Ignoring Serious Spiritual Questions [2006]

 Ignoring Serious Spiritual Questions [2006]

Protopriest George Primak, Dean of the ROCOR in Canada

Since none of our hierarchs or primates of blessed memory have stated that there is no grace in the MP, we are being persuaded that this means that there is grace there. This is a very strange approach to a very important question. It would be much more logical and convincing to indicate when and where it was said or written that there is full grace there. If our hierarchs believed that there is full grace there, then why did they categorically refuse to have Eucharistic communion with a grace-filled Church? Most likely, it was neither said nor written anywhere that there is full grace there. Moreover, one can find personal statements from our hierarchs that point to something entirely opposite.

Our Church does not have prayerful communion with the Churches that have adopted the new style, but I do not recall our hierarchs ever calling them graceless. Let us think: perhaps our primates and hierarchs of blessed memory gave us an example of great humility, considering themselves unworthy to decide on the matter of grace in the MP? In the same spirit, Metropolitan Cyprian of the Greek Old Calendar Church expressed himself when asked his opinion about the grace in the new calendar Greek Church. He replied: "Who am I to decide this matter? This will be decided in the future at an Ecumenical Council of the true Orthodox Churches; but in the meantime, we avoid any prayerful communion with them." I invite all those who are striving to persuade us about the grace in the MP to follow the example of humility set by our primates and ask themselves: Am I worthy to decide that it exists, and do I have convincing evidence to so zealously persuade my brethren of this?

Our hierarchs have probably asked themselves the question: Could the appointees of the Soviet authorities—godless individuals, unbelievers in God's grace—receive grace, even if they underwent proper ordination?

Unfortunately, we are kept in the dark regarding the negotiations about prayerful communion with the Moscow Patriarchate. We, the clergy of our Church, have not the slightest idea what was decided during these negotiations. We do know, however, that the ROCOR commission adopted the position of the MP, namely, that the actions of Metropolitan Sergius were a "feat of service." This appears deeply regrettable, as just a decade ago, for those involved in this very commission, these actions were considered a betrayal of the Church of Christ! Negotiations of this sort, where truth is distorted to appease opponents, seem more political than ecclesiastical.

If servile obedience to the Soviet authorities and the submissive execution of orders from secret agencies is considered a feat of service, does this mean that our Russian Orthodox Church Abroad now regards the refusal to serve them by the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia as a mistake? Then for what were they glorified? And when the Moscow Patriarchate declares Metropolitan Sergius a saint, will our Church also commemorate him alongside the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia?

In May 2005, Patriarch Alexy II congratulated the President of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam on the 30th anniversary of the victory over the American army, which had tried to defend South Vietnam from the communists seeking to enslave it. And he wished God's help to the Vietnamese government. Does this not appear as a congratulation from one communist leader to another?

And in September, Patriarch Alexy awarded the Muslim leader of Azerbaijan the Order of St. Sergius of Radonezh, First Class.

A congratulation to a communist leader and the awarding of a Muslim—is this not a warning to us from the Lord? As if He is reminding us:

"Dear children, be careful; you have no idea with whom you wish to associate!"

One of the representatives of our clergy, who today advocates for prayerful communion with the MP, wrote in 1994:

"Why are talks with the MP dangerous at this time? They can cause a deep division among our clergy and flock (which is happening at this very moment). Protopriest Lev Lebedev believes that the corruption within the MP episcopate is too profound, and there is no sincerity in it. Priest Timothy Alferov, while still in the MP, warned us that dialogue with the MP hierarchy is impossible. I. Lapkin warned that the final death for the Russian Church would come when the MP complies with all the demands of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad: renounces Metropolitan Sergius' declaration, canonizes the New Martyrs, withdraws from the World Council of Churches, and leaves ecumenism. And all this without internal regeneration—everything good would be done as a political maneuver, and then the ROCOR would have no grounds not to sit at the negotiating table. And then, by majority vote, the truth will be suppressed."

Is it not clear how right I. Lapkin was? Is what he foresaw twelve years ago not happening today?

The above-mentioned clergyman of the ROCOR, now a supporter of union, wrote in 1998 in a letter to the editor of the newspaper Rus’ Pravoslavnaya under the title "To Be on the Side of the Persecuted and Suffering":

"His Holiness Patriarch Tikhon, the last Patriarch recognized by all Russian Orthodox Christians, anathematized the Bolsheviks. Moreover, he placed a ban on all those who entered into communion with them: 'We also adjure all of you, faithful children of the Orthodox Church of Christ, not to enter into any communion with such outcasts of the human race.' If His Holiness Patriarch Tikhon placed a ban on all those entering into communion with the godless authorities, and Metropolitan Sergius did precisely that in his Declaration, does this ban not extend to the Moscow Patriarchate to this day? Did and does Patriarch Tikhon's anathema hold real meaning and power? And what about his ban? By whom were these anathemas and bans lifted? These are serious spiritual questions, and a Russian Orthodox Christian cannot ignore them."

Today, in our Church, precisely what this clergyman called the unacceptable ignoring of serious spiritual questions is taking place.

Source: Наша страна [Our Country], No. 2791.