Bishop Gregory (Lourie) of St. Petersburg

[Suaidan]

Forgive me. Having lived there when Fr Gregory was just Fr Gregory, I was told not to attend Fr Alexey's Church because he was "crazy" and "disobedient" to the Metropolitan.

What you are not mentioning to these people is that your church is NOT part of the ROAC under Metropolitan Theodore, but a break off created after Fr Gregory's deposition on the basis of the Imyabozhie heresy. Your pastor then went to two Bishops previously deposed by ROAC and received ordination from them. When I left, Fr Alexey was the sole canonical ROAC priest in St Petersburg, as Fr Daniel also went with your pastor.

Fr Mark Templet here, I am sure, can ask Bp Andrei to call Russia and see if there is a change in status but I am fairly certain there is not.

As for extremism, Fr Alexey, while nationalistic (in which I see no sin) argued with extreme nationalists and told them to return to the Church. Something is fishy about this story, and my experience with Fr Gregory and those under him is that they twist the truth to make their leader look good. Apologies.

Edit: of course, we could just ask Fr Alexey; he speaks some English, and his livejournal is right here.
http://p-alexey.livejournal.com/

[Alexander Kuzmin]

Dear Father Joseph,

Do you really believe that parishioners of Father Alexey may not know about our canonical status? All of them know it very well. Both of his readers that left his parish and came to us, both of them were teaching theology and canons, they are aware of the situation, as well as other people.

But there is no reason to argue. You definitely do not know the facts (for example, you write that Bishop Ambrose who ordained Bishop Gregory was defrocked in ROAC, although he was not, there were some decisions against him only AFTER the ordination). But I prefer not to waste time on arguing. As St. Gregory Palamas said, “you can oppose every word with another word, but what word will you oppose to life?”

Alexander

[Suaidan]

I think parishioners can be fooled. For years your community-- since as far back as the time I've been there and before-- has gone out of its way to marginalize Fr Alexey, so you shouldn't be surprised if I assume this is more of the same. I remember people who'd been going there from the start were considered "Fr Gregory's parishioners", though they had no interest in going back there.

While I'll leave it to other members of ROAC to clarify the dates related to Bp Ambrose's alleged elevation of Fr Gregory, et cetera, I will simply ask: does ROAC-- that is, the Church whose primate is Metropolitan Theodore-- officially recognize Fr Gregory Lourie as a Bishop of their church? Did Metropolitan Valentine? Does any Bishop who is part of the ROAC on this page (http://rpac.ru/episcopacy/) recognize Fr Gregory's consecration? The answer is very simple.

Another yes or no: Does Fr Gregory still teach the Imyabozhie heresy?

[Alexander Kuzmin]

OK.
Truly, do not worry that much. We are terrible and you are good.
I do not want to argue here, I as told you. Besides it is forbidden in the open space of the Euphrosynos cafe that puts us in unequal position concerning the conversation.

[jgress]

Usually polemical conversations like this would be sent to the private forum, but since Alexander belongs to a jurisdiction that teaches Name-Worshiping we don't consider it to be an intra-TOC matter.