VERTOGRAD
Orthodox Journal
Newsletter No. 30, Tuesday, July 5, 2005. 11:25 A.M.
– Metropolitan Kirykos left the "Matthewite" Synod
– The First–Hierarch of the Russian True–Orthodox Church Archbishop Lazar (Zhurbenko) Reposed
– Prospects for "Great Outer-Reaches"
METROPOLITAN KIRYKOS LEFT THE "MATTHEWITE" SYNOD
(Svyataya Rus – Vertograd: Moscow)
Metropolitan Kirykos of Mesogea and Lavriotiki was forbidden at the Synod meeting of the "Matthewite" Synod of the TOC on June 17/30 after he refused to present at the discussin of his views. The same day Metropolitan Kirykos gathered his clergy (three priests including Father Andrew Sidnew) and announced "the restoration of the canonical Synod of the TOC", that will include himself as the only bishop. The day earlier, on June 16/29 Metropolitan Kirykos broke the communion with his Synod.
Metropolitan Kirykos was in charge of several "Matthewite" parishes in Russia and Belarus and was noted for his "contradictory" opinions in relation to his own synod and its First Hierarch, Archbishop Nicholas of Athens. Later he was released from his post as Exarch in Russia.
THE FIRST–HIERARCH OF RUSSIAN TRUE–ORTHODOX CHURCH ARCHBISHOP LAZAR (ZHURBENKO) REPOSED
(Portal–Credo.Ru – Vertograd: Odessa)
Archbishop Lazar (Zhurbenko) of Odessa and Tambov, the First–Hierarch of the Russian True–Orthodox Church, Reposed on June 30, Portal–Credo.Ru reports. Archbishop Benjamin (Rusalenko) of Black Sea and Kuban has become the locum tenens of the church.
Archbishop Lazar (in the world Theodore Iosifovich Zhurbenko) was born in 1931 and raised in the Catacomb Church. In 1947 he was tonsured to monasticism with the name Theodosy by Holy Catacomb Elder Theodosy of Caucasus (Kashin). In 1950 he was arrested and released in 1955 after the death of Stalin.
In 1971 with the blessing of ROCOR Bishop Leonly (Fillipovich) of Chili he was tonsured by the bishop of Moscow Patriarchate Benjamin (Novitsky) as a priest for the Catacomb Church. In 1982 he was made a secret hierarch by Bishop Barnaba (Prokofjev), who himself was made a secret bishop, so that he could go to Russia incognito, to carry out the consecration.
In 2000 he became the head of ROCOR parishes in Russia. In 2002 with the blessing of the Head of ROCOR(V) Metropolitan Vitaly Archbishop Lazar and Bishop Benjamin formed the independent Synod of the Russian True–Orthodox Church.
Portal–Credo.Ru:
PROSPECTS FOR "GREAT OUTER-REACHES"
What will become now of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia (Vitaly) (ROCOR(V)) following the death of Archbishop Lazar (Zhurbenko)?
The oldest Russian Orthodox hierarch, who belonged to neither the Moscow Patriarchate, nor to any of the Russians in the diaspora, Archbishop Lazar (Zhurbenko) of Odessa and Oboyansky, died on June 30, 2005.
More than two decades have passed since he was consecrated bishop (1982), and during this time he managed to live three or four lives as a bishop: the situation surrounding Archbishop Lazar, even his canonical standing itself, changed so often and so radically, that he actually ended up being a bishop in several different churches.
First, in 1982, he was secretly consecrated for the clandestine Catacomb Church. Few of the catacomb communities were prepared to recognize him since his candidacy for the episcopacy was under suspicion. His election bypassed two other men who were highly revered as catacomb confessors--Hieromonk Gury (Pavlov; reposed in 1984 after having been consecrated bishop for Russia by one of the jurisdictions of the True-Orthodox Church of Greece), and Archpriest Michael Rozhdestvensky (+1988), who were both still alive at the time. Hieromonk Lazar (Zhurbenko) did not enjoy even a shred of their integrity, especially since he "briefly joined" the Moscow Patriarchate in the 1970’s in order to seek ordination. As Vladyka Lazar himself subsequently explained, he received a blessing for this extraordinary step for a Catacomb Christian from Archbishop Leonty (Filipovich) of Chile, one of the more outstanding bishops of the ROCOR of the post-war period. Vladyka Leonty’s name is especially dear to the Chyrosotomos Branch of Greek Old Calendarists, for it was he who served as the source for the resurrection of their hierarchy in the early 1960’s. If he really did play such a role in the "ordination shopping" of Archbishop Lazar, then that forces us to have another look at the double standard of the ROCOR of that time towards True Orthodoxy, and determine whether they were talking about Orthodoxy in Russia or on some other planet.
