:ohvey: Give a read to all this. It turned out to be a total victory for the mp!!! This is really disgusting. I'm ashamed of these people who sold out the church I devoted so much of my life to. They are satisfied with "making penance", being called a "foreign church" and they are sorry for their opposition to sergianism. Is this the twilight zone?! Blessed +Metropolitan Philaret, pray to God for us! This is kafkaesque in its demented irony...
ORTHODOXIA I THANATOS!
Rostislav Mikhailovich Malleev-Pokrovsky
Hierarchs Of Foreign Church Ask Alexis II For Forgiveness
2003.11.21 Gazeta:
HIERARCHS OF FOREIGN CHURCH ASK ALEXIS II FOR FORGIVENESS
by Nadezhda Kevorkova
Gazeta, 21 November 2003
The three-day talks about reuniting the Russian Orthodox church (RPTs) and
the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia (ROCOR) ended yesterday with
mutual reconciliation. Patriarch Alexis II of Moscow and all-Rus reminded
his brethren in the faith how twelve years back he issued to them a call to
meet together and "pick up the pieces," and Archbishop Mark, in his turn,
asked forgiveness for the years-long accusations against the Moscow
patriarchate.
After the conclusion of the talks Patriarch Alexis II described how
Archbishop Mark asked forgiveness for all the harsh statements directed
against the mother church which had accumulated over the 75 years of the
separation of its two parts. Archpriest Nikolay Balashov, secretary of the
Department of External Church Relations of the Moscow patriarchate,
testified for Gazeta that these apologies that resounded in the personal
meeting of the patriarch with the delegation were repeated by Archbishop
Mark at a meeting with the synod on the second day of the talks, saying how
"one would not now want to recall and repeat these statements." "We did not
undertake the hostile actions during these years," Fr Nikolai stressed,
assuring Gazeta that the property, organizational, and administrative
problems that arose in relations between the two churches were not a topic
in the current talks.
Patriarch Alexis also reported that he began the meeting with the hierarchs
of ROCOR by reading to them his letter of August 1991 that he sent to the
first hierarch of ROCOR of the time. In particular, in it he said that
representatives of the church "must meet together and look one another in
the eyes, because when a pitcher is broken up into tiny pieces, it is
necessary to gather these pieces and then use the pitcher." Let's recall
that at that time the call was not heard although back in February 1991
Patriarch Alexis renounced the 1927 declaration by Metropolitan Sergius
that recognized the authority of the bolsheviks and established the main
cause of the schism. It also was not heard in 2000, when the "Social
Doctrine of RPTs" stated that the church reserves for itself the right of
protest against the actions of secular authorities.
Only now, after asking forgiveness for all the earlier harshness, have the
foreign hierarchs acknowledged that they are ready for talks. Thus, from
the very beginning of the talks, the sides set aside their chief mutual
claims against one another.
Patriarch Alexis warned that "the journey to reconciliation has begun, but
it is not such a simple matter and it will require time." The problems of
reconciliation, Alexis II explained, will be discussed by the councils of
bishops and synods in Moscow and New York, and two special commissions will
work them through, but the main plans will be confirmed at the time of a
personal meeting in January 2004 between the patriarch and the head of
ROCOR, Metropolitan Laurus, who should sign an agreement as to the bases of
unity. According to the patriarch, the question of the restoration of
eucharistic fellowship could be resolved within a year, and priests of
ROCOR will be able to concelebrate and laity will commune together.
According to Gazeta's information, this has occurred previously, but it was
never publicized in order to avoid the displeasure of the hierarchy.
One of the observers told Gazeta that the talks' success was determined by
the very start of the visit. The first act of the ROCOR hierarchs was a
visit to the Don monastery where they venerated the relics of Patriarch
Tikhon, after whose death in 1925 the schism in the church began. There
they also prayed at the grave of the foreign cleric Alexander Kiselev, a
former rector of parishes in Estonia, Germany, and USA. It was this priest
who began his ministry as an acolyte for Patriarch Alexis II in Estonia. At
the Don and Presentation monasteries the foreign hierarchs met simple
believers, which was a visible sign of popular approval of unification.
Yesterday the foreign delegation went to the Saint Serafim monastery in
Diveevo. This trip also was significant. It was Serafim of Sarov, who was
canonized in 1903 by the efforts of the royal family, who remained the
symbol of the unity of the church through all the years of separation, and
the centennial of his canonization in August of this year was conducted
with the participation of the president of Russia.
Today the foreign hierarchs will attend a patriarchal service in the
Kremlin which is conducted in the cathedral of the Archangel Michael every
year, and then they will disperse to their dioceses.
(tr. by PDS, posted at
http://www.stetson.edu/~psteeves/relnews/0311a.html#07 on 21 November 2003)
2003.11.21 Gateway 2 Russia:
Gateway 2 Russia, Russia
http://www.gateway2russia.com/st/art_171383.php
21 November 2003 11:31
Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia satisfied with visit to Moscow
A delegation of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia (ROCOR), on a
first official visit in Russia these days, is satisfied with the results of
talks with the leadership of the Moscow Patriarchate, delegation spokesman
Archpriest Peter Holodny said on Thursday.
In his words, the negotiations were held in the spirit of love and
brotherly mutual understanding. They were aimed at "getting acquainted with
each other, looking into each other's eyes" and outlining ways for
reconciliation of the ROCOR and Russian-based Orthodox Church.
Holodny reported an agreement was reached to create special commissions
from each side to resolve problems hindering rapprochement, i.e. the
Church's relations with state authorities, the property issue and "banned
priests", that is, those who passed from the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC)
to the ROCOR and the other way round.
