Epistles of the 1976 Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia

September, 1976

 

The triennial meeting of the world-wide episcopate of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia took place in New York City from September 16/29 to September 28/October 11, 1976. No important decrees were made, but two significant Epistles were approved, one to the Orthodox Russian people in the Diaspora, and another to the Russian people in the Homeland. Signed by Metropolitan Philaret and 17 bishops, they offer an ideological statement of the position of the Russian Church Outside of Russia in today’s world. In their anti-ecumenism and their support for the Catacomb True Orthodox Church of Russia, the documents are virtually unique among Orthodox statements today.

Excerpts are here presented from these documents — rather less than half of the first document, but more than half of the second; the headings have been added by the translators. (Russian texts in Orthodox Russia, Oct. 15 and Nov. 1, 1976.)

 

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I. TO THE GOD-BELOVED FLOCK OF THE DIASPORA

The world today does not present a comforting picture. It becomes ever more difficult to live in this world for any kind of Christian soul that strives to be faithful to Christ and to follow the Gospel of Christ. Despite the dream of those who have become used to looking at everything through rose-colored glasses and expect in the future a change for the better, the darkness over the earth becomes ever thicker, as was prophesied by the clairvoyant ascetics of the last decades. The world clearly and without doubt rolls into-the abyss on a sloping surface, ever more speeding up its pace. And sensitive souls already feel the approach of the last times... Never has the world experienced what it is experiencing today. Of course, before the world-wide flood, and before the coming to earth and incarnation of the Son of God, the world had become corrupted to the extreme. But what is happening now is incomparably more frightful and ruinous. Then it was the pagan world that became corrupted -- and it was saved from spiritual perdition by Christianity, which gave to it rebirth for a new life; but now it is the Christian world that is being corrupted -- and what is there that can spiritually give rebirth to it and save it?

It seems, indeed, that never has evil presented itself before mankind in such a hideous, shameless nakedness; never before has it striven so insolently and stubbornly to subject to itself the whole world, the whole human race; and most important, never before has it so cunningly and temptingly put on the mask of good so as to seduce, If possible, even the elect (Matt. 24:24).

The holy Apostle Paul in his Epistles has warned that before the approach of the end of the world there will occur the falling away (in Greek, apostasia). The world will step away from the Truth, from the Gospel of Christ in the dogmatic realm, and from Christian conceptions in the moral realm; it will be submerged in the abyss of religious errors and ignorance, and likewise of an extreme corruption and the loss of all moral principles and foundations. This apostasy has already begun, it is occurring before our very eyes.

 

THE TEMPTATION OF ECUMENISM

Children of the Russian Church Outside of Russia! Look therefore carefully how ye walk (Eph. 5:15). In the midst of all these temptations, in the midst of the universal apostasy, guard your faith and your moral purity! One of the most dangerous temptations in the realm of religious errors is the temptation of ecumenism, that is, the teaching that speaks of the union of all beliefs into one, and by the seeming attractiveness of such a proposition draws toward itself an ever-greater number of human souls. The ecumenists say that every faith, every confession contains in itself a part of the truth, to which human errors have been added. If all these beliefs will unite together, there will appear the "true church," to which every separate confession will bring its part of the truth, and thus there will be formed the whole truth which this "true church" will possess. It is not difficult to see the falsity of such a proposition, according to which it would seem that the true Church is something that is only being sought, and that at the present time it nowhere exists on earth. But can an Orthodox Christian agree with this?

 

THE "ONE THING NEEDFUL"

The one thing needful is to make the Church the center of private and public life. When, in past years, on that part of the earth where now is to be found the monstrous "USSR," there was Holy Russia, a mighty Russia -- then the whole life of a Russian man was united with the teaching of the Church and the life of the Church. The simple Russian people measured the whole yearly course of their life not by the seasons of the year, but by the great church feasts. In the Orthodox Russian family, the pastor of the church was not only a dear, welcome and frequent guest; he was precisely a spiritual father and instructor, whose voice and counsel had an absolutely special and sometimes entirely decisive significance for the resolution of the problems of life. To such a life wherein the Church is the center we call you, our beloved children, our flock entrusted to us by God.

