Enthronement MetPhilaret; 1st Encyclical

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Barbara
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Enthronement MetPhilaret; 1st Encyclical

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Today is the anniversary of the Enthronement of the great Metropolitan Philaret of New York
as the 3rd First Hierarch of Rocor.

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-- Strangely, MonasteryPress has taken off their article written by an observer describing in detail the extraordinarily grace-filled Vigil and Liturgy on Saturday/Sunday May 30/31, 1964. I have an old copy printed out which wonderfully turned up just in time for this 52nd anniversary of the event. However a page and a half are missing from my copy.

I wonder WHY Monastery Press would have done THAT ?? Since the link no longer works, here is a mention of the immediate action taken by the new First Hierarch to spell out Rocor's opposition to the MP and to explain the Catacomb Church - the True Orthodox in an essay by Vladimir Moss :

"Bishop Philaret of Brisbane was elected to the First Hierarchical see

by the Hierarchical Council of ROCOR, and was enthroned by Metropolitan

Anastassy himself in a service that, for the first time in centuries, used the

ancient text for the enthroning of a metropolitan of Moscow.

Almost immediately, in his 1965 Epistle “to Orthodox Bishops and all who

hold dear the Fate of the Russian Church”, Metropolitan Philaret made clear

his completely uncompromising attitude to the Moscow Patriarchate and his

great love for the Catacomb Church. In view of the continuing relevance of

his words, when the gracelessness of the Moscow Patriarchate is understood

by few, we quote it in full:

“In recent days the Soviet Government in Moscow and various parts of the

world celebrated a new anniversary of the October Revolution of 1917 which

brought it to power.

“We, on the other hand, call to mind in these days the beginning of the

way of the cross for the Russian Orthodox Church, upon which from that

time, as it were, all the powers of hell have fallen.

“Meeting resistance on the part of Archpastors, pastors, and laymen strong

in spirit, the Communist power, in its fight with religion, began from the very

first days the attempt to weaken the Church not only by killing those of her

leaders who were strongest in spirit, but also by means of the artificial

creation of schisms.

Thus arose the so-called ''Living Church" and the renovationist movement,

which had the character of a Church tied to a Protestant-Communist

reformation. Notwithstanding the support of the Government, this schism

was crushed by the inner power of the Church. It was too clear to believers

that the ‘Renovated Church’ was uncanonical and altered Orthodoxy. For this

reason people did not follow it.

“The second attempt, after the death of Patriarch Tikhon and the rest of the

locum tenentes of the patriarchal throne, Metropolitan Peter, had greater

success. The Soviet power succeeded in 1927 in sundering in part the inner

unity of the Church. By confinement in prison, torture, and special methods it

broke the will of the vicar of the patriarchal locum tenens, Metropolitan

Sergius, and secured from him the proclamation of a declaration of the

complete loyalty of the Church to the Soviet power, even to the point where

the joys and successes of the Soviet Union were declared by the Metropolitan

to the joys and successes of the Church, and its failures to be her

failures. What can be more blasphemous than such an idea, which was justly

appraised by many at that time as an attempt to unite light with darkness,

and Christ with Belial. Both Patriarch Tikhon and Metropolitan Peter, as well

as others who served as locum tenens of the Patriarchal throne, had earlier

refused to sign a similar declaration, for which they were subjected to arrest,

imprisonment, and banishment.

“Protesting against this declaration—which was proclaimed by

Metropolitan Sergius by himself alone, without the agreement of the

suppressed majority of the episcopate of the Russian Church, violating thus

the 34th Apostolic Canon—many bishops who were then in the death camp at

Solovki wrote to the Metropolitan: ‘Any government can sometimes make

decisions that are foolish, unjust, cruel, to which the Church is forced to

submit, but which she cannot rejoice over or approve. One of the aims of the

Soviet Government is the extirpation of religion, but the Church cannot

acknowledge its successes in this direction as her own successes’ (Open Letter

from Solovki, September 27, 1927).

“The courageous majority of the sons of the Russian Church did not accept

the declaration of Metropolitan Sergius, considering that a union of the

Church with the godless Soviet State, which had set itself the goal of

annihilating Christianity in general, could not exist on principle.

“But a schism nonetheless occurred. The minority, accepting the

declaration, formed a central administration, the so-called ‘Moscow

Patriarchate,’ which, while being supposedly officially recognized by the

authorities, in actual fact received no legal rights whatever from them; for

they continued, now without hindrance, a most cruel persecution of the

Church. In the words of Joseph, Metropolitan of Petrograd, Metropolitan

Sergius, having proclaimed the declaration, entered upon the path of

‘monstrous arbitrariness, flattery, and betrayal of the Church to the interests

of atheism and the destruction of the Church.’

“The majority, renouncing the declaration, began an illegal ecclesiastical

existence. Almost all the bishops were tortured and killed in death camps,

among them the locum tenentes Metropolitan Peter and Metropolitan Cyril of

Kazan, who was respected by all, and Metropolitan Joseph of Petrograd, who

was shot to death at the end of 1938, as well as many other bishops and

thousands of priests, monks, nuns, and courageous laymen. Those bishops

and clergy who miraculously remained alive began to live illegally and to

serve Divine services secretly, hiding themselves from the authorities and

originating in this fashion the Catacomb Church in the Soviet Union.

“Little news of this Church has come to the free world. The Soviet press

long kept silent about her, wishing to give the impression that all believers in

the USSR stood behind the Moscow Patriarchate. They even attempted to

deny entirely the existence of the Catacomb Church.

