The ROCA on the OCA in the 1970's

[Methodius]

In 1971 the ROCA Council of Bishops resolved in relation to the OCA:-

[bogoliubtsy]

In 1970, the Moscow Patriarchate was recognized as legitimate by every autocephalous jurisdiction- including Serbia and Jerusalem. So, that's why the American Metropolia felt justified in accepting autocephaly from it. Personally, I think it was an unwise move...just presenting the other side of the coin.

[Julianna]

"the Patriarchate of Moscow,which has not possessed genuine canonical succession from His Holiness Patriarch Tikhon from the time when Metropolitan Sergii, who later called himself Patriarch, violated his oath with regard to Metropolitan Petr, the locum tenens of the patriarchal throne, and set out upon a path which was then condemned by the senior hierarchs of the Church of Russia. Submitting all themore to the commands of the atheistic, anti-Christian regime, the Patriarchate of Moscow has ceased to be that which expresses the voice of the Russian Orthodox Church. For this reason, as the Synod of Bishops has correctly declared, none of its acts, including the bestowal of autocephaly upon the American Metropolia, has legal force. Furthermore, apart from this, this act,which affects the rights of many Churches, has elicited definite protests on the part of a number of Orthodox Churches, who have even severed communion with the American Metropolia."

See ROCOR used to see the MP as not the Church and without grace. How things change

[bogoliubtsy]

Uncanonical....Not graceless. There's a big difference. Every Orthodox jurisdiction in America is in violation of the canons to greater and lesser degrees. They're not considered graceless (well, maybe some consider them graceless).

[gbmtmas]

[Julianna]

How can you leave someone who you believe has grace and not be in schism?

Below is a text adapted and translated into English by G. Spruksts from the Russian text of the essay by Monk Zakharii, entitled Ischuschim Mat (To Those Seeking Their Mother), initially published in Pravoslavnaya Rus No. 10, 1947. This publication was known to be the official flagship of The Russian Orthodox Church Abroad

TO THOSE SEEKING THEIR MOTHER When I was a child, I heard the following tale: In very ancient times, in some country or other, there was a gang of bandits whose fierce and furious raids terrorised the entire surrounding population. The fierce leader of this gang had lost all sense of human feeling and wrought unspeakable evil, such as hitherto had been unknown.

On one occasion, these bandits attacked the home of a good and peaceful man. First, they slaughtered the master of the house; then, mocking and outraging her, they bestially murdered his wife, as well, after which they stole all the family's belongings. They would have killed the master's son, too a small child, who was weeping helplessly in a corner but, the leader of the gang, having taken particular note of the little boy's unusual comeliness, concluded that he could probably demand a huge ransom for the child. Consequently, he ordered that the boy be taken back to their encampment with them. They brought the little tyke to that cave where the gang hid out. The bandit leader entrusted the boy to the care of his "lady-friend" - a woman truly "worthy" of him - and thereupon forgot all about the child

[bogoliubtsy]

Metropolitan Anthony on the Church Abroad:

"The part of the Russian Church that is abroad considers itself to be a indivisible, spiritually-united branch of the great Church of Russia. She does not separate herself from her Mother Church and does not consider herself autocephalous. . . " (Letters of Metropolitan Anthony, p. 262).

Second, Archbishop Vitaly (Maximenko), writing in 1953 (when the situation of the Moscow Patriarchate was very clear to all):

First of all, with our former steadfastness we confess our unity with the Mother Church of Russia, now enslaved; our faithfulness to Her historical thousand-year path, and we send to Her our cordial prayerful wishes that She may be freed quickly from the domination of the God-fighters. Without any compromise, we condemn the collaboration of Her current leaders in the USSR with the atheistic communist authorities. But in a like manner, we also condemn all self-created autonomies, separatism, divisions, and independent-mindedness. The essence of our Church is not in divisiveness and seeking power, but in keeping Divine truth in Unity. (Motifs of My Life, p. 71