May God’s grace and peace be with
and increase among all the clergy and faithful of our Russian Orthodox Church
Outside Russia.
In the name of the Council of
Bishops we address all our pious flock scattered all over the world. We greet
our beloved children and bless them for their further labors in Christian
Orthodox living in a world departing ever more and more from all the principles
which our Lord Jesus Christ, His apostles, and the holy fathers commanded us to
observe.
In our unfortunate homeland,
formerly called Holy Russia, there has been established a worldwide center of
all-encompassing evil which hopes at the present time to eradicate all traces
of former sanctity and piety. For all these decades we have observed the
sufferings of our brothers with sorrow, and we have noetically kissed their
wounds and glorified as holy martyrs all those millions of faithful who, led by
Patriarch Tikhon and the Tsar-Martyr Nicholas II, have testified to their
faithfulness to God even unto death. The Seer prophetically saw them standing
“before the Throne and before the Lamb in white robes” (Apoc. 7:9). He was told
about them: “These are they who came out of great tribulation, and have washed
their robes, and made them white in the Blood of the Lamb. Therefore are they
before the throne of God, and serve Him day and night in His temple: and He Who
sits on the throne shall dwell among them” (Apoc. 7:14).
Having assembled together in this
Council to consider questions of our church life, we have felt our spiritual
unity with them and with those of our brethren who are following their path,
being still “in great tribulation.”
Dwelling in freedom, we only
spiritually experience with them this “great tribulation,” but we have our own
tribulation which is united with theirs and is called forth by the unbelief and
apostasy from the true faith even of many who bear the name of Orthodox
Christians, and which is spreading more and more in the world. In the world
which surrounds us we often feel that the words of the Saviour, “in the world
you shall have tribulation” (John 16:33), are coming true for us...
If the Apostle Paul saw that
while living in this world it was impossible not to have contact “with the
fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with
idolators” (I Cor. 5:10), then what can we say about our times? Now we are not
only obliged to have contact with them, but, more than that, the way of life
surrounding us is built on recognition not just of the permissibility, but of
the legality of the lowest and crudest forms of sin.
We are especially concerned for
our children, our youth, who are growing up in this environment. It is very
difficult for them to grow up as “sons of God,” when they are surrounded by a
way of life founded on unbelief and a denial of all the basic principles of the
Christian faith and of the family. We have therefore indicated to our pastors
that they should devote special attention to instructing their flocks in family
living. For children to be able to grow up as sons of God’s Kingdom, the
parents’ educational efforts must begin from the time their children are still
in the mother’s womb. Even unbelieving doctors now recognize that this period
is very significant for the child’s future development. Parents should nourish
their children from their earliest years with good and holy impressions,
themselves providing an example of prayer and virtue, so that sin and
immorality will be something foreign to them and will not attract them, but, on
the contrary, will repel them. They should remember that their children, when
they reach adulthood, will bring them joy and comfort only to the measure of
that good which was instilled in their hearts by their family. For this reason
pastors should constantly instruct both parents and children, and in
conjunction with that be concerned with the establishment of church schools and
the attraction of young parishioners from childhood on to active participation
in church life.
It is good to attract to oneself
young souls, if they are not poisoned by evil exemplified as something
permissible and even positive. Let pastors and parents see to it that their
children see and know examples of good in the saints and in the efforts of
great men. It is especially necessary persistently to teach them to love truth
and to turn away from all kinds of falsehood.
Falsehood has now acquired
special strength, having deeply penetrated into people’s consciousness. Alas,
those who disseminate it are not just political activists, who consider
everything permissible to obtain power, but also representatives of various religions.
A clear manifestation of this was the Sixth Assembly of the World Council of
Churches, which met in Vancouver at almost the same time as the sessions of our
Council.
In its decision of 28 July/10
August our Council explained that the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia
does not participate in the World Council of Churches since the latter attempts
to represent those assembled in it, representatives of confessions differing in
their opinions, as though they had some sort of unity in their faith. In
reality, though, this position is a lie, inasmuch as they, members of various
confessions and sects, have not given up their points of disagreement with each
other, much less with the Orthodox Church, in dogmas and in fundamental
attitudes. In the name of unifying formulas these differences of opinion are
not removed, but are just set aside. Instead of the unshakable truths of the
faith, they try to see only opinions, not obligatory for anyone. In reply to
the confession of the one Orthodox Faith they say together with Pilate: “What
is truth?” And the nominally Orthodox members of the Ecumenical Movement more
and more deserve the reproach to the Angel of the Church of Laodicea: “I know
your works.... you are neither hot nor cold; O, if only you were hot or cold”
(Apoc. 3:15).
