ROCOR anti-unionists in the UK... ?

[Hierodeacon Mark]

Dearest brothers and sisters in Christ.

Is there any indication that any ROCOR presence in Britain will reject the forthcoming union with Moscow? Perhaps any dissidents are already part of the ROCiE.

Spasi Khristos - Mark, monk and sinner.

[Priest Siluan]

My personal opinion is that there are "anti-unionist" in Great Britain even before ROCiE. They are the Holy Archangel Michael parish in Guildford, England, they are now in GOC (Archbishop Chrysostomos) and before they were in FROC/ROAC.

[GOCTheophan]

Dearest brothers and sisters in Christ.

Is there any indication that any ROCOR presence in Britain will reject the forthcoming union with Moscow? Perhaps any dissidents are already part of the ROCiE.

Spasi Khristos - Mark, monk and sinner.

Dear Father,

Are you in the UK? Its possible that the St Edward Brotherhood wil not be going over to Moscow but will place themselves under the so called "synod in resistance" a schismatic and many would say heretical grouping. This grouping is based around a cult of personality and will probably dissolve after their leader Met Kyprian's death with some rejoining the GOC and some going over to the New Calendarists. Its also possible that they will stay put. There is a "ROCiE" chapel in Birmingham.

Theophan.

[Hierodeacon Mark]

Dear Theophan,

Yes I'm in Wales. I'm under the omophor of Metropolitan Philaret of Paris who accepted me as an Old Rite monastic. Our eparchy started as the French deanery of ROCOR, but left in the '80's when Met Vitaly started redefining Orthodoxy.

I know the ROCiE chapel and Archimandrite Seraphim very well.

I suspected that Brookwood might look to the Kyprianites and suspect that everyoneone else will blindly follow the Pied Piper of Berlin.

Spasi Khristos - Mark, monk and sinner

[GOCTheophan]

I suspected that Brookwood might look to the Kyprianites and suspect that everyoneone else will blindly follow the Pied Piper of Berlin.

Spasi Khristos - Mark, monk and sinner

Dear Father,

The fact is though that Archbishop Mark already Commemorates at the Liturgy the Soviet Patriarch, and Archimandrite Alexis has heard him do such when con-celebrating with him. If he was serious about the Faith would he not have broken off at that point? Will the Kyprianites still allow him to Commune New Calendarists and the apostate Serbs?- thats another issue. So despite all the posturing they may well stay put. "Their period of Grace" having ended.

Theophan.

[Benjamin W. C. Waterhouse]

I suspected that Brookwood might look to the Kyprianites and suspect that everyoneone else will blindly follow the Pied Piper of Berlin.

Spasi Khristos - Mark, monk and sinner

Dear Father,

The fact is though that Archbishop Mark already Commemorates at the Liturgy the Soviet Patriarch, and Archimandrite Alexis has heard him do such when con-celebrating with him.If he was serious about the Faith would he not have broken off at that point? Will the Kyprianites still allow him to Commune New Calendarists and the apostate Serbs?- thats another issue. So despite all the posturing they may well stay put. "Their period of Grace" having ended.

Theophan.

Really?

I bet you work for Irish Intelligence in your spare time....

In Him
SB

[尼古拉前执事]

Well I guess it is official, the following nasty note about their departure to the Cyprianites ROCOR was in communion with from 1994 to 2006 can be found at http://orthodoxengland.org.uk/departure.htm

ON A TRAGIC FALL INTO OLD CALENDARISM

The sad announcement after the Nativity liturgy on Sunday 7 January that the St Edward Brotherhood in Brookwood is finally leaving the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia (ROCOR) for the Greek Old Calendarists of Metropolitan Kyprianos in Fili has come as no surprise. It had been rumoured for years, ever since the Hellenophile Archimandrite Alexis (Pobjoy) was rejected by ROCOR Cathedral parishioners in London at the end of the 1970s. This followed the transferral of the Walsingham ROCOR parish to the Moscow Patriarchate after the persecution of its traditional Russian Orthodox practices. As a result of all this, Fr Alexis was removed from his position as ROCOR Diocesan Administrator.

It seems to us that the heart of the problem is the fact that Fr Alexis was trained at the Greek Old Calendarist Holy Transfiguration Monastery in Boston, Massachusetts. At that time this monastery was, temporarily and to the scandal of many inside ROCOR, under ROCOR jurisdiction. Sadly, Fr Alexis did not always understand us Russian Orthodox and refused our Russian Orthodox ethos. This is the reason for the petty persecution of those who, like ourselves, are faithful to the Russian Orthodox Tradition, the only Tradition in which we have been brought up and know. Indeed, such was that persecution that at one point we considered transferring to another diocese within ROCOR.

