Russia has over and over again denied that it is Orthodox as recent as this year, so we cannot pretend the Holy Russia has returned just because we wish it was true.
People who have gone to Russia, having been abroad and hearing the Orthodox Russia has returned have come back quite disapointed that this particular fantasy was pure fiction.
Khristos Voskrese!
Evlogeite Pater.
"Holy Russia" is more a "Grad Kitezh" type aspiration than anything else, but what is clear is that Orthodoxy is being renewed in Russia and hand in hand with it a rebirth in national consciousness is arising (Yes, we may indeed have a Zemsky Sobor before too long)--that is undeniable. Orthodox chaplains, instruction in the schools, Orthodox presence in hospitals, prison, politics, etc. along with the rebirth of monasticism, publishing, rebuilding of parishes (ALL CATALOGED HERE.)...the emerging Orthodox Russia is clear to see for all but the blind, and that is what the godless West hates and wants to stop. Arguing that the glass is half empty does a great disservice to the future of Orthodoxy at home and abroad: turning a cold shoulder to grace can never produce a good outcome.
Voistinu Voskrese!
Rostislav Mikhailovich Malleev-Pokrovsky
Love is a holy state of the soul, disposing it to value knowledge of God above all created things. We cannot attain lasting possession of such love while we are attached to anything worldly. —St. Maximos The Confessor
Christ is Risen!
Even the attempted smear of a "nominal Orthodoxy" is a more scrupulous identity than a stated US GODLESSNESS.
R
Is it it even plausible to assume that after 70+ years of coerced dechristianization (by holocausts) that the emerging state would be an Apostolic Age citadel of "true believers" and "mystics"?!
Love is a holy state of the soul, disposing it to value knowledge of God above all created things. We cannot attain lasting possession of such love while we are attached to anything worldly. —St. Maximos The Confessor
Kollyvas wrote:+Bishop Daniel, +Metropolitan Vitaly et al and +Metropolitan Valentin et al, etc., etc., etc. don't have the authority to reject or revise the instructions of St. Tikhon.
Ifone thinks this means uniting with the Soviet created MP of 1941, heresy would trump that instruction; including the anathematized heresies of Sergianism and Ecumenism.
Christ is Risen!
Really? What about the heresy of the God the Father Icon? You can't condemn people of heresy without a spiritual court. When did they happen for 100 million Christians? Really, St. Tikhon didn't seem to specify that groups could go off on their own and form ad hoc "replacement" dioceses but rather INSISTED on All-Russian Orthodox unity. Persecution and godlessness are over in Russia. The MP lies in a direct and canonical line of succession from the throne St. Tikhon. Which would be alternative can make that claim? Moreover, St. Tikhon left his administration to his successors--arguing that the restoration of the Patriarchate by stalin in 1941 was uncanonical is akin to arguing that the restoration of the Patriarchate at the All-Russian Council of 1917-18 was uncanonical for the emperor did not bless it, even less so, for the 1941 restoration was not so much a restoration as a delayed elevation of a locum tenens to the Patriarchal Throne. Moreover, ones issues with said throne would have to be taken up with it to be proper "resistance."
Indeed He is Risen!
Rostislav Mikhailovich Malleev-Pokrovsky
Love is a holy state of the soul, disposing it to value knowledge of God above all created things. We cannot attain lasting possession of such love while we are attached to anything worldly. —St. Maximos The Confessor
Ahh but the All-Russian Council of 1917-18 also forbade cooperation with the Bolshevik (Red) government or allowing it to interfere with the Church in anyway. And not evne the most ardant apologist for the recreation of an MP under Soviet control with the Soviets picking the bishops can say that this new Church set up by Stalin did not violate the will of the All-Russian Council of 1917-18. As for the God the Father icon, yes it is wrong, but I do not condone destroying old icons of it, I just say do not make new ones.
