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Mitred Archpriest Roman Lukianov, Parish Rector,
HOLY EPIPHANY RUSSIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH IN BOSTON
Observations and Thoughts of an Old Priest.
(Translated and revised by the Author)
In connection with the recent turmoil within the Russian Orthodox Church
Abroad, I think it would be beneficial to share certain observations and
reflections. Recently there has been much talk about the path followed by the
ROCA. Now it has become obvious
that the «straight» path which some people refer to, has led in the end to a
schism within the ROCA. This schism
has been ripening over many years. In
order to understand what is going on, one should look first of all at the Guideposts
that actually have determined the course of the ROCA throughout its history.
The First Guidepost was Ukaz (Decree) No. 362 of Patriarch Tikhon,
dated Nov. 20, 1920, paragraph 2:
«In the event that a diocese, as a
result of movement of the front lines, or changes of state borders, finds itself
out of communication with the highest church authority, or that the highest
church authority itself, headed by the Holy Patriarch, for some reason
terminates its activity, the diocesan bishop should immediately contact the
bishops of the adjacent dioceses in order to organize a higher level of church
administration for several dioceses which find themselves in similar
circumstances (in the form of a temporary church government or a metropolitan district, or in some
other way)».
This Ukaz was formulated at the time of the Civil War in Russia, whose
consequence was the departure abroad of a sizeable lay flock (estimated at over
a million), and of a substantial number of clergy and bishops.
The
Second Guidepost
on the path of the ROCA were the early Sobors (Councils) of
Bishops Abroad,
presided over
by
Metropolitan Anthony (Khrapovitsky): the First Sobor in Constantinople in 1920,
in which 34 bishops participated in person or in writing; the First Sobor of
representatives of the entire ROCA, held in the town of Sremskii Karlovtsi in
Serbia in 1921; and the Sobor of Bishops Abroad on September
13, 1922, which estabilished a Temporary
Synod of Bishops, based on the above-quoted Ukaz No. 362 of Patriarch Tikhon.
At
those Sobors, which led to the formal establishment of the Russian Orthodox Church
Abroad,
were represented parishes in Europe, the Balkans, the
Near
and Far East, North and South America, including the soon-to-be-separated
Metropolitan Districts: one known as the
Paris Metropolia, presently under the Patriarch of Constantinople, and the other
known today as the Orthodox Church in America in the USA.
The
Third Guidepost was the Resolution of the Sobor of Bishops of
the ROCA, in September of 1927, which
rejected the Declaration of Metropolitan Sergius and defined the following rule:
«The part of the All-Russian Church located abroad must cease all
administrative relations with the church administra-tion in Moscow…until
restoration of normal relations with Russia and until the liberation of our
Church from persecutions by the godless Soviet authorities…The part of the
Russian Church that finds itself abroad considers itself an inseparable,
spiritually united branch of the Great Russian Church. It does not separate
itself from its Mother Church and does not consider itself autocephalous.»
This Resolution makes it clear that the emigre Hierarchs, while
rejecting what later became known as «Sergianism», did
not separate the part of the church that was abroad from that in the
homeland, thus showing compassion to those who did not withstand the terror. At about that time evolved the concept of the three parts of
the Russian Church: the
«Church enslaved»,
that is, the Moscow
Patriarchate; the «Catacomb
Church», i.e, the secret, persecuted, underground Church of confessors within
the borders of the Soviet Union; and the «Russian Orthodox Church Abroad»,
which was the free voice of the whole Russian Church.
The
Fourth Guidepost
was the adoption of the Temporary Polozheniye (Fundamental Law) of the ROCA by
the General Sobor of Bishops on September 22-24, 1936.
Its first paragraph states: «The Russian Orthodox Church Abroad, which consists
of dioceses, spiritual missions, and parishes outside Russia, is an inseparable
part of the Russian Orthodox Church,
which exists temporarily under
autonomous administration».
This Sobor, in effect, established an
orderly
administrative leadership of the ROCA for the entire period of its independent
existence.