The very idea of considering Lazar before the others was put to the bishops of the Church Abroad by none other than a priest of the Moscow Patriarchate--Fr. Dimitry Dudko, who shortly before, in 1980, had been arrested by the KGB and released after his "public confession" on television. Notwithstanding his obvious cooperation with the KGB, Fr. Dimitry enjoyed the complete confidence of the ideologue of "Project Lazar," Archbishop Anthony (Bartoshevich), now reposed, who was the godfather of those in the present day ROCOR who side with the idea of joining the MP. In the biography of Archbishop Lazar, this recommendation of Fr. Dudko’s plays the same role as his "ordination shopping," i.e., it makes him a persona non grata for many traditional Catacomb Christians.
The consecration of Bishop Lazar took place clandestinely inside the Moscow apartment of Catacomb Nun Theodora, but it is doubtful that it could have been done with any more KGB control had it been done directly at their Lubyanka headquarters.
However, Bishop Lazar was completely clueless about that. This quality of his--being completely clueless--was the very reason why Andropov’s KGB of the time, while planning the establishment of a church opposition that would be under their complete control and direction, chose the least experienced and energetic man they could find to be its leader.
And so, the service of Archbishop Lazar continued on into the 1990’s, on the sidelines of church life, both publicly and under ground. Then in 1990, the Synod of Bishops of the ROCOR made its well known decision to legally open parishes inside Russia (more exactly, to receive parishes from the MP), and Bishop Lazar ipso facto became the chief (and only) bishop of the ROCOR inside Russia.
Bishop Lazar was not at all prepared for this situation, and took no active role in its development. The decision to open parishes in Russia was "pushed through" by Bishop Gregory (Grabbe, +1995) of the ROCOR, bolstered by his experience with a Suzdal parish that had once belonged to the MP, which, headed by its rector Archimandrite Valentine (Rusantsov), had officially applied to the ROCOR and had been accepted into it.
Bishop Lazar was prepared neither for open activity, nor for the inevitable series of conflicts that would arise from confronting the MP. He would often repeat that it was not safe to trust in democratic reforms, and that it was necessary to just sit still and not stick out. This was his sincere conviction, and his no less sincere reaction to losing de facto his position of leadership among the communities who were now joining the ROCOR from the catacombs, as well as from the MP.
Archimandrite Valentine was only ordained Bishop of Suzdal by the bishops of the ROCOR in 1991, but he became the actual leader of the parishes in Russia immediately thereafter, with many catacomb communities joining him, which previously did not recognize Bishop Lazar.
This is how the second period of Archbishop Lazar’s episcopal service began; formally, as the head of all of the parishes of the ROCOR in Russia, but in actual fact, only second in command after his vicar (assistant) Bishop Valentine.
Bishop Lazar suffered equally with Bishop Valentine from the prevailing capriciousness on the part of the New York Synod of the ROCOR, as far as the parishes in Russia were concerned. There was a feeling in the Synod that if their current official policy towards "the Renaissance in Russia" were to be taken seriously, then they would either have to return to Russia themselves, or cede control of the ROCOR parishes inside Russia to the bishops there. But in New York, they didn’t want to do either. The bishops inside Russia, themselves, petitioned that, at the very least, they be left alone, without anyone incompetently and crudely interfering in their diocesan affairs. But the Synod of the ROCOR demanded complete and utter submission, without providing any canonical, or even practical, reasons for doing so.
If one were to look at this whole affair from the point of view of common sense alone, then to entrust the direction of parish life inside Russia to the Synod in New York, would be like entrusting the command of an army at war to the generals of another country, which are not even involved in the same war. The bishops in America and in Europe would never submit themselves to even a fraction of the risks which befell the parishes inside Russia, not to mention that for these foreigners the realities of our life in the 1990’s were like some kind of enchanted dream, similar to life in some Hollywood gangster film.
