Portal-Credo.Ru: The Church Abroad’s Rudder. Thanks to Bishop Gregory (Grabbe), the ROCOR was the Outpost of True Orthodoxy. Thoughts on the 10th Anniversary of His Repose.
Ten years have passed since the repose of Bishop Gregory (Count Grabbe), who for many years, had been the main ideologue and administrator of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia (ROCOR). This date went unnoticed by most of the jurisdictions of the Orthodox world. Only the Russian Orthodox Autonomous Church (ROAC) honored the memory of this outstanding bishop of the twentieth century. This is hardly surprising. For the ROCOR(L), Vladyka Gregory (Grabbe) is a symbol of a past, which must now be rejected for the sake of its “bright future.” For the ROCOR(V) and the TROC, Vladyka Gregory is “inconvenient,” since he supported Bishop Valentine (Rusantsov) of Suzdal and the ROAC, which they continue to call the “Suzdal schism.” But for the ROAC, Vladyka Gregory was a “godfather,” teacher and mentor, and his memory is held dearly by all her children.
For more than fifty years, Protopresbyter George Grabbe stood at the helm of the ROCOR, and was the right hand man of its first three First Hierarchs, Metropolitans Anthony, Anastasy and Philaret. He was well known in ecclesiastical and political circles alike for his administrative acumen, his knowledge of the Canon Law of the Orthodox Church, his dogmatic sense, his range of thought, his ability to wage war simultaneously on multiple fronts, his broad outlook, and for his talent for predicting events and keeping a grasp on the situation at hand. What is of particular importance is that Vladyka Gregory was a man of principle, who assessed every situation in light of the canons and dogmas of the Church. It was mostly owing to him that, for more than half a century, the Church Abroad stood as a bastion and as an outpost of True Orthodoxy, to which many, Greeks and Russians alike, fled for refuge in their search for true Orthodox Christianity.
However, after the ROCOR’s fourth First Hierarch came to power in 1986, Metropolitan Vitaly, who began blatantly violating the canons himself and turned a deaf ear to all requests for him to correct his errors, Vladyka Gregory went into retirement, from which he observed with horror how the leadership of the ROCOR gradually sunk into canonical and philosophical chaos.
Adherence to the canons and the dogmas of the Faith are the modus vivendi of the True Orthodox Churches, and separate them from the Churches of “World Orthodoxy,” where canons are only applied when advantageous. Any Church which steps down from the firm foundation of the canons onto the shaky ground of human emotions and reasoning, can easily fall into error in matters of its confession of faith.
The resulting confusion in church leadership and, mainly, the failure to understand the sense of its ecclesiastical position--the ROCOR’s continuance in True Orthodoxy and thereby its irreconcilable opposition to the ecumenists--have led logically to the presently observed process of the Moscow Patriarchate’s absorption of that part of the ROCOR, which is under the omophorion of Metropolitan Laurus.
But it cannot be denied that the work of Bishop Gregory’s lifetime was indeed realized: the re-establishment of a legitimate hierarchy for the Catacomb Church in Russia, and the return of the Higher Church Authority to Russia. “I very much hope that the newly established Temporary Higher Church Authority, together with our Synod of Bishops, will be in brotherly communion and close cooperation, working in the common field of Christ for the salvation of the Russian nation, which is so dear to us all,” wrote Vladyka Gregory to Bishop Valentine in April of 1994. However, soon afterwards, Vladyka Gregory altogether gave up on the ROCOR bishops, who had refused to support the persecuted Russian Church and had begun talks with its oppressors. Then, the ROCOR and the ROAC parted ways.
Bishop Gregory, a descendant of the Russian philosopher, A. S. Khomiakov, died one day after the date of his great grandfather’s repose on October the 6th. ...
Igumen Theophan (Areskin)
