ROCOR and MOSCOW PATRIARCH

[Edward]

Addressing the 2004 Hierarchal Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate), Metropolitan Kyrill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad, who is a member of the Holy Synod and Heads the Department for External Relations, said the following:
"The hierarchy of the Russian Orthodox Church has more than once attested to the fact that the 'Declaration' is viewed now as merely a historical document that has lost its validity. The 1990 Hierarchal Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church stated: 'We do not at all feel bound by the Declaration of 1927, which remains for us a marker of that tragic epoch in the history of our Fatherland. We do not at all idealize this document, recognizing also its coerced nature.' In a 1991 interview given to the newspaper Izvestia, His Holliness Patriarch Alexis said, 'The Declaration of Metropolitan Sergius, of course, cannot be considered voluntary, for, while sustaining terrible pressure, he was to state things that were far from the the truth in order to save people's lives. Today we can see that there are lies mixed into his Declaration. The Declaration does not place the Church into a correct relationship with the state, in fact, the opposite, it destroys the distance that in a democratic society, must exist between Church and state.'"

Edward
geh8988@gmail.com

[Nikodemus]

Edward

It is remarkable that you cannot find them say: Sergej was wrong! They still cling to the false teaching that he was forced etc...this is not true. There always exists a choice in faith and he chosed to collaborate. Read your post again. There is no condemnation. Kyrill and Alexej II speak always with different tounges. If you read on the Official Site of the Moscow Patriarchate you can find the following article:

"PATRIARCH ALEXY II OF MOSCOW AND ALL RUSSIA COMMENTS THE RESPONSE OF THE BISHOPS' COUNCIL OF THE CHURCH OUTSIDE RUSSIA TO THE FRATERNAL MASSAGE OF THE MOSCOW PATRIARCHATE

After his meeting with the new US Ambassador in Russia, Mr. Alexander Vershbow, on November 5, 2001, His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II answered questions from journalists, who asked, among other things, about the response of the Bishops' Council of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia (ROCOR) to the Fraternal Message of Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Russia and the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church.

Given below are answers of His Holiness to these questions.

• Your Holiness, what is your assessment of the response of the ROCOR Bishops' Council?

• I thought that the response to our Fraternal Message would be softer. Apparently, the schism that obtains in the Russian Church Outside Russia today tells on it, as there are both ardent opponents of any contacts with the Mother Church and a large group of hierarchs who are proponents of initiating a dialogue and possible reunification.

We hope that the opinion of a majority of sensible hierarchs in the Church Abroad, who believe that it is necessary to return to the fold of the Mother Church, will prevail. There are no reasons today for their continued stay outside the Mother Church. With time the Russian Church Abroad will increasingly lose her Russian character, because the new generation of her episcopate and clergy are no longer mostly Russian by nationality, but belong to those nations in which the Russian Church Abroad carries out her service. One more decade and the Russian Church Abroad will be Russian only by name. Time does not wait, it is necessary to re-unite with the Mother Church.

• Your Holiness, in the message of the ROCOR Bishops' Council, the Russian Orthodox Church is again accused of “Sergianism” and ecumenism. What can you say as regards this?

• As regards the accusations of the so-called Sergianism, I would like to say that one has to live here, in the homeland, to understand that it is an artificial accusation and an artificial pretext whipped up only to prevent reunification. Reference is made mostly to the message of Metropolitan Sergiy (Stragorodsky) of 1927, the so-called Declaration of Metropolitan Sergiy. By this message he wanted to show to the authorities, which, I will remind you, put clergy and faithful to prisons and shoot them to death, that the Church was not a counter-revolutionary organization. Therefore, the message stated: “…we want to be Orthodox and want to be aware of the Soviet Union as our Motherland whose joys are our joy and whose sorrows are our sorrows”. More often than not, it its these words that arouse far-fetched criticism: “What joys can one have in common with a atheistic state?” But there was no point about an atheistic state, the point was the Motherland, though in 1927 this notion was almost forgotten.

It was a courageous step by which Metropolitan Sergiy tried to save the Church and the clergy. By stating that the church members wanted to be aware of themselves as part of their Motherland and wanted to share her joys and sorrows, he tried to show to those who persecuted the Church, who destroyed it, that we, children of the Church, want to be loyal citizens, so that one's belonging to the Church might not put one outside the law. So it is a far-fetched accusation."

Edward

Read the last column again: I was a couragous step by which Metropolitan Sergiy tried to save the Church and Clergy...He will never say that Sergej did wrong...and he will never say that he were uncanonically elected as a patriarch. Patriarch ALexej II speak in different tounges to different people. Before Communism fell, he prayed openly and publicly for the perservation of the communist party. In an address to the Vietnamese communist party he said this in the followin article:

"Patriarch Alexei II Greets the President of Viet Nam with the 30th Anniversary ofthe Victory of Communism during the Civil War.

