GOC & ROC

[Helen]

Deacon Nicholas, so does that mean you are the Catacomb Church? Do you have any further information regarding the history of your church. Preferably something short and simple - (in today's world of mass information access it gets a bit exhausting and overwhelming sometimes).

[尼古拉前执事]

Dear Helen,

While I am not in the Catacombs personally, the majority of our 400+ parishes in the world. America, thankfully, still has freedom of religion at this point, so we do not need to be in the catacombs.

What has been known as both the FROC: Free Russian Orthodox Church and later the ROAC: Russian Orthodox Autonomous Church, goes back to January 5/18, 1981, when a priest of the Russian Catacomb Church, Fr. Lazarus (Zhurbenko), was secretly received into the West European diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad (ROCA) by Archbishop Anthony of Geneva and Western Europe (Ukaz no. 648/818/2). Shortly after this, in 1982, another cleric of the West European diocese, Fr. Barnabas (Prokofiev), was secretly consecrated as Bishop of Cannes and sent to Moscow, where he consecrated Fr. Lazarus to the episcopate.

Only on August 1/14, 1990, did the Chancellery of the ROCA decided to throw some light on this secret consecration by issuing the following statement:

In 1982 his Eminence Anthony, Archbishop of Geneva and Western Europe, together with his Eminence Mark, Bishop of Berlin and Germany, on the orders of the Hierarchical Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad, secretly performed an episcopal consecration on Hieromonk Barnabas (Prokofiev), so that through the cooperation of these archpastors the Church life of the Catacomb Orthodox Church in Russia might be regulated. Since external circumstances no longer compel either his Eminence Bishop Lazarus in Russia, or his Eminence Bishop Barnabas in France to remain as secret Hierarchs of our Russian Church Abroad, the Hierarchical Synod is now officially declaring this fact.

By 1991 there were 4 bishops of the FROC and they became a synod of their own with many catacomb communities coming under these bishops (along with some former MP communities too) but they also were allowed to sit on the ROCOR synod. Some in ROCOR, like Abp Mark, wanted to rule over these bishops, even though the Church Inside Russia now had its own bishops (thanks to ROCOR) and there was no need for such a thing. In 1995 the FROC, later ROAC, had enough of this in addition to Abp Mark's brokering of union with the MP and officially broke communion with the ROCOR.

In 2001, after people from the ROCOR in America started petitioning to come under the omophor of the now-ROAC, did the ROAC exist ourside of the former USSR. Todau, besides the CIS and America, the ROAC is in many countries of Europe and have communities in Africa also petitioning to join Her. With ROCOR completely capitulating to the MP and this being signed in May 4/17, 2007, the ROAC will most likely see more growth again. In the last week 2 of our parishes in America have reported growth coming from people who are now leaving the ROCOR.

Some shorter documents on this include the following:

• http://www.roacusa.org/1.html

• http://www.roacusa.org/24.html

• http://www.roacusa.org/25.html

Although the complete www.ROACusa.org site, especially the news and documents pages, is a history lesson on the histories of the MP, ROCOR, and ROAC in of its own.

[Helen]

Thankyou very much for your lengthy reply. It must take a lot of time and effort to keep this forum going - but thankyou it's a great way to find current Orthodox news and hear diferring opinions. The information you have given me has helped to fill in some of the blanks - I'll keep reading. Just a short question (you can just say yes or no) - the catacomb Church headed by Bishop Tikhon - are they part of your church or are they seperate and if so why? (again I'll be happy with one line). Thanks again.

[Priest Siluan]

Dear Helen:

the Synod of Arzhbishop Tikhon (RTOC) was created by two former bishops of FROC (ROAC), Archbishop Lazar and Bishop Veniamin; they are mainly in Ukraine.