Российскaя Прaвослaвнaя Автономнaя Церковь
Епaрхиaльное Упрaвление Восточно-Америкaнской Епaрхии
Russian Orthodox Autonomous Church
Diocesan Administration of the Eastern American Diocese
95 Elm Street * Elmwood Park, New Jersey 07407 * USA
Telephone: (347) 321-4870 * Fax: (208) 730-7551 * Email: eastdioceseroac@optonline.net
October 18, 2005
Senator George Allen
204 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Dear Senator Allen:
Code: Select all
On October 13, 2005, in Suzdal, region of Vladimir, Rus-sian Federation, Metropolitan Valentine (Rusantsov), Head of the Russian Orthodox Autonomous Church, which has mem-bers throughout the United States, was attacked in his home inside the Synod headquarters building. The sixty-six year old Metropolitan was hit on the head and knocked uncon-scious. Then, he was bound hand and foot, gagged, and beaten about the face and torso. He received serious physi-cal injuries.
This act represents an acceleration of hostilities di-rected against the people of our Church in Russia, for the sole reason that they do not want to come under the admin-istrative jurisdiction of the state-sanctioned church, which has a history of complicity with the old Soviet re-gime. Over the course of the past several years, there have been over one hundred incidents of violence and persecu-tion, including beatings, arson, robberies, vandalism, and using the court system to try to hamper our religious ac-tivities and deny normal human rights. I have included two recent articles from one of our church publications to give you an idea.We respectfully ask you to take note of this violent incident and urge you to make inquiries concerning this un-conscionable crime. We hope and believe that by simply showing an interest in this matter, you can make an impor-tant difference in alleviating the condition of our people. As you know, all that is necessary for evil to triumph, is that good men do nothing.
Sincerely yours in Christ,
+Archimandrite Andrew,
Acting Administrator