In 2 parts, NFTU's livestream channel did a WONDERFUL feature on Old Ritualists tonight, featuring Bp Enoch and Reader Sava Beljovic from the Euphrosynos Cafe.
Both spoke impressively.
After Bishop Enoch had to leave, Sava was able to provide a wide-ranging picture of all Old Believer "Fragments", one could call them. He concluded that they are popular with academics - that would include the renowned but deficient in this one regard - Alexander Solzhenitsyn.
The latter, Sava explained, was the one who pushed for Rocor to allow the Erie Old Believer group to join, under later-ordained Fr Pimen Simon.
That's an interesting fact by itself, because I always wondered HOW on EARTH did that parish decide to join Rocor, and WHY ?
It was the world-famous Russian thinker who himself seems to have been sympathetic toward Old Believers who provided the impetus for this merger.
Sava concluded that Old Ritualists are NOT serious and have so many flaws that it's almost laughable.
I was glad to see that both speakers accentuated the fact that Patriarch Nikon was in the RIGHT entirely, and the Old Ritualists were essentially crazy ! They lied shamelessly, such as about Bishop Paul of Kolomna who died naturally, but was alleged by the Old Believers of the time to have been killed by Patriarch Nikon.
They also behaved in a demonic way, both by shutting themselves into churches and letting the churches be burned down, self-immolation essentially.
Sava read a section from St Theodore of Sanaxar's Life concerning the rebellion which engulfed the renowned Solovki Monastery in the White Sea 1668-1676.
Voivode Meshcherinov Putting Down the Solovki Rebellion"- early 19th-century
The Tsar's forces [Streltsy] had to lay siege to the monastery to put down the revolt.
"The rebels had been successfully defending themselves until their betrayal by a monk named Feoktist, who showed the Streltsy an unprotected window of the monastery’s White Tower. This brought about the end of the uprising, which was suppressed with incredible brutality in January 1676. Only sixty rebels out of five hundred survived the seizure of the monastery. Large supplies of food were discovered stored in the monastery which would have been sufficient to withstand siege for several more years" - wikipedia
This infamous siege has often been blamed on Patriarch Nikon. But that is impossible, as he had already been unjustly deposed.
Instead, it was Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, 2nd of the Romanov dynasty, who carried out this military operation.
Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich falcon hunting outside Moscow with boyars - 19th century painting [this is a print available for sale at arthive]
Patriarch Nikon, Bishop Enoch specified, citing the extremely interesting 6-volume text, "The Patriarch and the Tsar" by William Palmer, told the fake-council of 1666 that he, Pat. Nikon, had NOT killed Bishop Paul of Kolomna but merely banished him to a monastery.
Extremely valuable for True Orthodox is the angle from which Bp Enoch and Sava presented the information they provided.
Sava particularly emphasized that these Old Ritualist groups are
1. Sergianist
2. Ecumenist to the hilt ! [concelebration or at least cordial association with : a Tibetan monk, Chabad leaders [particularly unbelievable for purported Orthodox Christians !]
3. Anti-Monarchist
Sava also gave a good comparison in saying that the Old Ritualists are like Protestants breaking away from the Roman Catholic Church - in both cases, coming to lamentable denouements.