...Another reason why today's Moscow Patriarchate Church IS NOT the True Russian Orthodox Church:
FROM THE CURRENT ISSUE OF
Social Sciences - A Quarterly Journal of the Russian Academy of Sciences
No. 1, 2009. Page(s): 28-42
Legalizing the Moscow Patriarchate in 1927:
The Secret Aims of the Authorities
It is always disconcerting that people neglect to mention that St. Tikhon had sought legal status as a means of obtaining rights for the Russian church and to be able to oppose the Renovationist schisms and safeguard the rights and sensibilites of believers. He very much wanted legal standing so that Russian Orthodox believers could pray, keep their churches and not be subject to summary arrest and repressions as "counter revolutionaries." While Patriarch Sergius may have made a grave error in judgement, what he did accomplish is obtain legal standing for the MP, and his administration acted in unbroken succession from that of St. Tikhon. In the end, the sergian declaration did more good than harm. However sergianism is a heresy, and these mistakes are something we must examine, analyze, condemn, and overcome for the future of Russian Orthodoxy.
Jason Bently
MPROCORDsdnt wrote:It is always disconcerting that people neglect to mention that St. Tikhon had sought legal status as a means of obtaining rights for the Russian church and to be able to oppose the Renovationist schisms and safeguard the rights and sensibilites of believers. He very much wanted legal standing so that Russian Orthodox believers could pray, keep their churches and not be subject to summary arrest and repressions as "counter revolutionaries." While Patriarch Sergius may have made a grave error in judgement, what he did accomplish is obtain legal standing for the MP, and his administration acted in unbroken succession from that of St. Tikhon. In the end, the sergian declaration did more good than harm. However sergianism is a heresy, and these mistakes are something we must examine, analyze, condemn, and overcome for the future of Russian Orthodoxy.
Jason Bently
I would be very careful about making excuses for Met Sergius on this forum, and, in particular, I would not claim that the Soviet MP has apostolic succession from Patriarch Tikhon. Most True Orthodox, including myself, believe that Sergius became a heretic because of his declaration, and the MP has been in heresy since.
You may believe what you want, but it isn't necessarily "True Orthodox." But if you want to make a stake in affirming the "heresy" of the MP, then you should work toward calling it to answer charges of heresy at some sort of Synod which could answer your concerns or simply work within the local churches to have the point of the issues you feel to be heresy be addressed so that the faithful are not being "misled." That's the Orthodox thing to do, not attempt to "refound the Church" elsewhere. Orthodoxy doesn't need a Reformation to purify it with warring synods of would be latter day popes. Vagante synods and "clergy" are canonically condemned as graceless and those who follow them, by your would be strict interpretation of the Canons, are excommunicate. So I would be careful about the standard with which you measure and presuming to call it "true" or "authentic" Orthodox.
Patriarch Sergius was part of the patriarchal administration and appointed to his position with its consent after the death of St. Tikhon and he continued St. Tikhon's policy of gaining legal status for the MP, the canonical RUSSIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH.
Jason Bently