A clear manifestation of such
false union was the serving of the so-called Lima liturgy, i.e. a supposed
eucharistic service, performed by the Archbishop of Canterbury and various
Protestant pastors. This liturgy, composed at a conference in Lima, is supposed
to return its participants to the beginnings of the ancient Orthodox liturgy,
but without the chief thing: unconditional faith in the transformation of the
bread and wine into the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ and the
necessity of its being performed only by a celebrant having the apostolic
succession.
In describing this liturgy, the
magazine Newsweek for August 22, 1983 wrote: “Facing the altar was a
multi-racial congregation of 3,500 Christians from every corner of the earth,
including Roman Catholic priests and bearded Orthodox bishops, who not long ago
would have shunned such a service.” According to a report of the Ecumenical
Press Service on August 4, during the Archbishop of Canterbury’s celebration of
the Lima liturgy, the Orthodox and the Catholics did not receive communion, but
did participate in common prayer. Archbishop Kirill (of the Moscow Patriarchate)
pronounced a prayer that “we might soon attain visible unity in the Body of
Christ by blessing the bread and cup on this same altar.”
The Greek Archbishop Iakovos
served a separate liturgy on the day of the Transfiguration (N.S.) at which,
according to reports we have received, Communion was given out without
sufficient discrimination not only to the Orthodox, but also to others who approached
the chalice.
Thus we see with grief that the
process of the increase in practice of the heresy of Ecumenism among Orthodox
Christians, of which we warned our brethren in our Sorrowful Epistles, has not
stopped, but is even growing. The development of an interdenominational
understanding of Baptism, the Eucharist, and the Priesthood in recent years has
been manifested in various so-called ecumenical services and was especially
clearly expressed in the Lima Accord and now in Vancouver. Our Council has
decisively condemned this manifestation and has ordered that an anathema of the
heresy of Ecumenism be added to the Rite of Orthodoxy.
In addition, any sort of
participation by Orthodox in prayer with non-Orthodox, and in particular
participation in common prayer at the so-called ecumenical Lima liturgy, is
strictly forbidden for Orthodox according to the 45th and 46th canons of the
Holy Apostles, and subjects them to excommunication from the Church. The 32nd
and 33rd canons of the Council of Laodicea particularly forbid the reception of
bread and wine blessed by non-Orthodox clerics and joint prayer with them. The
famous Russian canonist, Bishop John of Smolensk, writes in his commentary on
the 46th canon of the Holy Apostles, “In general the Apostolic Canons indicate
one basis for rejecting heretical religious rites: the fact that in a heresy
there cannot be the true priesthood, but only a pseudo-priesthood. This is so
because with the separation of the heterodox from the Church, the apostolic
succession of their holy orders ceases, for one thing, and along with this the
succession of the gifts of grace from the Holy Spirit in the mystery of orders
is also cut off; and consequently the ministers of a heresy, as ones not having
grace in themselves, cannot convey it to others, and as they have not received
a lawful right to perform the mysteries, so they cannot make true and salvific
the rites performed by them.”
In all the activities of the
Vancouver Assembly a lively part was played by a very large delegation of the
Moscow Patriarchate, which extensively uses the World Council of Churches for
Soviet propaganda. The latter directs its efforts toward spreading lies about a
supposed freedom of the Church in the USSR and, under the guise of defending
peace, to hindering the arming of those countries which might be able to
prevent the spread of Communism in the West. Moscow church delegates speak out
on a large scale in defense of pro-Communist movements, but in no way permit
anyone to accuse the Soviets of persecuting religion.
Thus, as a consequence of the
opposition of the Moscow delegation, the petition from Deacon Vladimir Rusak,
who has written a book about the difficult position of the persecuted Church in
the USSR, was not allowed to be read to the Assembly. For his book he was
dismissed from church service and called to account by the KGB. In vain did he
hope to call the attention of the Assembly to the persecution of the Church in
his homeland. While speaking long and loud about the defense of the interests
of various leftist political groups, these Assemblies from year to year have
remained deaf to the cries of the real and most numerous victims of atheism.
