Memorandum Regarding Principles of Coöperation
Between the Greek and Russian Anti-Ecumenists
At the Headquarters of the Holy Synod in Resistance,
Phyle, Attica, November 16, 2007 (Old Style)
Memory of the Holy Apostle and Evangelist Matthew
I. Introduction
By virtue of the Seventh Resolution adopted at the regular annual Meeting (the thirty-fourth/October 4, 2007 [Old Style]) of the Orthodox Church of Greece, Holy Synod in Resistance, today, November 16, 2007 (Old Style), we, the Standing Holy Synod in Resistance, to wit, His Grace, Bishop Cyprian of Oreoi, Acting President, His Eminence, Bishop George of Alania, and also Their Graces, Bishops Chrysostomos of Christianoupolis, Ambrose of Methone, and Klemes of Gardikion (Secretary), together with His Eminence, Bishop Agafangel of Odessa and Tauris, First Hierarch of the Temporary Supreme Ecclesiastical Administration of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad (ROCA), have the especial blessing of convening anew in synodal consultation.
Our Holy Synod in Resistance, like His Eminence, Bishop Agafangel of Odessa and Tauris, who until recently was a member of the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad (ROCA), under Metropolitan Laurus, has decisively rejected the union of the ROCA with the Moscow Patriarchate (May 4/17, 2007) and has definitively severed all ecclesiastical communion with the jurisdiction of Metropolitan Laurus.
II. Causes of the Rupture in Communion
- The decisive and definitive rejection of the union in question between the ROCA and the Moscow Patriarchate, and also the concomitant severance by the Holy Synod in Resistance (as well as by the Romanian and Bulgarian anti-ecumenists in communion therewith) of communion with the Synod under Metropolitan Laurus, which communion existed officially since 1994, was regarded as imperative, since the ROCA-Moscow union de facto abrogated the ecclesiological basis and the anti-ecumenist foundation of the union established in 1994, which contained the following provisions:
"[a]t the present time, when apostasy is spreading and many official representatives of Orthodoxy, such as the Patriarchate of Constantinople and other patriarchates, are succumbing to and embracing the position of the modernists and ecumenists, it is very important for the true Orthodox to unite, stand together and oppose the betrayers of the Orthodoxy of the Holy Fathers" (Decision of the Hierarchical Council of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, No. 3/50/148, August 3/16, 1994, §5c).
His Eminence, Bishop Agafangel holds the conviction, guided by the Holy Spirit, that his action of walling himself off from the jurisdiction under Metropolitan Laurus, following the union between the ROCA and the Moscow Patriarchate, was, and remains, necessary, since the segment of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad under him continues to preserve unadulterated the historical heritage of the ROCA, to safeguard the pledges of salvation in Christ, and to remain separated from the corruption that stems from the spiritual disease of anti-ecclesiastical ecumenism and Sergianism.
The Holy Synod in Resistance and His Eminence, Bishop Agafangel have the common perception that, at the union between the ROCA and the Moscow Patriarchate, not only were heterogeneous ecclesiastical bodies welded together, but also that the way is now open for the gradual assimilation of the ROCA and its de facto amalgamation by the prevailing ecumenist mentality, by which all of the so-called official local jurisdictions of the Orthodox Churches have been corroded; moreover, they hold the common conviction that the gradual loss of the ROCA’s independence and its total absorption [by Moscow] will come about inevitably and shortly.
III. Unity and a Common Perspective
On account of these dramatic developments, which cause us the deepest distress, the anti-ecumenists in Greece, Russia, and elsewhere, who belong to the Holy Synod in Resistance and the jurisdiction of His Eminence, Bishop Agafangel, feel it necessary to declare that their liturgical and Eucharistic communion remains in force, since it has never been ruptured, and that, by the Grace of God, they will remain indissolubly united, through their love in Christ and their common ecclesiological consciousness, as this was jointly professed at the union between the ROCA and the Holy Synod in Resistance in 1994.
We do not desire, nor to be sure do we aim, to save the Church, as we are at times superficially accused of doing, since we are unshakably convinced that, in being walled off from the ecumenists, we constitute the anti-innovationist Orthodox flock and exist within the unity of the Church, within the unity of the Fathers and the Synods, adopting, not the anti-ecclesiastical Primacy of administration and jurisdiction, but the Primacy of Truth, as taught by St. Mark of Ephesus: "[T]he more [we] distance [ourselves] from" the innovators, "the closer [we] draw to God and all the faithful and Holy Fathers; and to the extent that [we] separate [ourselves] from" the innovators, "even so [are we] united with the truth and the Holy Fathers and theologians of the Church" (cf. Patrologia Græca, Vol. CLX, col. 536CD).
The God-pleasing perspective of the Greek and Russian anti-ecumenists remains fundamentally unitive, since it aims at the pacification and reunion of the divided Orthodox through a synodal condemnation of ecumenism and at a return to the traditional Church Calendar. It is within this unitive perspective that the ROCA formerly operated, actively and decisively—and especially under the most saintly Metropolitan Philaret (1965-1985) and thereafter.
IV. Corollaries of Unity
The Orthodox anti-ecumenists of Greece, Russia, and elsewhere, being profoundly convinced as to the heretical and syncretistic nature of ecumenism, and regarding it as literally a panheresy, express their common resolve to walk together in union and in opposition to the encroachment of this ecclesiological heresy.
The strengthening of our relations will be expressed, at the outset, through the ready coöperation of the Holy Synod in Resistance in Consecrating Russian Hierarchs, in order to strengthen the diocesan structure of the jurisdiction under His Eminence, Bishop Agafangel.
We emphasize, on both sides, respect for jurisdictional prerogatives, on the basis of the Sacred Canons, in each territory, and also the possibility of implementing, after fraternal consultation in Christ, a special relationship of a temporary nature between certain Priests, parishes, and monasteries existing within the territory of one of the two jurisdictions, but being served, by oikonomia, by the other.
It is necessary that our unity be further expressed through commemoration of Their Eminences, the First Hierarchs, at Divine Liturgies, through festal letters, through concelebrations, from time to time, on solemn Feast Days, through mutual aid in exceptional circumstances (humanitarian crises, etc.), and also through every other suitable ecclesiastical means, always in the spirit of evangelical love in Christ.
In the hope that the Most Blessed Theotokos and the sacred cloud of the Holy New Martyrs of Orthodoxy will bless, strengthen, and guide us in our common journey towards the union of the Church in the Truth of the Faith, and unto the glory of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, we jointly sign the present Memorandum Regarding Principles of Coöperation Between the Greek and Russian Anti-Ecumenists.
The Standing Holy Synod in Resistance
† Cyprian of Oreoi,
Acting President
† George of Alania
† Chrysostomos of Christianoupolis
† Ambrose of Methone
† Klemes of Gardikion, Secretary
The First Hierarch of the
Temporary Supreme Ecclesiastical
Administration of the ROCA
† Agafangel of Odessa and Tauris