On May 12th, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, Alexei II, greeted the president of the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam, Chan Dik Loong with the 30th anniversary of communist victory in the Civil War which posed the democratic South against the communist North.

"I heartily congratulate you, and through you, all the brotherhood of Vietnamese citizens with this glorious jubilee" wrote the patriarch in his letter.

The patriarch noted that the Russian Orthodox Church, during difficult years devotedly spoke out for the establishment of peace in Viet Nam.

The Moscow Patriarchate, fulfilling the directives of the soviet leadership, carried out their contribution "toward the hastening of that day through a framework of peacemaking efforts by the international religious organizations."

"We rejoice that 30 years ago a great victory in this war, the heroic Viet Nam brought to an end the tragic divisions between the North and the South, revealing to a united Vietnamese peoples new horizons of national progress under conditions of independence." underlined the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church.

Patriarch Alexei wished President Dik Loong "the generous help of God in blessed labors for the good of the Vietnamese government", and for the peoples of Viet Nam "good fortune and growth".

Then, when communism fell in Russia, he became a democrat. It is not far fetched that in a similar situation as that of Segej, he would himself sign the same declaration. In a fascist state, I think he would swore alliegiance to the fascist party. This is the heresy of sergianism...adoption to the world

[Nikodemus]

Then read the catacomb confessor Bishop Maxims response to the declaration of Sergej:

—a declaration sent to Metr. Sergius by the clergy and laity of Serpukhov on December 30, 1927, which one must presume to have been written not without the influence, editing, or even authorship of Bishop Maxim.
"In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
"Finding it no longer possible to remain on that slippery and ambiguous path on which You, by Your Declaration and decrees, have placed the entire Orthodox Church, and submitting to the voice of conscience and duty before God and the faithful, we the undersigned break off canonical and prayerful communion with You and the so-called 'Patriarchal Synod' and refuse to acknowledge You as Deputy of the Locum Tenens of the Patriarchal See, for the following reasons:
"1. Your Declaration of July 16, Your Ukase of October 20, and everything that is known of Your direction of the Church, manifestly speaks of the fact that You have placed the Church in dependence on the civil authority and have deprived her of inner freedom and independence, thereby also violating church canons and going against the decrees of the civil authority.
"2. Thus, You are nothing other than a continuation of the so-called "Renovationist' (Living Church) movement, only in a more refined and very dangerous form, for, while declaring Your firmness of Orthodoxy and preservation of canonicity, You fog over the minds of the faithful and consciously conceal from their eyes that abyss toward which all Your decrees are irrepressibly leading the Church.
"3. the result of Your politics is before us. The faithful of the city of Serpukhov, disturbed by Your decrees, are seized by a most powerful alarm and perplexity over the destiny of the Holy Orthodox Church. We, their pastors, placed by You upon an ambiguous path, not only cannot set their hearts and minds at rest, but rather evoke on their side suspicion of betraying the work of Orthodoxy and going over to the camp of 'Renovationism.'
"All this imperatively compels us boldly to raise our voice and cease our now already criminal silence over Your mistakes and incorrect actions and, with the blessing of Dimitry, Bishop of Gdov, to disassociate ourselves from You an those who surround You. Leaving You, we do not depart from the lawful Locum Tenens Metropolitan Peter, and we shall give ourselves over to the judgment of a future council. May this desired council, our sole competent judge, not place to our guilt our boldness. May it judge us not as disdainers of the sacred canons of the Holy Fathers, but only as fearful to violate them."

[Nikodemus]

It is now a fact that patriarch Sergej and the heresy that is now named after him, sergianism (that the Church can be subordinated to the state) never has been condemned by the MP. In fact the present synod is sergianist and Patriarch Alexej himself is a former KGB agent and (of course) collaborated with the communists. He has never repented. Doesn’t He fall under the anathema of Patriarch Tikhon? I quote the former Metropolit Philaret (+1985) of ROCOR who wrote of the MP:

