Catacomb Church Council of Ust-Kut (1937)

[SavaBeljovic]

Sourced from https://catacombhistory.blogspot.com/20 ... 37_25.html

Divine Providence convened a Council of the Catacomb Church in July, 1937, in the depths of Siberia:- “In the last days of July, 1937, in the Siberian town of Ust-Kut, on the River Lena (at its juncture with the River Kut), in the re-grouping section of the house of arrest, there met by chance: two Metropolitans, four Bishops, two Priests and six laymen of the secret Catacomb Church, who were on a stage of their journey from Vitim to Irkutsk, being sent from Irkutsk to the north.

It was difficult to anticipate a similarly full and representative gathering of same-minded members of the Church in the near future. Therefore those who had gathered decided immediately to open a ‘Sacred Council’, in order to make canonical regulations concerning vital questions of the Catacomb Church. The time of the Council was, as it seemed, limited to four hours, after which the participants in the Council were sent in different directions.

The president was Metropolitan John (in one version: “Bishop John”), and the Council chose the layman A.Z. to be secretary. The resolutions of the Council were not signed: A.Z. gave an oath to memorize the decisions of the Council and to pass on to whom it was necessary whatever he remembered exactly, but not to speak at all about what he confused or could not remember exactly. A.Z. in his time succeeded in passing on the memorized decisions of the Church. His words were written down and became Canons of the [Catacomb] Church. Among these Canons were some which are especially necessary for the Church:

1. The Sacred Council forbids the faithful to receive communion from the clergy legalized by the anti-Christian State.

2. It has been revealed to the Sacred Council by the Spirit that the anathema-curse hurled by his Holiness Patriarch Tikhon is valid, and all priests and Church-servers who have dared to consider it as an ecclesiastical mistake or political tactic are placed under its power and bound by it.

3. To all those who discredit and separate themselves from the Sacred Council of 1917-18 – Anathema!

4. All branches of the Church which are on the common trunk – the trunk is our pre-revolutionary Church – are living branches of the Church of Christ. We give our blessing to common prayer and the serving of the Divine Liturgy to all priests of these branches. The Sacred Council forbids all those who do not consider themselves to be branches, but independent from the tree of the Church, to serve the Divine Liturgy. The Sacred Council does not consider it necessary to have administrative unity of the branches of the Church, but unity of mind concerning the Church is binding on all.

(Information concerning this Council was first published by the Paris Russian newspaper "Russkaya mysl'" on September 7, 1949)

[Krzysztophoros]

If anyone knows where to find a scan of the Russkaya Mysl magazine with the article that has this council mentioned in it, I would be very interested to have it.

[BenjaminMcCraw]

I'm starting to suspect that the "Nomadic Council" of 1928 and "Ust-Kut Council" of 1937 are a "pious myth" like Solzhenitsyn said. Do we have the original documents of these councils? Do we have the names and signatures of their attendants? This is a lot of conjecture.

I don't think its wrong to question about the truth of anything happening in this time period because of how fragmented and hearsay the information is, during the reign of the Soviets who were notorious fabricators. But to be fair I don't know if we have the Original Documents of any of our Orthodox Synods, we simply trust that they were passed on correctly by mouth and written word. It would also be dangerous for Catacombniks to sign anything or give their names while they were still alive is a possible charitible explanation for the secrecy. We should do some digging to find out if we can reliably trust the transmitters of the information given, see what we can learn. I just recently found a claim that there has been "Councils of the Catacomb" with varying levels of authenticity. The later they are the more I doubt them.

(1928,1937,1948,1961) This series seems to be everyone

(1971,1974,1976,1978,1981) This series seems to be mostly Andreevites

(1994,1995,1996,1997) This series is only the group of Ambrose von Sievers

One questionable source I've found so far that may provide names and dates to double check for accuracy is this

https://co6op.narod.ru/txt/vestnik/index.html

[SavaBeljovic]

I'm starting to suspect that the "Nomadic Council" of 1928 and "Ust-Kut Council" of 1937 are a "pious myth" like Solzhenitsyn said. Do we have the original documents of these councils? Do we have the names and signatures of their attendants? This is a lot of conjecture.

St. Maksim of Serupkhov was present for the 1928 council and mentioned it to laypeople (as mentioned in Russia's Catacomb Saints). The old ROCOR also thought it was legitimate and mentioned it in a Pravoslavnaya Rus' articles in the 90s.

There were debates about the authenticity of the Council, so to settle that debate the ROAC wrote a new anathema against Sergianism in 1998.

[BenjaminMcCraw]

The last Josephite bishop, Avdiy, died in 1978. In the 1980s and 90s, the ROCOR did not recognize ANY of the surviving Catacomb bishops as canonical (which is why they consecrated Lazar Zhurbenko to the episcopate to annex Catacomb parishioners to the Free Russian Orthodox Church). The ROAC (or RTOC or ROCiE, ROCOR-A for that matter) doesn't have any apostolic succession from any of these Josephite, Seraphimo-Gennadite, etc. hierarchs whatsoever. Their parishioners might be descended from or comprised of older lay Catacombniks, but from what I can tell, no True Orthodox synod that exists today received their apostolic succession from any Catacomb bishop.

The more I dig into the question of the Catacombniks the more complicated it becomes to me. The main persons pushing to not recognize any of the other catacomb groups seems to be Metropolitan Laurus Shkurla and Metropolitan Lazar Zhurbenko, i know there are people that want their work double checked. Contrary to what may be said polemically there was at least 9 catacomb groups in the 1980's:

Josephite followers who trusted Rocor

Josephite followers who didn't trust Rocor

Followers of Bishop Anthony Golynsky-Mikhailovsky

Andrewites/Andreevskys (followers of Bishop of Ufa Andrew Ukhtomsky)

Seraphimo-Gennadites (followers of Bishop Seraphim Pozdeev and Bishop Gennady Sekach)

Danilovites/Danilovtsy (named after the monastery) such as Bishop Nicholas Nikolsky

Renovationist Catacombniks claimed to be in communion with the followers of Bishop Aftimios Ofiesh

Old Believers Catacombniks such as Bishop Clement Longinov

UAOC Catacombniks such as Bishop Feodosy Bakhmetev

Now if any of these people have true or dubious succession is above my knowledge at the moment. Obviously we shouldn't accept heretics like the Renovationists. But I do know there are currently bishops in at least Rocor-A and TOC-iR that trace their succession back to these groups and probably more than that.

[BenjaminMcCraw]

@BenjaminMcCraw

If they are in these groups now, they were probably either laymen or priests at the time, and
if they were accepted as bishops, they were probably either re-ordained or accepted by cherosethia.

It wouldn't surprise me to learn that's the case. Side note, how do you tag someone? I'm still figuring out the forum

[BenjaminMcCraw]

The last Josephite bishop, Avdiy, died in 1978.

I have tried looking up the life of Bishop Avidy and I haven't been successful. Who was he and what was his full name? The last Josephite bishop I was aware of was Schema-Bishop of Nizhegorod Peter Pitirim Ladygin who died in 1957. Do you know of any other Josephite bishops who were alive between 1957 and 1978 besides Bishop Avidy?