The
Fifth Guidepost is defined by the Reply of the Blessed
Metropolitan Anastassy in 1945, and
of the Bishops' Sobor in Munich in 1946,
in response to the address of the Patriarch of Moscow Aleksey I, who called for
reunification after the Second World War. During
this terrible period of manhunts by Soviet agents for displaced persons and
non-returnees all across Western Europe, Metropolitan Anastassy, reasserting the
necessity for the continued existence of independent ROCA, writes: «The bishops, the clergy and the laymen, subordinate to the
jurisdiction of the Synod of Bishops Abroad, never broke canonical,
prayer, or spiritual unity with their Mother
Church.» The Sobor of
Bishops in its message, writes to the
Patriarch of Moscow: «We
trust that…on the bones of martyrs a new free Russia will arise, strong in
Orthodox truth and brotherly love…then all of her scattered sons, without any
pressure or force, but freely and joyfully, will strive to return from all over
into her maternal embrace. Recognizing
our unbroken spiritual bonds with our homeland, we sincerely pray to the Lord
that he may speedily heal the wounds inflicted upon our homeland by this heavy,
although victorious, war, and bless it with peace and well-being.»
This message was signed by
Metropolitan Anastassy, three archbishops, and ten bishops.
The
Sixth Guidepost, and probably the most important one in our
days, is the Corporate Charter in the USA
of our Church Abroad, which was signed by its most prominent Hierarchs,
Metropolitan Anastassy, Archbishop Vitaly (Maximenko), Archbishop Tikhon,
Archbishop Hieronim, Bishop Seraphim, and Bishop Nikon, and registered in the
State of New York on April 30th, 1952. It states:
«II. The principal aim and purpose of the corporation shall be to provide
for the administration of dioceses, missions, monasteries, churches and parishes
of the Russian Orthodox Church, which are located in the United States of
America, the Dominion of Canada and other countries which are outside of the
Soviet Union and the satellites of the Soviet Union, but including dioceses,
missions, monasteries and churches which recognise the corporation as the
supreme ecclesiastical authority over them.
«III. The corporation in its corporate functions and operation, and all of
its trustees and officers, shall maintain no relations whatever with the Russian
ecclesiastical authorities and organizations within the boundaries of the Soviet
Union and the satellites of the Soviet Union, so long as the said
countries, or any of them, shall be subject to Communist rule.»
Further on, the next paragraph of the Charter refers to Ukaz #362 of
Patriarch Tikhon of November 20, 1920,
and its acceptance by the Sobor of Bishops on November 24, 1936. This
demonstrates that Metropolitan Anastassy and all
Bishops, signatories of the Charter, just as, in their time, Metropolitan
Anthony and the founding Bishops of the Russian Church Abroad, accepted the fact
that the validity of the Ukaz of Patriarch Tikhon, which, in effect, is his Patriarchal Blessing, is limited in time.
In turn, they also Blessed the time-limited
independent existence of the Russian Church Abroad until the fall of the
Communist regime.
The Seventh Guidepost is again
the Polozheniye (Fundamental Law) of the Russian Church Abroad, revised and
approved by the Sobor of Bishops, presided over by Metropolitan Anastassy, in 1956.
Its paragraph #1 states: «The
Russian Orthodox Church Abroad is an inseparable
part of the Local (Pomestnoy) Orthodox Church, temporarily self-governing until
the fall in Russia of the godless authorities, in compliance with the
Decision of Holy Patriarch Tikhon and the Highest Church Council of the Church
in Russia of 7 /20 November 1920, #362.» The
same Paragraph is repeated
word for word in the Polozheniye, reviewed and re-approved in 1964.
In 1956 the Reply of
Metropolitan Anastassy was reprinted by Holy Trinity Monastery.
