Repose of the Servant of God John

[Pravoslavnik]

Dear Friends in Christ,

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  An old, dear friend from the ROCOR, the servant of God John, reposed in the Lord yesterday. I sang in the choir with John for many years, and loved him dearly. John was the best of men-- a former Anglican engineer who was chrismated in the Antiochian Church about 20 years ago, then moved to the ROCOR over ten years ago.  He was a major patron of our ROCOR parish during the past decade, and a gentle, humble man, despite his rather affluent circumstances.  He was baptized in the ROCOR  by Father Alexey Young with the Orthodox name of blessed St. John of San Francisco, and chose to remain in the ROCOR after the canonical union with Moscow in 2007, partly due to his  advanced old age, infirmity, and belief that there was no other functioning Old Calendar parish in our city.

  If canonically permitted, please pray to God for His newly reposed servant John.

[Catherine5]

We're all with you at this time, Prav.

If you come back here and feel like writing any more about the friend, please think about jotting down an anecdote or further qualities of John. What you said so far was uplifting and edifying. So much that I couldn't feel sorrow, as the man sounded very blessed, had lived a wonderful life, hence must be in a good place or headed there. It IS curative, however, to talk about the person if or whenever you feel like recounting any particular memories. We can benefit thus too.

To think that I was chirping away about a book review last night when this major event must have been weighing on your mind, sorry!

Another side of this is that your friend's Church story points up the problems facing the True Orthodox jurisdictions. They are not muscly enough, YET, to get their word out, being vulnerable to attacks from many angles, as we well know, including Russian agents in the TOC fold occasionally trying to trip them up.
So I recommend a concerted P.R. campaign be launched, wherever possible, to notify the probably MANY fence-sitters who would much prefer a TOC than have to suffer through an OCA Liturgy, but especially those elderly or unconnected in with TOC news, may never hear of the existence of a parish fairly near. [In fact, some hide deliberately.]
I am thinking of a woman from an old established ROCOR family of emigres who burst out one day revealingly: "NO ONE WAS FOR THE UNION!"
But as she attends ROCOR-MP, she clammed right up when pressed on this point. A good insight as to how tight the unspoken censorship is among ROCOR-MP circles.
If her outburst is remotely accurate, TOC parishes, if they could present a credible, organized, face to the world, stand to gain a number of parishioners.
It's getting the word out that I suspect is a problem, identified by Prav's story above. I for one don't begrudge him any prayers, as it was not his fault that he remained with ROCOR when the merger took place.

Finally, this is a great forum. I hadn't realized what Prayer Life meant, I thought it was discussions on how to pray.
We should make more use of this opportunity provided to make prayer requests.
Especially at such poignant times when even simple words from supportive people can boost our spirits immeasurably.

[Pravoslavnik]

Thank you, Catherine, for your kind comments.

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My friend John was certainly a good man.  He and I disagreed about the Act of Canonical Communion, but I chose not to argue with him about this, partly because of his advanced age.  He had been expecting to die soon during the past few years, and had also suffered a partial deterioration of his mental faculties after a stroke.

One thing about John that comes to mind is that he really took the teaching of the Lord seriously which says, "Where a man's heart is, there will his treasure be also." John was very focused on the Church. It was his "pearl of great price."

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 I also know that John, like my own father, fought in combat against the Nazis in Western Europe.  He was once nearly killed, along with some of his comrades, during a dangerous reconnaissance mission, and he once wept openly when he was talking about this incident to me.  I believe that his war experiences influenced his Christian convictions, and he was always firm in his faith, and deeply respectful of the priests and hierarchs--which is, I believe, one reason that he chose not to leave the ROCOR in 2007.  He asked me at the time, "Where would I go?"