The bishops in Russia, Lazar and Valentine, tried for a long time to maintain good relations with the Synod Abroad, but by the spring of 1994 things fell apart anyway. For Archbishop Lazar, however, this was only the end of the second period of his episcopal service. One year later, during which he was, for a time, the head of the independent Higher Church Administration of the Russian Church, he chose to break communion with his former vicar, Bishop Valentine, who was by now also his administrative deputy, and attempt to rejoin the Synod.
Now, Lazar became the head of that part of the parishes of the ROCOR in Russia that still belonged to the Synod, while Bishop Valentine united practically all of those who had separated from the Synod. Those who remained with Lazar were almost entirely groups that had no church buildings and who, consequentially, were not vulnerable to the secular authorities, who by now had taken the side of the MP. The few church buildings that did, at first, remain with parishes under Archbishop Lazar, were soon taken away from them and given to the MP. At that time, the New York Synod had not yet started to prepare the ground for its present capitulation to the MP, but one of the main points of this capitulation was the surrender of church properties--first, in Russia, and then in the Holy Land.
Again, Archbishop Lazar was oblivious. Nevertheless, he was not prepared to join up with the MP. For this reason, after the ROCOR’s schism of 2001, he remained loyal to Metropolitan Vitaly as a member of ROCOR(V). Thus began the fourth and final period of his archpastoral service.
In Russia,those remnants of the clergy, who were less involved with the ROCOR abroad, and who wanted a bit more independence from those who were with Metropolitan Vitaly, began to gather around Archbishop Lazar. This predetermined yet one more schism: Archbishop Lazar and his vicar, Bishop Benjamin (Rusalenko), who had been consecrated bishop while still in the ROCOR, ordained several more bishops for Russia, but the followers of Metropolitan Vitaly refused to recognize them. Thus, out of one previously united ROCOR(V),there were now two groups; "Lazarites," who only formally recognized Metropolitan Vitaly as their chief hierarch, and "Vitalyites," who maintained an actual tie to the part of ROCOR(V), which is abroad.
During this entire period, Archbishop Lazar’s principal residence has been the town of Veliky Dal’nik (Great Outer-Reaches), in the Odessa province of the Ukraine. There is something symbolic and ominous about this name, both as regards the person of Archbishop Lazar, and as regards the entire ROCOR inside Russia.
The present position of the "Lazarites" is now, obviously, seriously undermined. Contact between the remaining "Lazarite" bishops is rather weak. They are now left without a leader upon whom everything could rest by the "force of gravity alone," and the ability to maintain a working organizational structure inside the ROCOR(V), which was never there to begin with.
What will all of this lead to?
The prospects are varied: one for the Ukraine, and another for Russia.
In the Ukraine today, a new conflict is burgeoning: Bishop Agathangel (Pashkovsky), who up until now has maintained formal loyalty, at least, to the ROCOR(L), is categorically opposed to the unification of his administration to the MP, and the prospects of another schism for the ROCOR(L) there are inescapable. Agathangel’s potential base has now drastically grown larger: he might now, after separating from Metropolitan Laurus, be able attract the remainder of Archbishop Lazar’s diocese to come over to his side. For this reason, one can surmise that the former "Lazarites" in the Ukraine would be closer to Bishop Agathangel, once he leaves ROCOR(L), than to their own brethren on the territory of the Russian Federation, who, as a rule, have an "imperial attitude," so impractical for actual "samostiynaya" ("independent") Ukraine.
Inside the Russian Federation itself, both branches of the ROCOR(V) seem to be more or less equal, and any communities that will be joining them from the ROCOR(L) will come haphazardly. There is no reason to expect that there will be any changes in the balance between the two branches of the ROCOR(V) there any time soon.
The loss of a clear leader for the "Lazarites" is completely offset on the "Vitalyite" side by the fact that their "clear leader" is 95 years of age, and he is far from being in top physical shape. Both jurisdictions represent a rather disorganized collection of more or less independent bishops.
However, one may speculate, that for those leaving the ROCOR(L) in Russia now, the Russian Orthodox Autonomous Church (ROAC), headed by Metropolitan Valentine, is starting to look better and better. In turn, as the events of 2002 have shown, any increase in the attractiveness of ROAC will turn into increased persecutions of the most vicious kind for it.
Metropolitan Valentine, in due course, did one very simple but, as it turns out, very important thing: he found a way to avoid the choice that had been foisted upon him to choose between American New York, and "Great Outer-Reaches"–Veliky Dal’nik in Odessa.
(C) Vertograd, 2004--2005. http://www.vertograd.blogspot.com/
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