The same themes were voiced by Archbishop Vitaly (Maximenko) of blessed
memory, in his work «Motifs of My Life». Archbishop Andrew (Fr.Adrian) used to
refer to the Church Abroad as a temporarily self-governing Diocese of the
Russian Church. Holy Archbishop
John of Shanghai and San Francisco wrote:
«The Russian Church Abroad does not separate itself spiritually from the
suffering Mother Church. She offers up prayers for her, preserves her spiritual
and material wealth, and in due time will
reunite with her, when the reasons which have caused the separation will
have vanished.» Similar
statements were made by many other
archpastors, priests and writers in the church press.
It is from them that our generation, which came into the Church after the
end of the Second World War in 1945, has acquired the understanding of the temporary
existence of the independent Russian Church Abroad until the liberation of
Russia from the Communist yoke. The
calls of Metropolitans Anastassy and Philaret of blessed memory to abstain even
from conventional contacts with the representatives of the Moscow Patriarchate
had to do with the period of the 1960s
and 1970s, when the Soviet government began to use the Church for its own
ends througout the Western world. And
Metropolitan Vitaly was completely correct when he said that we cannot declare
that the Church in Russia is without Grace, but certain specific deeds of its clergy, performed on
orders of the godless authorities in order to
harm the Church,
are, of course, graceless.
In 1991 the Communist regime fell and the totalitarian Soviet state
ceased to exist. The leftovers of
the Soviet mentality and even of the State government still remain, but the
country and the Church consider themselves free and feel free, and there is no
more party ideology to interfere with Church communications.
Therefore, with the fall of the
Soviet government and cessation of terror in 1991, there also ended
the time span, blessed by Holy Patriarch Tikhon and the founding Archpastors
of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad for the existence of ROCA as a separate
entity.
The Path marked by the abovementioned Guideposts began
to be subtly changed with the secret (and canonically questionable)
consecration of Bishop Varnava (Barnabas) in about 1984.
A new ideology began to be evident, subtly but deeply russophobic.
Under the guise of restoring the archpastorship of the Catacomb Church,
new church bodies began to be created within Russia, subordinate to the Church
Abroad. The old Catacomb Church,
which was highly respected as the Church of true confessors, was soon forgotten.
The new ideology promoted the idea that the Russian Church Abroad is the
only true Church, and the bearer of the restoration of the Church in Russia.
This led to estrangement and unnecessary confrontations between the
Russian Church Abroad and the Mother Church, and then to a strange set of
attitudes and actions on the part of some ROCA bishops, first in Russia, and
more recently abroad. Now that
these bishops and their followers have expelled themselves from the Church
Abroad and created their own church organizations, the Church Abroad has
regained freedom of opinion and an opportunity to
return to the path blessed by Holy
Patriarch Tikhon and the Founding First Hierarchs and Archpastors of blessed
memory.
The new obstacles to normal relations that have been brought forward
within our Church Abroad, such as the absence of repentance, failure to glorify
the Royal New Martyrs, Sergianism, and participation in the ecumenical movement,
have today ceased to be insurmountable. Back
in 1993 His Holiness, Patriarch of
Moscow and All Russia, Alexey II and the Holy
Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church proclaimed, before God and the Russian
people, repentance for the sin of regicide. Their Epistle on the 75th anniversary of the
murder of Emperor Nicholas II and his family states:
«With augmented prayer and great
pain in our hearts we commemorate this sad Anniversary… The sin of regicide,
which took place amid the indifference of the citizens of Russia, has not been
repented of by our people. Being a transgression of both the law of God and
civil law, this sin weighs extremely heavily upon the souls of our people, upon
its moral conscience. And today, on
behalf of the whole Church, on behalf of her children, both reposed and living, we
proclaim repentance before God and the people for this sin. Forgive us, O Lord!
We call to repentance all of our people, all of our children,
regardless of their political views and opinions about history, regardless of
their attitude toward the idea of Monarchy and the personality of the last
Russian Tsar. Repentance of the sin
committed by our forefathers should become for us a banner of unity.
May today’s sad date unite us in prayer with the Russian Orthodox
Church Abroad, with whom we so sincerely desire restoration of spiritual unity
in faithfulness to the Spirit of Christ... .»
The call was, unfortunately, ignored.