Here one must make a qualification and note that the negative manifestations spoken of above -- that is, the spread of the anti-orthodox ideology of ecumenism and the frightful decline of morals -- refer chiefly to the life of the non-Orthodox environment which now surrounds our Orthodox flock, which is scattered "over the face of the whole earth." The flock itself has only in part been touched by these corrupting, anti-orthodox and perverting manifestations. But they do exist, and unfortunately their activity becomes more and more noticeable. And in order to show a sufficiently powerful resistance and to place them against the bright Orthodox ideology and sound moral principles, probably the very best means is the direction of the whole life of our flock according to a strictly churchly, strictly Orthodox path -- in other words, making the Church the center of life.

 

THE CHURCH IN RUSSIA

Our Russian Church Outside of Russia, as is well known, is a part of the Russian Mother Church, its free part. Although we, in accordance with the testament of the ever-memorable, Most Blessed Metropolitan Anastassy, have no communion with the Soviet Patriarchate, we have never broken off with the Russian Church, our Mother Church. Therefore, the needs of the Russian Church are our needs, and the needs of our brethren who live under the heavy yoke of the God-hating regime are our needs. The believing people in our Homeland now are in extreme need of spiritual food, religious, moral and instructive literature, and it is our duty to help them in this.

[The Epistle ends with an appeal to support the work of the organization "Orthodox Action" in sending Orthodox literature to Russia.]

 

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II. TO THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE IN THE HOMELAND

Not easy is our path outside the boundaries of Russia. Those same atheists who are your whip do not leave us in peace either, through their secret agents and helpers abroad who act by means of lying and slander. Visiting the Eastern Orthodox Patriarchates or participating in the sessions of the Committee on Human Rights, at the assemblies of international organizations and the World Council of Churches, and at the Vatican, they use all efforts so as to overthrow our proofs concerning the rightlessness of believers in Russia.

Despite all this, we strive to go on the straight path shown to us by the founder of our church, Metropolitan Anthony of Kiev and his successor, Metropolitan Anastassy, although in this we are alone, even among the Orthodox. Never has the voice of our chief hierarchs been silent in defense of the Russian Church and the Russian people. But the alarm bell of our church up until now has not awakened the conscience of many.

Despite the efforts of militant atheism and the favorable conditions for them in the world, we know that Christ is unconquerable. Being persecuted, He cannot be uprooted from the hearts of men. "Who will separate us from the love of God," said the Apostle. "This is the victory which conquers the world, our Faith,” said, and say, the Martyrs. Let our consolation be the words of the Saviour: "Blessed are ye when men shall reproach you and persecute you and say all manner of evil against you falsely for My sake.”

This is why we wish to say to you:

 

TO THE CATACOMB CHURCH

Rejoice and be glad, new unconquerable martyrs of Russia, Metropolitans Peter, Cyril, Joseph and the millions martyred with you who now stand at the Throne of the Lord of Glory and pray for us! Be glad and rejoice, you who are alive now, invincible confessors of the Faith of Christ! We reverently bow down before your exploit and say to you as younger brothers: You are the light of the contemporary world which has gone astray in lies and sin; you are the salt of the earth; you are those "ten righteous ones” for whose sake the Lord endures our sins; you are the conquerors of him who brazenly thinks that all the kingdoms of the world and their glory are his, but he cannot conquer you! You are his ruin, but our hope, our glory, our victory!

We are in awe before your exploit, pastors of the contemporary Russian catacombs, pastors who have not sought legalization, who perform your service secretly from the prince of this world, with the blessing of your courageous hierarchs! You, O fathers and teachers, serve for us as a living example of uncompromisingness and courage! May God be your help!

 

TO THE PRIESTS OF THE MOSCOW PATRIARCHATE

We kiss the Cross which you also have taken upon yourself, O pastors who have found the courage and the power of spirit to be open accusers of the faintheartedness of your hierarchs who have capitulated to the atheists, to be fearless gatherers and instructors of those who seek spiritual food -- first of all, young people. We know of your exploit, we read about you, we read what you have written, we pray for you and ask your prayers for our flock in the Diaspora. Christ is in our midst! He is and shall be!

 

THE SPIRITUAL REVIVAL IN RUSSIA

The life of the Church continues even under the pressure of atheism, often taking, thanks to the pressure and violence, forms unusual in peaceful circumstances, breaking out through the bonds and chains into the freedom of spirit and the victory of the children of God!

