A few recent conversations have impressed upon me an optimism. I do have to say at the outset that I thank God I removed my family from the contemporary caldera of ROCOR moral meltdown. i thank God for the relative normalcy of a SCOBA jurisdiction! And for the first time in a long time ROCOR politics seem foreign and removed from us, and I am overjoyed. My optimism, moreover, is for the health of the Russian church as a whole. It seems I'm consistently encountering amongst ROCOR loyalists a distrust of union and a questioning of the policies and work of the MP viz. long-disputed questions of sergianism, ecumenism, renovationism, unionism (neo-uniatism with Rome)...I mean there is outright antipathy in the ranks, which I don't really share. This cannot bode well for the Fr. Komarovsky camarilla and its political aspirations, and that is a positive thing. All this being stated, I would like to nudge people along by making suggestions:
- Get to know all the voices of union and compromise, and apply one litmus test: their opinion of Blessed +Metropolitan Philaret and his legacy. Begin with +Archbishop Mark and Fr. Lebedeff and continue through the ranks...+Bishop Kyrill, Fr. John Shaw, Fr. John Whiteford, Fr. Mark Gilstrap, +Bishop Peter, Fr. Seraphim Gan....See if their opinion is yours. What does your Priest think? Your parish council?
- Acquaint yourself with the role of "Brotherhoods" in Russian history, especially during and after the period of the "union of brest'". Make it a point to understand SOBORNOST' and LAY PARTICIPATION as dictated by the All-Russian Sobor of 1917-1918.
- Be LOYAL to the will of HNM +Patriarch Tikhon.
- Inform yourselves of the real situation in the MP and in Russia and the successor states.
- Know there is a majority Traditionalist undercurrent of believers and clergy in the MP, even Russian government, which opposes sergianism, renovationism, ecumenism, unionism (neo-uniatism with Rome) and that the move for ROCOR union was hatched to stall their ascendency in the MP and Russian government, to silence them.
- Question official ROCOR organs of information. Sites like the ROCOR site, unofficial modernist lists like the Indiana List, and ask yourselves why the "rest of the story" is always absent. I'm a SCOBAn and term it "modernist." Seek out alternative news.
- You built and fund ROCOR and her churches and her institutions--the Bishops are dependent on you: that is the power to influence.
- Examine annual stipends ROCOR is receiving from the NCC, WCC and their conditions.
- Pursue friendships with Orthodox of other jurisdictions and learn their opinions, the news being disseminated to them.
- Establish alternative sources of media and maintain your center in the golden era of ROCOR, the time of Blessed +Metropolitan Philaret. Organize yourselves and your opposition in prayer and fasting.
This is my best advice for all those I've spoken with. I think some might take it, and I'm becoming very optimistic for the future of ALL THE PARTS of the Russian Orthodox Church...
ORTHODOXIA I THANATOS!
Rostislav Mikhailovich Malleev-Pokrovsky
I consistently tell my friends in SCOBA that my two greatest influences in life were Fr. Georges Florovsky and Blessed +Metropolitan Philaret: from St. Vladimir's to the Antiochian Archdiocese to Greek New Calendarists, I find a shared respect.