There is no doubt that this
occurs in large measure as a result of the fact that they do not want to hear
any voice from Russia but that of the Moscow Patriarchate, which, however, says
only what it is told to say by the enemies of all religion through the organs
of the KGB. A special resolution of the Council of Bishops was also issued on
this subject, referring to a scandalous incident: the directions of the Moscow
Synod to serve pannychidas for the atheist and persecutor of the Church,
Brezhnev, who died last year, and whose actions Patriarch Pimen blasphemously
called “pleasing to God.” In the prescription for serving pannykhidas for him
it was indicated that he should not be called “servant of God,” which he most
certainly was not. However, everyone must have felt uncomfortable in offering
any sort of prayers for the repose in the Kingdom of Heaven of a person who
denied the very existence of that Kingdom. Thus, violation of church canons to
please the atheists unavoidably leads to hypocrisy. This Council observed that
whatever Brezhnev might be called, pannykhidas for him contain an internal
contradiction, hypocrisy, and falsehood. They are an unforgivable blasphemy.
It would seem that the whole
world, especially the Orthodox world, should have trembled with indignation in
view of such blasphemy, but, alas, everyone is silent, while an unconditional
statement of protest has come only from our Council.
In view of such indifference to
the truth and of increasing modernism, a significant number of Orthodox pastors
and faithful have turned to our hierarchs in order to preserve genuine
Orthodoxy and the course of Church life, sanctified by age-old tradition, in
accordance with the Orthodox calendar established by the First Ecumenical
Council.
Thus our Church has been enriched
by new children and continues to be enriched not only by Greeks devoted to the
faith, but also by parishes torn away from the Russian Church in recent decades
into the unlawful American autocephaly and now returning to its bosom. For many
of them this decision was not easily made and has been associated with great
sacrifices. We rejoice in their love for the truth and how we wish that all the
children of our Church would conduct their religious life with as much zeal as
these new ones who quite recently have come to know the truth and have attached
themselves to it.
While those of different
nationality and previous culture who have joined our Church may sometimes pose
one pastoral problem or another, we view this calmly, remembering that before
the face of God there is neither Greek nor Jew, Russian, American, or any other
sort of distinction according to origin. All are felt to be our beloved
children who have a common goal: to preserve unharmed the faith of the holy
fathers and to save their souls, whatever might be the external conditions
surrounding us.
We live in the same world, and
for all of us there are the same dangers and temptations from the apostasy that
has engulfed the whole world, i.e. turning away from God and the Church, about
which the Apostle Paul warned the faithful in his Second Epistle to the
Thessalonians.
Many now note signs of the
approaching end of the world. Some scientists already are viewing this as a
likely possibility for the worn-out and so-to-say “aging” world, guessing when
it might happen. Others are studying the prophecies of the Sacred Scriptures
and, applying them to the course of current political life, foresee the
imminent occurrence of worldwide crises and of the last days. However, the
times and seasons are not yet revealed to us. The Lord only warned us about
certain manifestations in the world which would precede its end, telling us,
“Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in My name, saying, I
am Christ; and shall deceive many” (Matt. 24:4-5).
Now to various obvious false
messiahs there are added reports of the birth and preparation of a more serious
claimant to the position of Universal King and False Messiah. We still cannot
affirm anything positively except that the signs have appeared according to
which one can anticipate the appearance of the “Son of Perdition” in a period
of history that is very near or even in the next few years, after the
unification of the whole world under one world government.
But it is not without cause that
in the ways of His Providence the Lord does not reveal them fully to us. For us
it is enough to know that we have already entered a period of history when the
relatively imminent appearance of the Antichrist is very probable. And this
means that we must be spiritually prepared for it.
What does such readiness mean? It
means working to strengthen one’s spiritual powers so as to develop the
capability of resisting the Antichrist’s temptations. Many of these temptations
— in the sense of a weakening of faith, divinization of mankind, betrayal of
faith in the one, true Church for the sake of a humanistic religious unity in a
pseudo-church — are already before us, preparing even Orthodox Christians for a
readiness to follow the ways of the Antichrist.
But what can we do besides just
observing the signs of the times? We must develop in ourselves, in our flocks,
in all Orthodox families a firm faith in the fact that the Lord has given us
the good fortune to belong to the one, true Church, which, as at the very
beginning of its existence, is not defined by being a minority of the believers
on earth, but which, although a minority, is made up only of people who are
faithful and devoted to this true Church. This is not an easy task, and it
demands firm faith, spiritual strength, and devotion to the Truth in the midst
of a surrounding world which is alien to Christ.