The Royal New Martyrs were glorified, and Sergianism and ecumenism
rejected, by the Jubilee Sobor of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church in the
year 2000. Sergianism, being
in fact not a doctrine but a mode of behavior, was rejected in the chapter «Fundamental
Conceptions of Society» in the published Acts of the Sobor, and ecumenism in the chapter «Fundamental
Principles of Relations of the Orthodox Church to the Heterodox.»
In October of 2001, in his «Brotherly Epistle to the Sobor of Bishops of the
Russian Church Abroad,» His Holiness, Patriarch Alexey II again called for
mutual forgiveness and restoration of liturgical communion.
The answer of the ROCA Sobor of Bishops was only mildly encouraging.
Just as in the Church in Russia the veneration of the Royal New Martyrs
was widely practiced by believers long before their official glorification, so
it is that parishioners of the Church Abroad, when they visit Russia, pray,
confess, and partake of Holy Communion in their beloved churches and monasteries
of the Moscow Patriarchate, and have humbly done so for many years, without
making an issue of it. And after visiting Russia, many of our clergy, including
American converts to Orthodoxy, state in private conversations that those who
say there is no Grace in the churches of the Moscow Patriarchate do not know
what they are talking about. As no
one has wanted to provoke the ill winds of dissension within our ranks, it has
been customary not to make such observations publicly.
However, now that the bearers of ill winds have expelled themselves from
the Church, showing no respect for anyone including the Sobor of Bishops, the
possibility has arisen again, and perhaps
for the last time, of restoring God-pleasing spiritual unity and normal
relations with the whole Mother Church.
Sinful individuals and bad deeds have
always existed, exist now, and will continue to exist both there, in Russia, and
here in our midst. But a division
which was lawful, must not be
allowed to evolve into sectarian schism,
a phenomenon much discussed and feared by many of our priests and parishioners,
both, Russians and Americans. If the Russian Church Abroad is allowed to become
«a broken-off vine», it will be doomed to a slow but inevitable drying out, an
atrophy from which no collection of selected quotations from the Canons will
save us. On the other hand, the
restoration of Eucharistic and
Canonical unity with the Mother Church, with an autonomous administration of
the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, appears to be the natural next Guidepost
in the current History of the Church of the Great Russian Exodus into
Diaspora.
Archpriest Roman Lukianov
December
11, 2001
Boston
New
Martyr Metropolitan Seraphim
(Chichagov) of St. Petersburg.
Emphases are the
author’s.
References:
Óêàç
Ïàòðèàðõà Òèõîíà ¹ 362, 1920 ã.
[Ukase
of Patriarch Tikhon No. 362, 1920.]
Ïîëîæåíèÿ ...1936, 1956 è 1964 ãã.
[Statutes…
1936, 1956, and
1964.]
Îòâåò Ìèòð. Àíàñòàñèÿ â 1945 ã.
Äæîðäàíâèëü,
1956 ã.
[Reply of Metr. Anastassy in 1945. Jordanville,
1965.]
Corporate Charter of the Russian Church Abroad, 1952, New York, N.Y.
Ðóññêàÿ Ç. Ö., Àðõèåï. Èîàíí (Ìàêñèìîâè÷),
Äæîðäàíâèëü, 1991 ã. [The
Russian Church Abroad, Archbishop
John
(Maximovich), Jordanville, 1991.]
Îáçîð Èñòîðèè Ð.Ö., Ïðîô. È.Ì.Àíäðååâà,
Äæîðäàíâèëü, 1952 ã. [Survey of the History
of the Russian Church,
Professor
I. M. Andreev, Jordanville, 1991.]
Ìîòèâû
Ìîåé Æèçíè, Àðõèåï. Âèòàëèé (Ìàêñèìåíêî). [Motifs of My Life, Archbishop Vitaly (Maximenko).]
Îáðàùåíèÿ Ñâÿòåéøåãî Ïàòðèàðõà
Àëåêñèÿ II,
1993, 2001 ãã. [Addresses
of All-Holy Patriarch Alexey II, 1993, 2001.]