The visit of the delegation headed by Mark, Archbishop of Berlin and
Germany, started November 17 and is to last until Nov.22. Another two
hierarchs - Hilarion, Archbishop of Sydney, Australia and New Zealand, and
Bishop Kyrill of San Francisco and Western America - make part of it.
2003.10.22 ROCOR: NEWS FROM THE SYNOD
Archbishop MARK
Declaration of Archbishop Mark towards the Session of the Synod of Bishops,
11/24 October 2003
I consider it important to make a declaration on the possible perspectives
and aims of our ecclesiastical path, as I see it
In our understanding, there was never any doubt that we are part of the one
Russian Orthodox Church. We also always recognized the Moscow Patriarchate
as a different part of the same Russian Church. For this reason in practice
we always recognized her Mysteries.
In our "Regulations," our authority bears a temporary character. When the
regime changes in Russia and the Church acquires more freedom of action, we
are called upon to participate in the process of renascence of the faith
and are duty-bound, correspondingly, to seek the unity of the Russian Church.
Without a doubt, we had full authority to view the Moscow Patriarchate with
great criticism even 10-15 years ago. But over this time, fundamental
changes have occurred(including the change in quality and quantity of their
episcopacy). Clearly, the process of recuperation has begun and is
continuing. There is no basis upon which to exclude ourselves from this
process, or, worse, to place ourselves in opposition to it. We are not a
political organization, but the Body of Christ--and we must correspondingly
treat each other as members of one Body, in the words of the Apostle:"That
there should be no schism in the body; but that the members should have the
same care one for another. And whether one member suffer, all the members
suffer with it; or one member be honored, all the members rejoice with it"
(I Cor. 12: 25-26).
Admitting ourselves but a part of the Russian Orthodox Church, we should on
the basis of canonical law of the Russian Church itself (Ukase No. 362 and
others) recognize the Moscow Patriarchate as one of the self-governing
parts of the same Russian Church, leaving for a future All-Russian Council
to judge the possible existence of yet other parts of our one Church Body.
In the search for unity, we must not speak of "subjugation," "unification,"
"reunification," "swallowing up," etc., but only of the humble recognition
one for another of the status of being part of the one Russian Orthodox
Church. The path of seeking unity itself is conceived solely as a conciliar
task, in which all parts of the one Church recognize their lineage from one
wellspring, taking into account both our own path traveled over the course
of the horrifying events of the 20th century, and the paths of other parts
of the Russian Church, traveled in unique circumstances, circumstances yet
unheard-of in their scope in the history of the Church.
At the same time we accept everything positive gained on this path, and we
reject all that is negative and un-churchlike that developed in our church
life, all that is alien, imposed from without. We are called upon in the
present circumstances to strive for one goal: towards unity in the
Mysteries, in accordance with the spirit, teaching and tradition of our
Russian Orthodox Church, while preserving the unique characteristics of the
ecclesiastical experiences of our paths, and on the basis of the present
organically-developed structures. Our goal cannot be to erase the
experience of any part of the Russian Church; it lies in the coordinated
development of the missionary duty of the Church of Christ, both on our
historic homeland and abroad, to the benefit of the faithful who are in the
church, and who comprise, in the countries of the whole world, one flock of
the Russian Church as a whole. The basis of our life, its cornerstone is
Christ Himself. In Him alone can we find our unity in the struggle of
faith, hope and love.
Archbishop Mark of Berlin and Germany
Munich
9/22 October 2003
2003.11.20 Portal-credo:
ROCOR DELEGATION SATISFIED WITH TALKS IN MOSCOW
Portal-credo.ru, 20 November 2003
The delegation of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia (ROCOR), which
is making its first official visit to Russia, is completely satisfied with
the talks conducted with the hierarchy of the Moscow patriarchate. This was
expressed on 20 November in an interview with RIA Novosti by a
representative of the delegation, the treasurer of the synod of bishops of
ROCOR, Archpriest Peter Holodny.
"Members of the delegation are very satisfied with the results of the
talks," the interviewee told RIA Novosti. "The talks were conducted in a
spirit of love and brotherly mutual understanding," he stressed.
He said that the goal of the talks was "to become acquainted and to look
one another in the eyes" and to outline the way for bringing the foreign
Russian church and the church in the fatherland closer.
Holodny also reported that they achieved agreement on the creation of
special bilateral commissions for resolving separate problems that hinder
bringing them closer. "It is no secret that there are several disagreements
of both a theological and everyday character," the treasurer of the synod
of bishops of the foreign church explained. He said that the commissions
will deal with questions of the participation of the Orthodox church in the
ecumenical movement (uniting Christians of various confessions), relations
between the church and state, the painful property question, and the
so-called problem of "banned priests" who have transferred from RPTs to
ROCOR and vice versa.
Besides the meetings on 18-19 November with Patriarch Alexis II of Moscow
and all-Rus and members of the Holy Synod of RPTsMP, the delegation of the
foreign church became acquainted with the life of the mother church during
their stay in Russia. In particular, the delegation has already visited the
Saint Sergius Holy Trinity lavra, the church of Christ the Savior,
monasteries in the capital, and the Saint Serafim monastery of Diveevo.
The visit by the delegation of the foreign Russian church to Moscow began
on 17 November and will continue to 22 November. The delegation is led by
Archbishop of Berlin and Germany Mark. In includes two other ROCOR
hierarchs, Archbishop of Sydney, Australia, and New Zealand Ilarion and
Bishop of San Francisco and western America Kirill.
(tr. by PDS, posted at
http://www.stetson.edu/~psteeves/relnews/0311a.html#07 on 21 November 2003)
