surprised, but agreed. Then I said: "Why did you lie to me about Metropolitan Nikodem, saying that he was a wonderful Christian? According to the Dutch newspapers that he is a major-general of the KGB, and according to Keston college, he is a lieutenant-colonel of the KGB. He was groomed as a child to become a KGB agent." Metropolitan Anthony went pale and looked worried. "How much more do you know?" he asked. "I want to know for whom you are working - Christ or Antichrist? The Prophet Elijah said you cannot have one foot in each of two opposing camps." He jumped up: "What are you going to do?" I said: "Leave you, of course, as you are not a true bishop." He did not deny this, but said: "Where are you going?" I said: "Perhaps to the Russian Church in Exile." He snapped: "That splinter group!" I said: "I’d rather be with a splinter group if God is there than with a mighty Church organization if God is not there." "What is the parish going to do?" I answered: "Leave you, of course." "I want all of you to come to my house next week after the liturgy of the Exaltation of the Cross to talk with me. Then I will show you documents to prove that you are wrong." I said: "We’ll come to your house, but not to the liturgy." "Olga," he said, "there is nothing wrong with the Cross of Christ." "There is nothing wrong with the Cross of Christ," I agreed, "but there is with the man whose hands are holding it."

On the feast of the Exaltation, several members of the parish, including Vladimir and I, went to his house. Vladimir explained the reasons for the parish’s decision - the sergianism and ecumenism of the Moscow Patriarchate. I then asked the metropolitan to show us the documents he had to prove that we were wrong. He said that he could not find them at that moment. They were in his attic! We told him that he had had enough time to find them, and began to leave the room, not asking for his blessing. I was the last to leave. "May God be with you," he said to me. "He will be," I replied, "if I remain faithful to Him."

Our parish joined the Russian Church in Exile on the feast of the Protecting Veil, 1975. Over a year later, in January, 1977, we were visting Archbishop Vitaly in Montreal. To our amazement, he told us that Metropolitan Anthony Bloom had applied to be received by the Russian Church in Exile during the year after we had left him. The Synod of Bishops had met to discuss his application, and it was agreed that he could be received into the Church, but not as a bishop. Metropolitan Anthony did not accept this condition, and remained in the MP. As Archbishop Vitaly said to us: "How could we receive him as a bishop when for years he had collaborated with the communists?"

Woking., March 4/17, 2006

* * *

AWAKE! And again I Say AWAKE!

