Suzdal Diocesan Bulletin
#38
January 11, 2006
CHRISTMAS IN SUZDAL
On December 24th and 25th (OS), the Orthodox inhabitants of Suzdal attended services for the feast of the Nativity of Christ. On the evening of January 5th, Small Complines was served in the Tsar Constantine Cathedral. This service is usually well attended. His Grace Bishop Ambrose read the canon of the forefeast, and the choirs sang the irmoses antiphonally.
The next day, on Christmas Eve, His Grace Ambrose served the Royal Hours, and immediately afterwards began Great Vespers with the Divine Liturgy of St. Basil the Great. After the Prayer before the Amvon was read, the bishop blessed the traditional koliva, which was immediately distributed to the faithful.
For the evening service in the cathedral church, a great crowd of the faithful of Suzdal came together, as well as pilgrims from other cities, who had arrived in order to spend the Christmas holy days in the heart of the Suzdal Metropolia. Great Complines with litya and Matins began at 4:00 PM, at which His Eminence Archbishop Theodore of Borisovsk and Otradna, Secretary of the Synod of Bishops of the ROAC, presided, assisted by His Grace Bishop Ambrose and a multitude of the clergy. One day earlier, two clergymen were received by Confession into the bosom of the Russian Orthodox (Autonomous) Church from the Moscow Patriarchate: Hieromonk John (Kachur), and Hieromonk Vladimir (Ponomarev). Unfortunately, the First Hierarch of the ROAC, His Eminence Metropolitan Valentine of Suzdal and Vladimir, and His Eminence Archbishop Seraphim of Sukhumi and Abkhazia, were not able to be in attendance, due to poor health. The church was festively decorated with Christmas trees and garlands, and the services were further embellished by the singing of two choirs, which sang antiphonally. After the dismissal at the end of the First Hour, a group of young people sang Christmas carols, and then, carrying a Christmas star, took off to congratulate the pious residents of Suzdal with the feast.
At midnight, Nocturnes was served in the Tsar Constantine Cathedral, and at 1:00 AM, in the Church of the Dormition, the early Divine Liturgy was celebrated. In the morning, Archbishop Theodore and Bishop Ambrose served the later Divine Liturgy, at which the Nativity Epistle of the Synod of Bishops was read.
In the evening, in the conference hall of the diocesan administration building, there was a presentation made by the children, in which the Sunday school students of the Tsar Constantine Cathedral took part, as well as a group of children and students from the Kazan parish from the town of Krapivye, Suzdal region. The children recited Christmas poems and sang Christmas carols, and made a dramatic presentation based on Gospel themes concerning the birth of Christ. After the concert, the participants and guests, residents of Suzdal and pilgrims from various communities of True Orthodox Christians from Khabarovsk, Novosibirsk, Armavira, Moscow, and St. Petersburg, organized refreshments.
Night services took place in other parishes of the ROAC, both in Suzdal and throughout the region.
THE MOSCOW PATRIARCHATE CONTINUES ITS CAMPAIGN OF WRESTING CHURCH BUILDINGS AWAY FROM THE ROAC
At the beginning of January of this year, the Suzdal Diocesan Administration received information that the Moscow Patriarchate is planning to begin the process for seizing churches, which had been given to the ROAC in the 1990’s, both in Suzdal and throughout the Suzdal region. To this end, the Vladimir Diocese of the ROC MP has managed to obtain the cooperation of the Bureau of the FSB (formerly known as the KGB--trans.) for the Vladimir region. As explained to a representative of the Suzdal Diocese at the regional governmental office for the preservation of historical and cultural monuments, during the third week of December, 2005, that office received an official request from the secret service inquiring about the number of churches, which had been transferred to the Suzdal Diocese of the ROAC. Soon afterwards, an agent of the regional Bureau of the FSB appeared in person at the regional governmental office, and demanded to see the files for eleven churches, for which the regional governmental office, in full compliance with the law, had made preservation agreements, “in order to be able to determine whether or not the transfer of these churches to the Suzdal Diocese of the ROAC had been properly authorized.” All of the materials, or copies of them, were, of course, given to him. Apparently, it is just a matter of time before new attempts to relieve the ROAC of church buildings, which had been entrusted to it, can be expected.
Two years ago, on November 11, 2003, in a letter addressed to the Suzdal Diocesan Administration, an official of the Bureau of the FSB of Russia for the province of Vladimir, R. V. Sivanov, officially confirmed the fact that an agent of the secret service, B. N. Neskorodov, had interfered in a civil law court case brought by the ROAC against its former Archpriest A. Osetrov, to take back control of St. Stephen’s Church, a ROAC church in the town of Kideksha, Suzdal region, which he illegally continued to use, and had put pressure on the judicial authorities having jurisdiction in the matter. In the words of Mr. Sivanov, “B. N. Neskorodov provided juridical assistance in the case of Citizen A. A. Osetrov, without compensation, and after hours.” Furthermore, when the lawyer representing the Suzdal Diocese called the regional Bureau of the FSB from the court room and asked how he could immediately get in contact with Mr. Neskorodov, the switchboard operator answered that at the present time, Comrade Neskorodov was working on an important assignment.
At the present time, the court case concerning St. Stephen’s Church in Kideksha, is practically in limbo, since the defendant and the court hearings have been stalling for time. Meanwhile, the preservation agreement between the regional government office and the Suzdal Diocese concerning St. Stephen’s Church has never been rescinded, and there is no legal basis for it to be rescinded.
Earlier, the Moscow Patriarchate had managed to take away from the ROAC the Deposition of the Mantle Monastery in Suzdal, which had practically been transferred to it, and a church in the town of Sanino, Vladimir province. The monastery was taken away at the personal request of Patriarch Alexis to President Yeltsin, and by order of the latter. Thus, the legal rights of the ROAC were overturned by order of the “guarantor of the constitution.” The church in the town of Sanino was crudely re-registered by officials to the Vladimir Diocese of the ROC MP, after the home of the rector was subjected to arson three times.
Now, apparently, the secret service has decided to take on the ROAC in earnest, serving the interests of the ROC MP.