APPEAL
(Translated by Eugenia Richards)
“Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them.” (Acts 20:30)
The human soul is unstable! It subjects to the temptations of betrayal even those who have been enlightened through faith, holy baptism and grace-filled ordination to the priesthood and it often falls away from Christ’s flock, outside of which there is no salvation, but eternal death.
The Moscow Patriarchate has deprived itself of any lawful authority from the time that it entered into agreement with the godless ones, who closed and destroyed temples, waging an open war and persecution against the Orthodox and any other Christian religion. How can we call such an establishment a Synod, the recognition of which was rejected by the best Russian hierarchs, clergy and laiety; nor which now should be recognized by our Orthodox churches, nor by the current Synod of Laurus.
The entire Moscow patriarchate should be recognized as the same apostates from the faith as the ancient libellists, i.e. Christians, who having refused to blaspheme Christ and offer sacrifices to idols, nonetheless accepted false certificates which implied that they were in full agreement with the followers of the pagan faith; these certificates freed them from persecution by the government, but subjected them to total excommunication from the Church, into which only after rejection of idol worship they were accepted only after 15 years.
On June 25th, 2004 Metropolitan Laurus announced: “Don’t worry, we are doing everything according the will of God, for the benefit of the Church and the Russian people.” On December 8th, 2005, the same metropolitan now announces definitively and precisely that “the form of our association with the church in Russia will be as follows – one chalice, i.e. joint concelebration”!!!
The chalice is the center of our Orthodox house-building! May the Lord God deliver you all, my dear fellow-brother clergymen, and you Orthodox laiety, from becoming like the ancient libellists, whom the Holy Church viewed as direct apostates from Christ’s faith.
All of the dialogues, handshakes, servility, embraces with the patriachates – are essentially the incense cast upon the idol’s altar.
Realize, brothers and sister, where you are being led.
We see the Saviour – endless Love, - accomplishing the great mission of world importance – through the sacrifice of life building the Kingdom of love and truth. And we again, as always bend our knees before our Saviour. With our hearts we understand all of the beauty of the love of Christ, all of the greatness and immeasurable value of His sacrifice on the cross… But next to Him we see the terrible image, which we cannot understand; we see… the image of the betrayer. We see that at the moment when the great mission of world importance is being carried out, side to side with the Divine Emissary, in direct view of His great task, he is firmly preoccupied with his small, personal matter: he loves the silver coins, he must increase the store of money. And so, for the sake of that goal the Divine Accomplisher of the mission for the sake of the entire world is sold along with His entire cause. How can one be preoccupied entirely with one’s small personal gain while a great common deed is being accomplished?! How is it possible to sell the common, immeasurable, great deed for pennies in personal profit?! And, oh, how frequently, perhaps, many of you would have wanted to exclaim, seeing this terrible act, “Oh Lord, I believe now at this hour!”
Now the time has come for this unbelief to melt in the fire of a great church schism!
Before us the picture of the betrayal of the church has unfolded. A worthless, small person, for essentially self-interest profit, sells the common holy cause and presents his services to our godless enemies: let the common cause perish, let everything be torn down, as long as one can enjoy pleasure no matter at what cost! Now you see the horrifying picture. The church, which was suffered for and washed by the rivers of blood of our pastors and arch-pastors, our grandfathers and fathers, preserved and enriched by their extreme labours and self-sacrifice, is being betrayed to the mortal enemies by this petty imposter, to be literally torn apart to Her death. It is not profitable to defend our own Russian Orthodox Church Abroad, it is more profitable to sell Her – we will sell Her and avoid sacrificing our own interests – that is the reasoning and attitude of a petty man, who reveals to us from within the secrets of his soul his fore-image – the scriptural Judas. “O, Judas, lawless Judas – the slave and liar.” - We shudder together with the Church!
The terrible mystery of Judas’ betrayal is performed in the soul of each person, who places personal gain, personal calculations higher than moral truth and the demands of the conscience; he, who presents to others that he is fighting for the truth, but prefers always to stand on the side of the strongest. Let such a one not judge Judas: let him judge himself first.
The terrible mystery of Judas’ betrayal is performed in the soul of each person, who at the current moment when the entire Church abroad is being brought to sacrifice, prefers to live by the interests of personal self-love or self-interested material calculation. Let such a person not dare to cast a glance of reproach at Judas: let him first reproach himself.
Brethren! God, Who had “spoken to the fathers through the prophets”, now reveals to the entire abroad His truth, “eternal” in the terrible events of our Church Abroad. Alas, if it does not reach our hearts, and we do not stop this betrayal, then God’s judgement will pronounce the sentence on us with the bitter reproach: “Lawless Judas did not wish to come to his senses”.
Our Catacomb Russian True Orthodox Church is not wealthy materially, but spiritually we stand on the level of the first Christian communities, where each one knows his goals, where he is headed and what is expected there. Our most reverend hierarch pastors, headed by the Synod Chairman, the Most Reverend Tikhon, Archbishop of Omsk and Siberia, our pastors, our laiety, and I, much sinful, will receive with Christian love and open arms everyone who comes to us. May the Lord help us all.
We will add in conclusion, that of those who are rising up against us, grinding their teeth, having forgotten the rules of Christian courtesy – may the Lord forgive them. They have their own ethics, so called natural ethics, of the world, unstable, constantly changing, judging today, permitting tomorrow, in other words: if the savage says, “it’s good if I can steal someone’s bull, but it’s evil if someone steals my bull.” May there not be such outrages in our Church! Let those people of natural ethics defame, revile, belittle, slander us…But is not the happiest man the one who can say together with the Psalmist “It is good for me to have suffered that I might learn Thy statutes”? Never does the sun shine so tenderly and affably, nor does the brilliance of its rays seem so bright and joyful as after a storm or inclement weather. Let the Herods and Herodias dance, this is their final feast “the feast of satan”. We will not sin in the least because of their Mephistophelean, caustic, evil-mocking laughter and smiles, or all their challenges, if we by-pass them in noble silence. Through their empty words, deceipt and furtiveness they wish to draw us into the “feast” and to distract our thoughts, our mindset, our prayers away from our Lord and God and Saviour Jesus Christ and from His Holy Church! This will not be, brethren! Their acrid empty-wordedness, adjustability, and obstinacy will be to their defeat.
Therefore I ask my fellow brothers in Christ of the Russian True Orthodox Church to not waste time with those who sow troubles, lies and schism in our Church, for this is their final sardonic laugh, an evil, biting laugh – the laugh of despair over their own misfortune.
Let us endeavour, with our whole soul to enter the Kingdom of grace, where grace-endowed ethics prevail; the true sons of this Kingdom are an example for all times and all people. Their ethical might and beauty are understandable to all and evoke everyone’s admiration; there are not, nor can there be any wavering questions here: is it good or is it bad? This Kingdom is holy and beautiful!
With Love in Christ,
Protopriest Anatoly Trepatschko
Rector of the Stavropegial Synodal Branch
Russian True-Orthodox Church in the USA
Stafford, Virginia
