This says it all for me. I can truly say that my heart is 100% behind my first hierarch. May the Lord grant him many years!!
Savva
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'The Holy Hierarchs Abroad Lived in the Hope of a Return to Russia'
A conversation with the First Hierarch of The Russian Orthodox Church
Abroad,
Metropolitan Laurus
(Translated by Rev.Deacon Anthony Bridges, Joy of All Who Sorrow Church,
Cumming, GA)
Question 1: Your Eminence, how, in your opinion, will the interrelations
between the Russian Orthodox Church (MP) and the Russian Orthodox Church
Abroad be developed?
Metropolitan Laurus: I hope that the relations will be developed with
spiritual benefit for the entire Russian people. The main obstacle for
rapprochement and association of the two parts of the Russian Church - the
Church Abroad and the Russian Church-Mother - was always the fact that the
hierarchy of the Church in Russia was not free. Though part of the Russian
Church, the Church Abroad could not associate with the Church hierarchy that
was subordinate and enslaved by authorities hostile to the Church. The
Church authority in Russia was in such a position that it could not be
understood what was done there freely, and what under the pressure. Now that
the Godless authority has collapsed, in the Head of The Russian State the
people stand at least who are formally Orthodox; between the Church and the
state
powers there is mutual understanding and support, so that to speak about the
enslavement of the Church in Russia is no longer valid. Essentially, at
present what interferes with rapprochement is the official membership of the
Moscow Patriarchate in the Ecumenical movement, although there is no
participation at the level of flock and clergy. The Russian Church
Abroad always stood firmly on Church canons, not joining with those who step
back from them; she never kept silent about the betrayals of Church truth.
But Ecumenism - this is the heresy of heresies; therefore it is very
important that the leadership of the Moscow Patriarchate leave the
Ecumenical movement.
Question 2: Did the saintly bishops and wonderworkers abroad make
predictions about
the ways and possibilities of rapprochement between the Russian Churches in
Russia and abroad?
Metropolitan Laurus: All the saintly bishops in exile abroad always lived in
hope of a
return to Russia, to the motherland: Blessed Metropolitan Anthony, Blessed
Metropolitan Anastasy, our unforgettable Abba, Archbishop Vitaly
(Maximenko), the first rector of our Holy Trinity Monastery; they all
lived by love for Russia, for her history, for her saints, for her sacred
places. St. John (Maximovich), Archbishop of Shanghai and San-Francisco,
glorified by our Church, whose memory you also keep in Russia, always
desired and believed that the association of the two parts of the Russian
Church in Christ would come about. He wrote: "The Russian Church Abroad
spiritually is not separated from the suffering mother. It raises for it
prayers, stores its spiritual and material riches and in time it will be
joined with her, when the reasons which separate us disappear." However, the
main reason for separation he considered the bondage of the Church in
Russia, just as the main reason for the existence of the Russian Church
Abroad is its freedom. "In the name of Church freedom the part of the
Russian Church abroad, beginning its independent existence, will continue
it, as long as the reasons that caused it remain." In his message to the
Orthodox flock of Shanghai, Saint John wrote in 1946 about the fact that the
hour of return would come (namely "return", but not simply "union"), of the
diaspora hierarchy to the native land. Moreover Saint John considered that
any solution concerning the fate of the Russian Church must be accepted not
separately, but unanimously, together. The question of the unity of the
disconnected parts of the Russian Church cannot be solved otherwise. It is
dependent on an All-Russian Church Council.
Question 3: It is known that not all are supporters of the rapprochement of
the two parts of the Russian Church. It goes without saying, they are not
always without basis. Is it possible to expect resistance to the outlined
process?
Metropolitan Laurus: Possibly someone will be against it. People oppose the
process of rapprochement and association of the two parts of the Russian
Church for different reasons. Some say: "To us Russia is not necessary; what
does Russia matter to us? We have our own culture and our own Church. We
never lived
in Russia, and our children are no longer entirely Russians. Why do we need
this association? - It will bring to us only uneasinesses and troubles." We
cannot agree with this opinion. We cannot wall ourselves off from Russia,
from her fate and her churches, since on that, as Russia rises as an
Orthodox power, depends the fate of Christianity in the entire world, yes
even generally the fate of the entire world, according to the prophecy of
Saint Seraphim of Sarov. Others remember the recollections of their parents
about the postwar Soviet propaganda in China and France, about how the
Soviets cunningly enticed people back into the Soviet Union and those that
believed them suffered. Others assert that only members of the Russian
Church Abroad can be called Christians, and the Russian Church of the Moscow
Patriarchate is the "Soviet church", as they call it, and is graceless.
Instead of love for God and neighbor, instead of love for our motherland-
Russia, they spread in their hearts hatred and contempt. Those persisting in
this opinion fall into pride and into the charm of neo-Pharisaism. Many
thoughtless and strange opinions are repeated out of habit. Some are
hypocritically and falsely covered by the good name of our retired
Metropolitan Vitaly, and have created a schism in the Church. May God give
to all of them to return to true reason and to return to the bosom of our
native Russian Church Abroad, which did not and does not compromise in
matters of the purity of faith, nor goes to extremes, being slanted neither
to the left nor to the right... As First Hierarch of the Russian Church
Abroad I can say that we will be glad to accept into the bosom of the Church
all of those returning. We hope that the Lord will bring all us Orthodox
Russian people to an agreement of ideas and to unity.
Question 4: If the Lord does lead us to unity, in any form, what will this
bring to Russia and to Orthodoxy?
Metropolitan Laurus: I think that rapprochement of the Churches in Russia
and
abroad will bring spiritual benefit to the entire Russian people, since this
will free our Church from self-isolation and the schisms and divisions
unavoidably connected with it, from one side, and, from the other side, from
its dissolution into the heterodox environment.
However, into the confluence of the Church in Russia and the Russian Church
Abroad, which preserved external and internal spiritual freedom, the Russian
Church Abroad will introduce its unique strong and fresh-flowing stream.
Russia is
large, and people there relate differently to the faith and to the churches;
there is much indifference and lukewarmness, and hypocritical self-interest,
but there is also a small flock, the chosen remnant, which burn as candles
before
God with their clean, God-fearing lives. These people publish and distribute
Orthodox books and periodicals; they construct and endow churches, church
schools
are established; they go into the prisons and the hospitals, to the orphans,
the elderly, the deprived and homeless, each serving God at that place where
they are called. There are many people, sacrificial and devoted to the
Orthodox Church. And here, is where all of the invented obstacles between
the
people break down - distrust, suspiciousness, and slanders; when all people
of good will combine their efforts, then, I believe, the prophecies of Saint
Seraphim of Sarov and Saint John of Shanghai and San Francisco will come to
pass - Holy Russia will rise, at least for a short period! I think that the
reunification of the two parts of the Russian Church will accelerate the
complete and final revival of Russia; Orthodox Russia will occupy the place
assigned to it in the family of peoples, and possibly even will restore
political and moral equilibrium to the entire world.
Interview by Monk Vsevolod (Filipyev) especially for "The Russian Herald" on
16 March, 2004, In Jordanville, [NY] USA. Translated by Deacon Anthony
Bridges, Joy of All Who Sorrow Russian Orthodox Church (ROCA), Cumming, GA,
March 23, 2004 (Question numbers added for reference).
