Metropolitan Valentine deposition by ROCOR

[Priest Siluan]

Yes, dear Barbara, I think that "Mrak" (an old Russian word for "Darkness) of Berlin was the KGB-MP "great agent" in the whole matter, since it was necessary to destry the true church in Russia, and so, having no anynore this very bothering "obstacle", finally recognize MP as the "Mother Church".

[Maria]

Lord have mercy.

Were any charges filed against Met. Valentine?

I have heard that many True Orthodox are charged with fabricated offenses to assassinate their good characters so that they are prevented from being effective witnesses and holy confessors in the Church. Perhaps this is the real reason why the True Orthodox Church is not growing. Our holy bishops have been marginalized, slandered, mocked, and vilified, and the world is not worthy of them.

It is a great question, I think we should wait for a better and "semi-official" response from some of our ROAC members here.

But, I only can say that the whole matter about this "deposition" was a complete nonsense. It was not serious at all, but a "agreement" betwenn ROCOR, in the person of Mark of Berlin, and MP. And this "agreement" was carried out in one of his meetings with Alexy II, the "orginal idea" was defroncking all ROCOR/FROC Bishops in Russia. "In fact" this "arrangement" can be seen in that Met. Valentin and clergy of FROC (some of them never were clergymen in MP) were defrocked almost in the same time by ROCOR and MP, and several years after they left both MP and ROCOR, If I am not wrong, both depositions were between 96 and 97.

[Jean-Serge]

What I want to understa
nd are the factual and canonical reasons given by ROCOR then

[Sdcn.Ephrem]

What I want to understand are the factual and canonical reasons given by ROCOR then

NOT OFFICIAL:

Well, there were really two instances when ROCOR attempted to deprive Metropolitan Valentine of his see.

The first time said it was because of Metropolitan (then just Bishop) Valentine's health. Metropolitan Vitaly wrote him, saying, "“The Hierarchical Council has become acquainted with your administrative successes. However, your health in such a difficult situation makes it necessary for us to retire you because of illness until your full recovery. This means that if you are physically able, you can serve, since you are in now way banned from church serving, but you are simply freed from administrative cares."

After this the FROC was formed by the bishops in Russia. When the Russian bishops met with the ROCOR bishops at a council at Lesna, they reached an agreement and reestablished communion of prayer. But shortly after this the bishops abroad changed their minds and in a single act, without trial and without alerting the condemned, deprived all five of the bishops in Russia of their ecclesiastical ranks. There was no canonical justification given originally. Afterwards they said various things at various times, but in my understanding many of the canons they cited had no relevance to the situation whatsoever. Vladimir Moss gives the example of the 57th Canon of the Council of Carthage – “On the Donatists and the children baptized by the Donatists”.

It is notable that this was after ROCOR bishops had begun calling for talks with MP and had entered into communion with the Cyprianites. It was also after Metropolitan Vitality kicked Bishop Gregory (Grabbe) out of his long-held position as secretary of the Synod, which explains why they failed to make any canonical sense.

[Priest Siluan]

Thank you, dear Sdcn. Ephrem, for this response. That is more or less I heard about the whole matter. Also it is very interesting (for that "agreement" I wrote above) that Met. Valentine received almost in the same time both defrocking from MP and ROCOR after 6 o 7 years from leaving MP and 3 o 4 from leaving ROCOR and he learned about it only by letter!!!!?

PS: Also ROCOR and MP "defrocked" other FROC clergymen who never were in any of these jurisdiction...

[Jean-Serge]

Could anyone provide the original documents, in Russian and/or translated. For example, for sure there is a document from the ROCOR Synod suspending and later deposing the Russian bishops and a response of the Russian bishops to this. Where are all those documents? I saw nothing on the Net, excepted people commenting original documents nobody can find? Any idea?

[Priest Siluan]

Dear in Christ, Jean-Serge,

Knowing as the things are/were in ROCOR, I do not think that this document never was given to public knowledge, I think that only there are very few copies of this document (I never see it or heard individual person have a copy) and it is sure they are in the both ROCOR and ROAC Synodals archives. Humbly I suggest you to contact Bp. Andrei of Pavlov, I think he could help you much more than us, about this issue.