How to Organise an Underground Church

[Matthew]

A complete series of seminars on the topic, "How to Organise an Underground Church," is available for free audio download at this site:

http://www.sermonindex.net/modules/mydo ... php?cid=50

The series of talks is given by Rev. Richard Wurmbrand who was kept in solitary confinement, and subjected to years of beatings, psychological tortures and brainwashing techniques, and also drugging with the aim of weakening his will and resolve and breaking his faith in God. These attempts failed. Though he is a Lutheran, there remains much we can learn from this man.

One day such knowledge may be essential to our survival.

PS. I found this short summary of some details of his experiences in the Romanian Prison System:

Wurmbrand, who passed through the penal facilities of Craiova, Gherla, the Danube-Black Sea Canal, Văcăreşti, Malmaison, Cluj, and ultimately Jilava, spent three years in solitary confinement. His wife, Sabina, was arrested in 1950 and spent three years of penal labour on the Canal.

Pastor Wurmbrand was released in 1956, after eight and a half years, and, although warned not to preach, resumed his work in the underground church. He was arrested again in 1959, and sentenced to 25 years. During his imprisonment, he was beaten and tortured.

Eventually, he was the recipient of an amnesty in 1964.

Wikipedia says this about him in their introduction to a rather lengthy and interesting biography:

Richard Wurmbrand (March 24, 1909 – February 17, 2001) was a Romanian Christian minister of Jewish descent. He was a youth during a time of anti-Semitic activity in Romania, but it was later, after becoming a believer in Jesus Christ as Messiah, and daring to publicly say that Communism and Christianity were not compatible, that he experienced imprisonment and torture for his beliefs. After serving five years of a second prison sentence, he was ransomed for $10,000. His colleagues in Romania urged him to leave the country and work for religious freedom from a location less personally dangerous. After spending time in Norway and England, he and his wife Sabina, who had also been imprisoned, emigrated to America and dedicated the rest of their lives to publicizing and helping Christians who are persecuted for their beliefs. He wrote more than 18 books, the most widely known being Tortured for Christ. Variations of his works have been translated into more than 60 languages. He founded the international organization Voice of the Martyrs, which continues to aid Christians around the world who are persecuted for their faith.

See this link for full bio at wiki:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Wurmbrand

[Maria]

Perhaps we can use this information to set up mission parishes.

Of course we shall have to get permission from our bishop, but if we have at least five members, he would not refuse, especially if some of them are clergy quality: honest, humble, and pure men.

[arcmode]

Why do you say 'at least five members' Maria? Is there a rule about a minimum number to start a parish or something?

I copied this from an Orthodox Word, it's about the underground Church in Russia. ...

The Orthodox Word, No. 88, September - October 1979

• "The Catacomb Church - An interview with Alexander Andreevich Chernov"

  A Russian Emigre in Bulgaria before the Second World War, with a degree in theology and philosophy from the University of Sofia, A. A. Chernov was arrested by the invading Soviet armies during the War for his anti-soviet political activities and spent 35 years in the USSR, 15 of them in prison camps and 20 literally 'underground,' before being allowed to leave the country quite recently. ...

  Question: How did you enter the Catacomb Church?

  Answer: I became acquainted with the representatives of this Church in the camp in the 1940's. ... With their help, when I left the camp (in 1955) I was already able to get into contact with the Catacomb Church, and I went underground. ...

  I was never under the open sky, and the sun never shone on me. ... I often had to be transferred: ... I was very much protected because of my theological education, since such people in the Catacomb Church have always been and are in short supply.

  Question: Tell us please, a few words about how the Catacomb Church arose.

  Answer: The Catacomb Church appeared together with the Soviet regime, when the first priests and bishops were executed without trial.... Therefore, recognizing that the Church could no longer remain entirely open, Patriarch Tikhon at almost every service ordained bishops, even in small cities.... When the official Church began openly to cooperate with the communists (in 1927,) then for the Catacomb Church there was no longer any possibility of communion with her.

  Question: How is the Catacomb Church organized?

  Answer: It is easier to imagine this in graph form: there is a large circumference and it's center. The circumference is the immense multitude of points or cells of the Church. Between these cells there is no contact, but they all have a connection of ideas with the 'center,' in some form or other.

  Question: ... This kind of organizational system of underground organizations in a totalitarian land we call 'molecular,' founded on the spontaneous arising of points of opposition in the country.

  Answer: ... A 'house church' arises, just as in Apostolic times when the Church of Christ was persecuted.... (Rom. 16:5). The whole Catacomb Church is precisely an immense multitude of 'house churches.' Each of them is most concerned with how to be secret and unnoticed.

  This whole mass of cells lives a varied life: there are those who are just beginning, but there are also real monastery sketes where the services go on ceaselessly the whole day long from year to year....

  ... The Catacomb Church strives outwardly not to manifest itself at all, to preserve itself; ... Knowing about the lack of priests in the Catacomb Church, the regime tries to send to us it's agents under the appearance of priests. For example, there have been cases where such ones have tried to pass themselves off for people who ave received the priesthood from Metropolitan Philaret of New York.

  But despite the lack of priests, the Catacomb Church is not dying out.... In the Catacomb Church is the remnant of Holy Russia, which, despite all it's attempts, the Soviet God-fighting regime has not been able to annihilate up to this time....

  Question: What in your opinion is the number of members of the Catacomb Church?

  Answer: ... E.N. Klimov ... cited two figures: 52 million parishioners in the official Church, and 48 million in the Catacomb Church. ...

  The most extreme section of the Catacomb Church is the True Orthodox Christians (TOC). They received me entirely as one of their own, since I had no kind of relations with the regime and did not even have a single workers ticket. But they will not accept any kind of Communist in their group. For me, this limitation – membership in the Party – should not be disqualification. If one does not accept Communists, that means one only strengthens them in their own way and drives them away. Father Vlassy a Catacomb Schema-hieromonk, now reposed related how through one spiritual son of his a highly-placed Party member appealed to him and asked him to come to give him communion, and he even sent his own car at night for him. In the house of this man there were splendid ancient icons and an icon lamp. And this Party member said: 'I entreat you, judge for yourself: if it is essential that I leave the Party, I will leave the Party tomorrow. I know what this will mean for me. But if it is possible – then leave everything the way it is, because in soul I am absolutely not a Communist.'

  ...

[Maria]

Why do you say 'at least five members' Maria? Is there a rule about a minimum number to start a parish or something?

The number varies. Usually the Bishop will require that there be at least five adults (not including children, especially the very young). The goal is to have a mission that is self-supporting as True Orthodoxy does not have any missionary funds like those found in World Orthodoxy where part of the pledges collected from the people goes to support home missions. So, even if an area has five members, if these members are poor without room to have a holy service, no mission will be established until a benefactor can help provide a regular place for the Divine Liturgy.

In True Orthodoxy, most parishes are mission parishes with as few as two adults who do reader services. San Diego, for example, has a new mission with only two or three members.

Mod Note: Please edit your post, reducing the number of paragraphs to at least two to comply with copyright laws. Thanks.

[Dcn.Ephrem]

Thank you very much for this interview, arcmode. It is an absolute gem. God bless you for calling our attention to it!

[Matthew]

Amen! I second that motion.

Symeon