Eugenia Richard

It is truly a done deal. As sin and evil seem increasingly familiar and benign the longer we are exposed to them, so this unification with evil itself is becoming less of a menace in our church life as time goes on. When (by whomever’s evil suggestion) we dropped the commemoration of the “persecuted” Russian church and openly began to commemorate and pay homage to the “Russian” church, ask yourselves, ask your bishops, and wake up. You are commemorating the church of agent Drozdov and his cronies, who, despite the fall of communism, are still enthroned and run the prostitute church in Russia. What was the point for men of conscience to stand in staunch opposition to that institution for eighty years? What was the point of constantly emphasizing the difference between the truth and pure evil, at such great risk, knowing that by opposing and staunchly defending the truth, there was no earthly gain, there were no gold mitres, no financial or earthly rewards – it was a difficult, lonely, impoverished road of few followers – that was the Russian Church Abroad. However that narrow road was the truth (remarkable, the Savior’s words come true). For, isn’t He, what it is all about? Isn’t that God-man, our God, crucified and abandoned, Who is now again being crucified and abandoned? Don’t we all nurture the secret thought during Great and Holy Friday, that had we been there, WE would never have run away and abandoned Him as the apostles did out of fear? But let’s open our eyes and see. For some, the comfort and consolation of the church, the parish, the mission, the community, the cathedral with all its members, the hierarchical structure are all more important than following the truth and listening to the voice of our conscience. We have allowed ourselves to be lulled into complacency and to filter out the lies which abound these days. We don’t tolerate lies in the political, economic, social or personal spheres of our lives. We are quick to express opinions on various injustices in our lives which affect or social or economic well-being. But why do we tolerate the ton of lies which is being dumped on us in our church life? We complacently accept statements and actions of the Russian church. We know all of their misdeeds. We hear that instead of complying with the pre-conditions for unification, these demands are thrown back in our faces with the characteristic communist gall and bravado, and distorted to make black white and white black. The chess-mastery, the communist plotting, disinformation and distortion are in full swing. Renounce Sergianism, we say – they respond by glorifying him. Renounce ecumenism, we say – they respond by accusing us of having no love. Repent for the actions of the KGB collaborator church in the martyrdoms of millions of Russian martyrs under the communist yoke – they do not repent and resign from their bishoprics – on the contrary, they are as firmly entrenched as ever. Yes, the distortion of the truth has reached such outrageous proportions, that our glorious predecessors and hierarchs are maligned – their stand against ecumenism and the evils of the world order are degraded to “personal opinion”. Even the history of the church abroad itself is rewritten to place it into a context which automatically associates it and unites it with the Russian church. How many more times will we celebrate and attend liturgies where at the Great Entrance we ignorantly commemorate “the Russian Church”. Whom is it that we are commemorating? Under whose omophorion are we placing ourselves at that point? If there are no longer any true bishops, for there are those who are pure evil and those who collaborate with pure evil, then we have only one Bishop left – the First Bishop, who ordained unto Himself Bishops from among the apostles. He is the truth, the Word, the Path. It’s not the first time in the Church’s history when everyone had gone astray, and those fighting heresy and falsehood were numbered in the single digits. But we are afraid to be alone. We cling to our various sources of security. We make excuses – it would be too hard to remain an Orthodox Christian without a community, a church nearby. We need to receive the sacraments, so we will receive them from a wolf in sheep’s clothing (a church which has made a conscious decision, for whatever reason to compromise the truth and the faith, and has designed a course of persecuting any opposition). These priests who have embarked on the path of priesthood for personal reasons, (career, ambition, etc.) and who disregard the truth and persecute the truth embody the abomination of desolation in high places, of which the Savior warned us. Did He not whip the moneychangers in the temple and overturn their tables, saying that they had turned His Father’s house into a den of thieves? How is our situation any different. Yes, He is meek and humble of heart, but are not many of us refusing to face what it is that we see, and act decisively and bravely in the name of truth. We hide behind obedience and meekness in order to escape the responsibility of witnessing. The Lord has told us that if we deny Him before men, He will deny us. By our inactivity, silence and acquiescence, we are denying Him. Have we not all read the lives of the saints – how many of them were martyred precisely because they refused to accept false religions. How bravely they spoke out even while being martyred! And let us not forget our true soulmates – the new Russian martyrs. Yes, they could have attended the sergianist services and received the mysteries and heard the beautiful chanting and gazed at the historic icons and beautiful iconostases. But they chose to keep an icon corner hidden inside a kitchen cupboard or in a forest, or a cellar. They lived in a regime where they knew the hierarchs were all collaborators with the atheist regime and secret police. They knew, that wherever Christians gathered to read the scriptures or to pray, they would be brutally attacked and killed. Is the memory of the young persecutor Sergei Kourdakov forgotten? Is his death, and the death of Jose Munoz, who refused to take the myrrh gushing icon to Russia forgotten? The new Russian martyrs lived in the terrible era of annihilation of truth, when crosses worn in public were ripped off their necks, where bibles were confiscated, where any preaching or teaching of Christianity was banned, EXCEPT IN THE OFFICIAL CHURCH? Why? Because, quite simply, through the sacrament of confession, all secret or clandestine movement of the faith was suppressed. All activities deemed contrary to the atheist doctrine were viewed as inimical. Think about it! A totally atheistic regime – militantly anti-Christ, with the sole objective of wiping the teaching of Christ from the face of the earth! Would any of us in clear conscience, if we lived in Russia during those horrifying years, have collaborated with that regime? Would we have accepted positions as priests in those churches in order to provide us some security, but paid the price of informing the secret police on our spiritual children? What kind of unconscionable monster must one be, to become a priest and betray the innocent? And these are the people who are still at the helm, still forging five and ten year plans, still seeking to devour the remnant of the faithful flock of Christ, who managed to escape their clutches after the revolution. Let us ask ourselves – who are these people? It’s gone far enough, for we all know of their actions. Among us there are those who in desperation express outrage, from time to time, about their actions and statements. But these are mere puffs of smoke, which pass and are forgotten with every new episode. We express outrage at the actions of our bishops who appear to be in collaboration with the post-soviet machine, and attempt to blind us and lull us into following. But this is Orthodoxy, and our bishops can be fallible – they are human, susceptible to the same temptation and corruption as all. This we must see and have the courage to face, for even the Lord Himself came down to us as a God-Man, not only in divine nature. What a message He sent us – “I love you so