Paradosis wrote:Mor,
I was under the impression that Russia was, at first, 1) a mission Church; then a 2) Metropolitanate; then ruled by/as a 3) Patriarchate; then switched to a 4) Synodal Form of Government (as ROCOR has today); and then, after hundreds of years of this form of governance, the soviets came to power and wished to have the Church more centralized and controllable, and so the soviets switched the Church hierarchy back to 5) Patriarchal.
My understanding of ecclesiastical politics are hazy, as is my understanding of most of Russian history for that matter, so take that with a grain of salt (hopefully someone else can correct my errors).
5) "the Russian Church" was "Patriarchal" when St Tikhon became Patriarch in 1917, not because of the soviets.
6) "the Moscow Patriarchate" - a new creation of Stalinist times
It was very effective KGB semantics (e.g. "Patriarchate") that sounds like the holy structure of martyred Patriarch St Tikhon, but this was a deception.
Things are changing rapidly now, but from the bottom up. Those believers who were not part of the deceptions are said to have received grace through their faith, piety and trust in the mercy of God. Is it possible that a KGB agent could have performed a liturgical rite and then partaken to his own condemnation, yet guileless orthodox believers who partook of the same chalice did so to their salvation owing to their Faith? It has been described so in my hearing. Would it not be Donatism to say otherwise - i.e. that because the priest is a sinner, the Mysteries are therefore devoid of Grace? If so then horrid conclusions must be drawn about the service I offer!
Does that mean the institution of the MP therefore had/has grace? Our ROCA used to say, "we cannot know this to be true" - which is a different statement from "we don't know, so we can't judge this to be false" which we now hear from many internet-active clergy. Those same believers who did not lose access to Grace in God's ways which we cannot discern, are the ones leading the restoration of the true Church in Russia, not the extant leadership. A new generation of leadership may prevail. God grant it.
pr mark