“This false church has been twice anathematised. His Holiness Patriarch Tikhon and the All-Russian Church Council anathematised the communists and all their co-workers. This terrible anathema has not been lifted to this day and preserves its power, since it can be lifted only by an All-Russian Church Council, as being the canonically higher Church authority. And a terrible thing happened in 1927, when the leader of the Church, Metropolitan Sergius, by his shameful apostate declaration submitted the Russian Church to the Bolsheviks and declared that he was cooperating with them. In the most exact sense the expression of the prayer before confession was fulfilled: ‘fallen under his own anathema’! For in 1918 the Church anathematised all the co-workers of communism, and in 1927 she herself entered into the company of these co-workers and began to praise the red God-fighting authorities – to praise the red beast of which the Apocalypse speaks. And this is not all. When Metropolitan Sergius published his criminal declaration, the faithful children of the Church immediately separated from the Soviet church, and the Catacomb Church was created. And she in her turn anathematised the official church for her betrayal of Christ… We receive clergymen from Moscow not as ones possessing grace, but as ones receiving it by the very act of union. But to recognize the church of the evil-doers as the bearer and repository of grace – that we, of course, cannot do. For outside of Orthodoxy there is no grace; and the Soviet church has deprived itself of grace.” [5]

In 1946, Metropolitan Anastassy made the following commentary concerning it:
“How great the spiritually-moving force, how great the confessional daring and true wisdom that are concealed in these fiery words, in which we hear, as it were, the voice of the apostles, the voice of the ancient fathers and teachers of the Church and the great confessors of Orthodoxy of our Fatherland — Saints Philipp and Hermogen. How empty, in comparison with them, are Metropolitan Sergius' cunningingly wicked sophistries and twisted distortions of words, by means of which he attempted to justify his path of falsehood, whereunto he sought to entice the entire Russian Church. Continuing to develop the arguments that he put forth — arguments that are based upon the ancient non-Christian principle: “the end justifies the means”, his present-day followers have gone so far as to begin sacrilegiously preaching the existence of a “holy lie” and have devised a unique “podvig of lying” for the sake of saving the Church. Is it possible to deviate any further “into words of wicked cunning, in order to invent justifications for committing sin”? Is it possible that these people have forgotten about him whom the Gospel calls “the Father” and progenitor of lies and that any “podvig of lying” (if such a podvig actually exists, for lying is almost always the fruit of faint-heartedness and cowardice, which flees from any podvig), — can only be done in his name, and in no way, whatsoever, in the name of — or for the sake of the good of — the Church, which decisively condemns and rejects falsehood”.
But the Declaration does not limit itself to lying, alone. The falsehood contained in it pales before the appeal to the Orthodox to regard the soviet regime as would the most-zealous adherents of Orthodoxy, for whom it is as precious as truth and life, with all its dogmas and traditions, with its entire canonical and divine-service structure.
This means that the Christian is being called upon to serve the Antichrist, in the exact same manner as he served Christ — with all his heart, with all his soul, with all his thoughts, with all his senses.

[Priest Siluan]

I am speaking seriously. I don't see any jokes here. Snide comments like that only confirm that it is the clear desire of anti-MP factions to paint this propagandistic picture of the MP as godless, corrupt, and supporting the ideologies of religious syncretism and moral relativism. This is clearly what those on the "right" are doing. Although not present on the internet, there are other break away groups that complain that the MP uses the Julian Calendar, does not have women clergy, married bishops, refuses to allow Russian in Church Services, etc. Then we also have the "Kiev Patriarchate" and the "Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church", which view the MP as a vessel of Great Russian Nationalism and chauvinism. They tend to be much more "ecumenical" than the MP. When Pope John Paul II visited Kiev, "Patriarch" Filaret met him, while Metropolitan Vladimir did not and furthermore criticized Filaret for doing so and praying with the Pope.

I wait to see your opinion when in short the KP will be "recognized" by EP and other (apparently the topic is quite advanced)

[Priest Siluan]

Addressing the 2004 Hierarchal Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate), Metropolitan Kyrill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad, who is a member of the Holy Synod and Heads the Department for External Relations, said the following:
"The hierarchy of the Russian Orthodox Church has more than once attested to the fact that the 'Declaration' is viewed now as merely a historical document that has lost its validity. The 1990 Hierarchal Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church stated: 'We do not at all feel bound by the Declaration of 1927, which remains for us a marker of that tragic epoch in the history of our Fatherland. We do not at all idealize this document, recognizing also its coerced nature.' In a 1991 interview given to the newspaper Izvestia, His Holliness Patriarch Alexis said, 'The Declaration of Metropolitan Sergius, of course, cannot be considered voluntary, for, while sustaining terrible pressure, he was to state things that were far from the the truth in order to save people's lives. Today we can see that there are lies mixed into his Declaration. The Declaration does not place the Church into a correct relationship with the state, in fact, the opposite, it destroys the distance that in a democratic society, must exist between Church and state.'"

Edward
geh8988@gmail.com

As for Met Kirill of Smolensk, he is a good example of what is a Hierarch of the Soviet Régime, I would advise you to become disillusioned that you know him personally.

[John Haluska]

Edward,

What are your thoughts, convictions on the arch-heresy of Ecumenism with respect to the Orthodox Church?

John Haluska