With love we follow this process in our Homeland and rejoice over it. We know how difficult it is especially for young people, to find Christ after the atheist upbringing they have received in school. This is why they often waver between Orthodoxy, Roman Catholicism, and the sects. But Prince Vladimir, who renounced paganism at the end of the tenth century, did not waver. He became Orthodox, finding in Orthodoxy the true Faith, and he placed Russia upon the historical Orthodox path. We believe that if you will seek the truth freely, sincerely and honestly, you will go on his path.

 

THE PERIL OF ECUMENISM AND HETERODOXY

We know that among you some are attracted by so-called "ecumenism." We fully understand that the rightless and persecuted want to feel the support of a neighbor, of someone who is also a believer, even though in some other way. Against this one cannot object... But even under the best of mutual relations, there is still a boundary which an Orthodox Christian cannot cross, where the "holy of holies" of the true Faith begins. Here is what St. John of Kronstadt said in this regard eighty years ago: "In many Orthodox Christians the true Faith has been converted into indifference, indifference with regard to any faith, Roman Catholic, Lutheran, Jewish, Moslem, and even paganism. We hear that in every faith one can please God, that is, as if every faith were equally pleasing to God, and as if lying and truth, righteousness and unrighteousness can be indifferent for God."

We have good relations with the representatives of various confessions, but this does not mean that we are indifferent to the truths of the holy Faith. We not only strive ourselves to preserve this truth, but we bear it to those non-Orthodox who surround us, who often become zealous Orthodox. It is not for nothing that the Lord has dispersed us in the midst of all the peoples of the earth!

Seeking something that seems to them orderly, powerful, mighty and numerous, some believers among you think to find this in Roman Catholicism, and thus seek in "Papism" a refuge for their hopes. We know that Catholic-Uniate literature is being directed to you and, falling into the hands of the Orthodox, disturbs them.

But it is our duty to warn you that Roman Catholicism at the present time is undergoing a frightful crisis... It would have been impossible 20 or 30 years ago to imagine that spiritual chaos into which Roman Catholicism has now come, as we observed at the Vatican Council.

From one remote corner of Russia people write to us: "We live here under a barrage of sectarian literature," while Orthodox literature is impossible to obtain ... In the absence of Orthodox literature, when believers grasp for any kind of spiritual book as a hungry man for food, without discrimination or full understanding of the truth, it is easy for there to arise a false understanding of it, any kind of error, any kind of sectarianism. But each of you has not only a mind, which can easily go astray, but also a heart which, according to the word of our Saviour, if it is pure, can help a man to understand God -- Truth. Let the heart prompt the one in error and say that the age-old path of the Russian people was the Orthodox path, the path on which from the beginning the Holy Apostles went, and the great Hierarchs Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian, John Chrysostom, St. Nicholas of Myra, and a multitude of others, and all the Russian Saints. And if the sects appeared not earlier than the 16th or even the 17th century and later, let us ask: where was the true Church, established by Christ the Saviour, before their appearance, that is, before the 16th century?   

TO THE ATHEISTS

We wish also to address you, those who do not believe in God, who do not fear Him, to the active persecutors of Christians. "I am Jesus Whom thou persecutest. It is difficult for thee to go against the goad." Thus the Lord spoke to one persecutor of Christians, who later became His faithful disciple, the great Apostle Paul.

We wish to say the same to you! Already now for over fifty years you have striven to uproot Christ from the souls and hearts of men. The opportunities for this in your atheist State are unlimited. You use gigantic efforts in the battle against Christianity, and what have you accomplished? You yourselves complain that the believers cannot be uprooted, and that the battle against them is very difficult... "It is difficult for you to go against the goad," in the desire to annihilate what has been placed by God in the very nature of man, that is, faith in Him! The day and the hour will come for each of you, when you will say together with Julian the Apostate, "Thou hast conquered me, O Galilean!” And so that the hour of your enlightenment and salvation might come quickly, the faithful pray thus, "Remember, O Lord, all our enemies who hate us and offend us... and to those who have gone away from Thee and do not seek Thee may Thou be manifest, so that not one of them may perish, but all may be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth." (From the Prayer read at every Liturgy celebrated in the Russian Church Outside of Russia.)

 

Source: The Orthodox Word, Vol. 12, No. 5 (70), September-October 1976, pp. 160-166.