much, that I let you know how difficult it is to be a human by taking on your form.” How can we regard those bishops who wish to lead us astray? The formula is there for us in the scripture – “if thy brother shall trespass against you, go and tell him his fault…but if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican.” (Mt:15-17). The offence must find a resolution. But we who are offended, are being silenced, our voices stifled, by those who claim to be the church. We are verbally attacked and threatened. Priests are being thrown out of their parishes, or maligned, slandered, repressed and ostracized. These bullying tactics of repression and diabolical discoloring of the truth are the well-known, familiar one-two soviet style tactics. There is the multitude of voices crying out in Russia, that our church abroad has betrayed them. We, who live in “freedom” have chosen bondage, and yanked the rescue cord out of the hands of those poor truth-fighters, who are our fellow brothers. Under the guise of helping the Russian people in embarking on this disasterous course, we have trampled on the survival of the true flock Yet we keep telling ourselves and each other – let’s continue to sit on our hands and see what happens. What are we waiting for? Is it not enough that the sinister plan to commemorate Drozdov has been obliquely accomplished by dropping the word “persecuted” with the excuse that after 1992 there is no longer persecution? If that is not convincing, then examine the commemoration after every service “the episcopate of the Russian church”. Can anyone argue that this does not mean the patriarchate of Moscow, for after all, what other Russian church is there? We are not commemorating the part of that church which is in opposition to the official institution. Clearly, we are commemorating Drozdov and his apparatus. When was this permitted to occur? What are we waiting for – for a piece of paper written by human hands which will claim to be truth, where a decree or resolution is recorded by which at the Great Entrance, Drozdov’s title will actually, finally appear in our services? Brothers, we’re already there. Where shall we go from here? Why is that question such a frightening door-closer? Where shall we go? Did not our soulmates – the Russian martyrs ask that question? I submit to you, that they did not have the luxury. There was no escape from the Soviet Union – no one was allowed out! What a terrifying prospect! They were forced to live in a country where their faith was the precious pearl constantly hunted and trampled by the hateful atheist beast. They were hunted down for their faith and we all know what treatment they received. It is beyond description, history is a witness. Yet they had the courage and love of truth to stand up for the truth and not submit by attending official church services. Are we to have no church to attend? Is there really no place to go? And yet the Heavenly Spirit is everywhere present and fillest all things. Can it be so, that we cannot offer up the sacrifice, without committing the sin of complacent acquiescence, offending the holy new martyrs by calling ourselves outside of Russia for reasons of truth, but putting ourselves before the very altar of the Drozdov apparatus who shed the blood of those martyrs? Think about it. The divine liturgy is mystical – yes, there are physical, ritualistic motions which are the vessel for the invocation and indwelling of the Holy Spirit Himself. How important, therefore, every word must be – how pure, innocent, guileless and holy must every word uttered in that most divine imparting of the Divine Body and Blood be! How dare we pollute and defile St. John’s work by calling out the name of evil so many times during the services? Gradually, this sinister plan is coming to fruition. We have by now become accustomed to hearing “the Russian church”. And many say, I don’t mind praying for the Russian church. Next, we won’t mind commemorating Alexei II or his successor – it too will become natural. Next, we will be communing Roman Catholics, just as the MP has been since the 1970’s – that too will be OK. Of course, because we are accused of having no love, we will rush to embrace ecumenism, without heeding the warning even of New Calendar Greeks, who lament their secularization and loss of spirituality because of involvement in dialogue with the world council of churches. And is the Lord God and the devil physically visible and engaged in a tangible, concrete war on some plain, which can be videotaped and shown on TV? Can we pick up the hotline and dial up heaven for direction? We foolish humans are of such little faith. Show me, appear to me, speak to me, then I’ll believe. If our fellow clergy are involved in this earthly, physical endeavor to merge, then in the earthly, physical sense all that is lacking is a piece of paper, a legally binding document. But, in the metaphysical, spiritual, unseen world where our Lord dwells, this paper is superfluous. He already sees that union, for if we called Him on the hotline, I think His first question would be, what are you doing in My liturgies, commemorating the Russian church? Am I not your God and are you not to have any idols before Me – then why is your idol Russia? Are we such cowards, are we so ignorant, are we so unprincipled, that we will continue to do this, when we live in a free country and we are under no obligation to commemorate a decrepit, corrupt, post-communist apparatus whose ideology is light years from ours. Man plans his own history. Man wrote his own history, that he would some day return to Russia when the atheist regime fell. But man supposes, God disposes. The truth is that the apostles did not sit in their country of nationality, because that was the thing to do. On the contrary, on Pentecost they were endowed with new tongues, to evangelize the world. Russia, for some is a safe little fox hole, where one can retreat mentally and not have to face the fact that what makes Orthodoxy is not Russianness, but a 2,000 year old battle to preserve the truth revealed to us by our Creator. He is most important. Would Ukrainians, French, Americans, etc., etc. etc., like to live out their lives, and how many have, and face the great Judgement with only one thing to say, ‘yes but I was a loyal nationalist’. Is that an ultimate justification/substitute for faith? Indeed, are we not urged to be not of this world? This is the great deception under which many of our clergy have fallen. There seems to be some earthly seduction in merging with Russia – a passionate blindness which refuses to sober up, to discuss, consider, pray, think. Just hurry up and do it! Of course, everyone has forgotten that we will lose everything. We will lose the very ground we have fought for all these years – the voice of conscience – the only remant of guardianship of the truth – our integrity and guiding light to the world and other Orthodox jurisdictions – the unfailing consistency and unwavering staunchness without compromise – the Lord God’s favor and mercy upon us for following Him and not the world. Why isn’t anyone speaking of those intangible, invisible, lofty losses, as if they are meaningless? We hear clergy here and there worrying about the loss of the church building, or property. We hear some expressing fears of what happens when Alexei orders us to perform gay marriages, or replaces us with his own clergy and takes away our parishes. What happens when he comes and confiscates our monasteries and fills them with his people? Are these not the materialistic, superficial concerns. Did the new Russian martyrs have those concerns – I believe they did not, for all those petty, earthly concerns are within the realm of the Father, Who knows the number of hairs on our heads. If we are faithful to Him, His truth, and we do not compromise for the sake of worldly gain, but keep our eyes focused on Him and His narrow, oh so narrow path, that is what makes us true Christians. Have we not read the Scriptures, the Holy Fathers, the lives of the Saints? Sometimes, it seems that we are adherents to different religions than the one holy Catholic and Apostolic.