We do not reproach Fr Alexis for that. Rather we tend to blame a situation for which he was not prepared, either in terms of parish experience, or linguistically and culturally. We cannot help seeing that another of the problems was in his under-age ordination (which he never wanted) by a bishop who later left ROCOR. Appointed, virtually without parish experience, to the post of ROCOR Administrator in the British Isles, the present consequences were inevitable. Although never in the mainstream of ROCOR, it must be said that Fr Alexis did an immense amount of excellent pastoral work and in a purely unmercenary way.

Even when the Boston Old Calendarists broke off from ROCOR over twenty years ago (refusing to face up to charges of homosexuality), Fr Alexis and his Brotherhood still remained loyal to ROCOR. However, the attacks on Russians, Russian Orthodoxy and those loyal to the Russian Orthodox Tradition in the pages of The Shepherd left us with no illusions as to the effects of ‘Bostonitis’ and Brookwood’s eventual destination. Fr Alexis’ anti-episcopal comments at the Fourth All-Diaspora Council in May 2006 made it clear to some of us at least that he had no intention of staying the course until the full restoration of Russian Church unity on 17 May 2007. The anti-Russian issue of The Shepherd in December 2006 only confirmed this.

The Brookwood Brotherhood has been courted for years by Bishop Ambrose (Baird), a Fili bishop from a wealthy Jewish banking family. He would love to have a bishop in the United Kingdom in his Synod. With his sectarian views, he persecuted us and tried to censor articles on this website. Not only not a member of the Russian Church, he belonged to an uncanonical group, with which many years ago clergy of the Western European Diocese of ROCOR had been forbidden to concelebrate. (Not that we wished to). All this has a deeply tragic side. Brookwood has now cut itself off from worldwide Orthodoxy, in exchange for communion with the sixty-four clergy of the Fili Synod. Moreover, following the Amphipolis schism of May 2006 (not our word but that of Patriarch Alexis), this present schism will leave faithful Orthodox in the London area (and elsewhere because others are leaving with Fr Alexis, including the ROCOR Convent in London) deprived of other churches. Once again, faithful families and individuals who have over the years contributed to the establishment of a church have been let down. The decades-long, pastoral crisis in London only grows.

Those who hold the middle ground, following the golden mean, the royal way, avoiding sects, those who have suffered tiresome persecution for years from left and right, Amphipolites and Filiites alike, are once again almost alone. It is a miracle that anyone is left here. Those who have not been devoured by wolves have been protected by their shepherd: St John the Wonderworker, Archbishop in London. In fact, we believe that these tragic events may have a positive side. This is our chance to rebuild our Diocese according to the Russian Orthodox Tradition of St John, and not the unOrthodox extremes of others, regardless of whether we use Slavonic or English, or a mixture of the two, in our liturgical life. The need to adopt St John as the Patron of our Diocese must now surely be clearly apparent to all.

Readers abroad may be wondering what is happening in this country. First Sourozh and now ROCOR, all in the space of a few months. The fact is that there is nothing extraordinary in any of this. For over forty years, since 1962 and the departure of St John for San Francisco, problems have been accumulating inside both parts of the Russian Church in these islands and nobody has been able to do anything, even though the problems were there for all to see. The impression we have is of a large room, which has not been dusted for over forty years. Well, it is now at long last being dusted. And we are seeing, with deep sorrow, that there is a great deal of dust. In reality, the Brookwood defection should be seen as the second part of a process of dusting.

Firstly, in May 2006 there took place the normalization of the Sourozh Diocese. Previously unable to return to Russian Orthodox norms, it was able to do so only once the renovationists elements which had crept into it during the Cold War, when that Diocese had been cut off from the catholicity of the Russian Orthodox Tradition, had left it. They were not expelled, but left of their own accord. Secondly, in January 2007, there has taken place the normalization of the ROCOR Diocese. One cannot fail to see the parallel here. The witness of the ROCOR Diocese in these islands had long been compromised by Greek Old Calendarist elements which had crept into ROCOR during the Cold War, when it had been cut off from the rest of the Russian Church inside Russia. They were not expelled, but left of their own accord.

We would reassure the faithful who are scandalized by these two events and to them we say the following. The Church goes on. The Fili Synod, with its 64 priests, is faced by the worldwide family of Local Orthodox Churches, with its 64,000 priests, with which ROCOR is in communion. Remember the old saying:

‘The Church is like a swimming pool. All the noise comes from the shallow end’.

Fr Andrew

Feast of the Most Holy Mother of God
26 December 2006/8 January 2007