“But then, after the death of Stalin and the exposure of his activity, and

especially after the fall of Khrushchev, the Soviet press has begun to write

more and more often on the secret Church in the USSR, calling it the ‘sect’ of

True-Orthodox Christians. It was apparently impossible to keep silence about

it any longer; its numbers are too great and it causes the authorities too much

alarm.

“Unexpectedly in the Atheist Dictionary (Moscow, 1964), on pages 123 and

124 the Catacomb Church is openly discussed. '’True-Orthodox Christians,’

we read in the Dictionary, ‘an Orthodox sect, originating in the years 1922-24.

It was organized in 1927, when Metropolitan Sergius proclaimed the principle

of loyalty to the Soviet power.’ ‘Monarchist’ (we would say ecclesiastical)

‘elements, having united around Metropolitan Joseph (Petrovykh) of

Leningrad' (Petrograd)— the Josephites,’ or, as the same Dictionary says, the

Tikhonites, formed in 1928 a guiding centre, the True-Orthodox Church, and

united all groups and elements which came out against the Soviet order’ (we

may add from ourselves, ‘atheist’ order). ‘The True-Orthodox Church

directed unto the villages a multitude of monks and nuns,’ for the most part

of course priests, we add again from ourselves, who celebrated Divine

services and rites secretly and ‘conducted propaganda against the leadership

of the Orthodox Church,’ i.e, against the Moscow Patriarchate which had

given in to the Soviet power, ‘appealing to people not to submit to Soviet

laws,’ which are directed, quite apparently, against the Church of Christ and

faith. By the testimony of the Atheist Dictionary, the True-Orthodox Christians

organized and continue to organize house, 'i.e., secret, catacomb churches and

monasteries... preserving in full the doctrine and rites of Orthodoxy.’ They ‘do

not acknowledge the authority of the Orthodox Patriarch,’ i.e., the successor

of Metropolitan Sergius, Patriarch Alexis.

“’Striving to fence off’ the True-Orthodox Christians ‘from the influence of

Soviet reality,’ chiefly of course from atheist propaganda, ‘their leaders...

make use of the myth of Antichrist, who has supposedly been ruling in the

world since 1917.’ The anti-Christian nature of the Soviet power is undoubted

for any sound-thinking person, and all the more for a Christian.

“True Orthodox Christians ‘usually refuse to participate in elections,’

which in the Soviet Union, a country deprived of freedom, are simply a

comedy, ‘and other public functions; they do not accept pensions, do not

allow their children to go to school beyond the fourth class...’ Here is an

unexpected Soviet testimony of the truth, to which nothing need be added.

“Honour and praise to the True-Orthodox Christians, heroes of the spirit

and confessors, who have not bowed before the terrible power, which can

stand only by terror and force and has become accustomed to the abject

flattery of its subjects. The Soviet rulers fall into a rage over the fact that there

exist people who fear God more than men. They are powerless before the

millions of True-Orthodox Christians.

“However, besides the True Orthodox Church in the Soviet Union and the

Moscow Patriarchate, which have communion neither of prayer nor of any

other kind with each other, there exists yet a part of the Russian Church—free

from oppression and persecution by the atheists the Russian Orthodox

Church Outside of Russia. She has never broken the spiritual and prayerful

bonds with the Catacomb Church in the home land. After the last war many

members of this Church appeared abroad and entered into the Russian

Church Outside Russia, and thus the bond between these two Churches was

strengthened yet more—a bond which has been sustained illegally up to the

present time. As time goes on, it becomes all the stronger and better

established.

“The part of the Russian Church that is abroad and free is called upon to

speak in the free world in the name of the persecuted Catacomb Church in the

Soviet Union; she reveals to all the truly tragic condition of believers in the

USSR, which the atheist power so carefully hushes up, with the aid of the

Moscow Patriarchate, she calls on those who have not lost shame and

conscience to help the persecuted.

“This is why it is our sacred duty to watch over the existence of the

Russian Church Outside of Russia. The Lord, the searcher of hearts, having

permitted His Church to be subjected to oppression, persecution, and

deprivation of all rights in the godless Soviet State, has given us, Russian

exiles, in the free world the talent of freedom, and He expects from us the

increase of this talent and a skillful use of it. And we have not the right to hide

it in the earth. Let no one dare to say to us that we should do this, let no

one push us to a mortal sin. For the fate of our Russian Church we, Russian

bishops, are responsible before God, and no one in the world can free us from

this sacred obligation. No one can understand better than we what is

happening in our homeland, of which no one can have any doubt. Many

times foreigners, even Orthodox people and those vested with high

ecclesiastical rank, have made gross errors in connection with the

Russian Church and false conclusions concerning her present condition. May

God forgive them this, since they do not know what they are doing.

“We shall not cease to accuse the godless persecutors of faith and those

who evilly cooperate with them under the exterior of supposed

representatives of the Church. In this the Russian Church Outside of Russia

has always seen one of her important tasks. Knowing this, the Soviet power

through its agents wages with her a stubborn battle, not hesitating to use any

means: lies, bribes, gifts, and intimidation. We, however, shall not suspend

our accusation.

“Declaring this before the face of the whole world, I appeal to all our

brothers in Christ—Orthodox bishops—and to all people who hold dear the

fate of the persecuted Russian Church as a part of the Universal Church of

Christ, for understanding, support, and their holy prayers. As for our

spiritual children, we call on them to hold firmly to the truth of Orthodoxy,

witnessing of her both by one's word and especially by a prayerful, devout

Christian life.”

http://www.orthodoxchristianbooks.com/a ... -new-york/

Last edited by Maria on Sat 10 June 2017 2:05 am, edited 2 times in total.
Reason: Edited to remove the bold and purple moderator font and to enclose the quotet material within tag quotes.
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