Wake up! Ask your bishops the one question that everyone is avoiding and not wanting to ask. “What is this Russian church that we have been commemorating during the Great Entrance, which symbolizes the Truth, Christ Himself, coming forth to teach?” Then you will know it’s over, it has been over for some time. The fat lady has already sung. Many priests remark woefully that they’re tired of this uncertainty with the fate of the church. But if you ask your bishops that question, you will undoubtedly hear the dreaded answer, and then you will no longer be able to linger suspended and be carried along by this devious wave of deceipt (until everyone has become used to the idea). While we still have some reservations about the idea, we need to get to the bottom of this, and not allow our fears of big changes in our lives in order to stand for the truth. We want to go on and pretend nothing is happening. And until the concrete reality is finally here, we would go on with our heads in the sand, remembering only what we stand to lose, remembering only the security of the ostrich. But when the moment has finally come, when the conspirators know that we have become used to the idea, then the ugly serpent will rear its head, but by then we will have lost sight of the truth and think, well, he’s not so ugly after all. But beware of the answer some bishops give – that is, the Russian church we commemorate is some kind of a symbolic, historical entity, a body which existed in Holy Russia, suspended somewhere in time and space between the earth and the heavens, but happens curiously to include the MP. Those who have ears should hear the lie in that explanation. But soon, we’ll have no ears, nor eyes, and we’ll be dumb beasts who have our nice little parishes, properties, friends, cars, jobs, etc., but we will have lost that pearl of precious price. We will have squandered our ability to love the truth and stand up for it, for we have permitted our brothers in the cloth to distort it and teach falsehood to countless sheep. Yes, Russia gave America Orthodoxy, but do we have to pay Russia’s price and give it back? Do we owe Constantinople something – should we all become Muslims? Do we owe Palestine something, or Israel something because our faith originated from their territories? The faith and truth are outside of and far beyond nationality. History does not turn back. Languages change, evolve and even mutate, so how can a national identity claim to remain unchanged – Holy Russia is a topic for writers of memoirs, but the world goes on until the second coming. What, the second coming – who even thinks about that? We’re too concerned rewriting history so that by some imaginary time machine we can go back and relive history. How foolish, how bizarre, how beneath any Christian is this? Shame on all those who have dipped their hands in this old blood and wear the garment of a clergyman. Shame on all of those who have participated in this conspiracy, to trample the remnants of truth. Shame on all those globetrotters who seek personal glory by setting foot on the soil drenched with martyr’s blood and trample it, in pursuit of their own ambitious agenda. Shame on all those who accepted ordination, God’s honorable ordination, to make a political scam out of the church whom they were ordained to serve. Shame on all of them. The Russian Church Abroad was the only remaining bastion of truth, a prick to the conscience of other Orthodox jurisdictions. But now even they express their dismay at our apostasy. They know better than we, that this “dialogue” is only the preparation to reveal what has already been agreed upon. What are we waiting for?