In the face of the temptations
which already exist and confront us, we must direct all our spiritual and
mental powers to being ready for any trials. We are helped in this preparation
by the expectation of the imminent (in five years) celebration of the thousandth
anniversary of the Baptism of Russia. By renewing in our minds and hearts those
principles of piety which Prince St. Vladimir planted in Russia, we will try to
restore them in our daily lives, with the hope that the Lord will permit us to
take them back to our homeland so that we can be reunited with that portion of
Holy Russia which, despite all deceit and persecution, has continued to exist
there in however small a number.
The Lord has granted us so far to
live in freedom, in no way externally constrained and in no way restricted in
our spiritual life, except by our lack of faith and our laziness. To avoid
being contaminated by the swamp of sin and vice which surrounds us, we must
spiritually rouse ourselves.
In an inspired and ardent report
to the Council on the necessity of a spiritual rebirth, the Most Reverend
Archbishop Vitaly wrote: “Our whole flock is already in communion with the
grace of the Holy Spirit through all the Mysteries; we need only stir that fire
into flame by all the means available for pastoral work, and do everything we
possibly can to be, in the words of the Apostle Paul, all things to all men, so
that some might be saved. As concrete measures we must persuade the faithful to
abandon the old practice of communing of the Holy Mysteries only once a year,
if any are still holding to that less-than-praiseworthy custom. We must
convince all our pastors themselves to pray before performing the Mystery of
Holy Confession that the Lord might grant them the gift of love, wisdom,
compassion, and mercy. We must show all our flock the necessity of praying,
too, before coming to confession that the Lord would grant them the gift of the
Holy Spirit, true repentance, the gift of emotion and contrition for their
sins, the gift of tears which wash our souls with the water of a second
Baptism, which is what confession should be, and not a passing recitation of
one’s sins.”
Along with this, we ask all our
spiritual children to refrain from being easily attracted into the sin of
judging each other, and especially their pastors. The latter action is often
provoked by the many enemies of our Church, who long ago chose the center of
our church administration — the Synod of Bishops selected by the whole Council
of Bishops — as the object of their especially bitter attacks. In doing this
they do not quibble at any sort of falsehood and slander, hoping thereby to
undermine the authority and importance of our center which they hate. Do not
believe false rumors, remembering that they are often circulated, sometimes
even under the appearance of a defense of the truth, by enemies of the Orthodox
Church, behind whom stand Soviet agents and secret supporters of the Moscow
Patriarchate.
In encouraging us and reminding
us of His love and care for us, the Lord has recently sent us a miraculous
manifestation: the myrrh-streaming Iveron icon of the Mother of God, before
which we also prayed during the Council, observing the miraculous manifestation
of an abundant flow of fragrant myrrh from it. Thus the All-pure Theotokos
again manifests her care for us, which we have seen in the course of all these
years through our marvelous Odigitria as well — her wonder-working Kursk-Root
icon.
We recognize that the world
stands before an historically unprecedented danger of unbelievable upheavals
and misfortunes, and shall draw strength and encouragement for ourselves from
this marvelous manifestation and, along with this, prepare ourselves by means
of the penitent labor of piety for the joys or trials which it may please God
to send us.
Above all, though, let us labor
not to let ourselves be swallowed by the evil which is growing in the world
around us. The question now is ever more frequently and sharply posed before
each person: To whom does he wish to belong: to Christ or to the devil?
According to which principles will he live: Christian or anti-Christian?
We ask you, our spiritual
children, without wavering or fearing anything, to give within yourselves an
Orthodox answer to these questions and to choose the bright way of a virtuous
life; and having chosen it, bravely to follow it, so that we might all freely
attain the Kingdom of God.
May God’s grace and the prayers
and examples of the valiant Russian New Martyrs help us all in this!
Chairman of the Council of Bishops
+Metropolitan Philaret
Members of the Council:
Seraphim, Archbishop of Chicago-Detroit and Middle
America
Athanasius, Archbishop of Buenos-Aires and Argentina-Paraguay
Vitaly, Archbishop of Montreal and Canada
Anthony, Archbishop of Los Angeles and Southern California
Anthony, Archbishop of Geneva and Western Europe
Anthony, Archbishop of San Francisco and Western America
Seraphim, Archbishop of Caracas and Venezuela
Paul, Archbishop of Sydney and Australia-New Zealand
Laurus, Archbishop of Syracuse and Holy Trinity Monastery
Constantine, Bishop of Richmond and Britain
Gregory, Bishop of Washington and Florida
Mark, Bishop of Berlin and Germany
Alypy, Bishop of Cleveland
Source: Orthodox Life, Vol. 33, No. 6,
November-December 1983, pp. 11-18.
