Dear Sue,
I think that the compliance of the MP with the godless government is still and issue with our Church. Below is from a recent interview with Archbishop Hilarion of Australia. I hope it helps.
In Christ,
Nicholas
… Vladyka Hilarion, one more question: the question of the relationship between the Russian Church Abroad and the Moscow Patriarchate.
… This question is very serious and complex. The reason for the divisions which exist to this day is the intrusion of militantly atheistic Communion into the life of the Church; the consequences of this have yet to be eliminated. The Russian people and the Church of Russia have endured the most savage persecutions and genocide in the history of the world. In 1927, when the then Metropolitan Sergius (Stragorodsky) published his infamous declaration of loyalty to the Soviet Union,. he in fact thereby made the hierarchy of the Church subject to the godless government.
The episcopate became, in effect, the Soviets department for religious affairs. In this declaration it was stated that the joys of the Soviet Union were the joys of the Church. And these very “joys” at that time included the annihilation of the Faith in our homeland. It was then that the division took place within the Church of Russia. A large number of bishops, clergymen and believers in Russia cut off eucharistic communion with Metropolitan Sergius; and abroad, all the bishops and the entire flock also ceased ecclesiastical fellowship with Metropolitan Sergius (later patriarch). Beyond the borders of Russia, on the basis of Patriarch Tikhon’s Decree #362 of 1920, a temporary ecclesiastical administration was formed, known later as the Synod of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad.
Throughout the years of the Communist regime in the homeland, the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad always bore witness before the world concerning the real, persecuted state of religion in the U.S.S.R., while the hierarchy of the Moscow Patriarchate had to give out false information about the state of the Russian Church in the homeland. In the Church of Christ there must never be any falsehood, just as it is not possible to serve two masters, as our Savior says. Yet many bishops of the Moscow Patriarchate had to do just that. We can understand their difficult position during the time of savage persecutions; but now, when Communism no longer exists as a political structure and pressure is no longer brought to bear upon the Church, one would expect from the Moscow Patriarchate an obligatory, conciliar dissociation from Sergianism and from the participation in the ecumenical movement and the World Council of Churches foisted on the Patriarchate by the godless government.
Until this happens, there is no possibility of serious discussion about healing the tragic division which has existed in the Church of Russia for so many decades. We very much desire and pray for the unity of the Russian Orthodox Church; but this unity can exist only on the basis of the Truth and purity. We see many positive, splendid changes for the better in the church life of the Russian people, and we rejoice in this. We understand that the deep wound of division borne by the body of the Church of Russia requires time to heal. This would largely depend upon the current leadership of the Moscow Patriarchate, if they are able to free themselves from servility to compromise, which contradicts the spirit of Christian doctrine, and become “laborers beyond reproach, preaching the word of truth with faith.
” Only in the Truth can the fellowship we call the Church of Christ exist. May the Truth of Christ prevail!