We’ve spoken out, we’ve written, we’ve complained bitterly about surreptitious activities with regard to the “agenda”, but all to no avail. There is no clarity, none of the explanations or persuasions smack of the truth. If one persists in questioning, then what follows are veiled threats. But as Hitler himself had said, if you repeat a lie loud and long, people will believe it. I am shocked to find myself thinking that the idea of Sergius being a saint could actually be plausible. What have we come to – soon we’ll all be brainwashed. But we’ve been promised that the gates of hell would not prevail over the church. Some clergy ask, but who will lead us? God will raise up men from rocks from the seed of Abraham to lead what remains of the church – the embodiment of truth, out of the new Egyptian bondage and cross that “Red” Sea to safe haven. We must finally resolve and decide to follow that course with whatever limited energy we have left. We continue on in the church abroad coming close to utter exhaustion, when the enemy hopes there will be no energy left to resist the plan, and all those of like mind will have been dealt with in one way or another. Yet we have not long to keep this way which is hard, for soon those who have already departed from this path will fall into the embrace of new world order orthodoxy, and the remnant of the church abroad will continue valiantly, finally freed and cleansed from those who want heresy, our own brethren raised by the same Mother – the church abroad, yet disobeyed and betrayed Her. How much longer will we have to utter those commemorations in litanies and at the Great Entrance without a clear conscience, and then approach the holy mysteries which have been blasphemed by the compromise. It is better to mentally attend the church triumphant than to continue to watch evildoers defile the truth in the church militant. (This is easier said than done for the laiety, but for our poor clergy it is not so simple.) Strangely enough, that was the choice the new Russian martyrs made and now history is being repeated. But at the time, God mercifully permitted there to be a church abroad to carry His message and provide a sacramental life for the flock. Will this be repeated in a new form, to enable the faithful, who want only the truth, to continue to worship? Just as the church abroad cannot possibly “save” the MP; likewise the element of truth within the church abroad can no longer change the course or mind of the agenda. The fat lady has already sung.

AWAKE written September, 2004

AWAKE, and Again I Say AWAKE, written March, 2006