The Fallen Stars of the Orthodox Churches

Metropolitan Agafangel, First Hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad

September 22, 2025

 

The stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken. (Matt. 24:29)

In our rapidly changing time—a time of forgetting spiritual values, being destroyed in the crucible of universal globalization—among that which has been lost is the former authority of the Orthodox Church. Unfortunately, this sorrowful loss has become a natural consequence of the process of falling away from the patristic heritage, which has continued for more than a century now, and of the steadily advancing pan-ecclesiastical crisis.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the richest and most numerous Russian Orthodox Church, after the fall of the Autocracy, found itself completely deprived of the administrative support which it had enjoyed for centuries. The Church, unfortunately, proved unprepared for this change. Its most faithful representatives were forced to go into an illegal “catacomb” existence—which was the only correct decision under those circumstances—but many, unfortunately, began to seek protection from the new communist, God-fighting regime.

The Fallen Star of the Moscow Patriarchate

As a result, the poison of Sergianism and Ecumenism, introduced by the God-fighters into the enclosure of the “legal” Church, over the years completely changed the very essence of “official” Russian Orthodoxy, which lost not only its inner but even its outward signs of the patristic true faith. At present, the Moscow Patriarchate has openly revealed itself not as a Church bearing the peace of Christ, but as a community that propagates and cultivates war and murder, which has become the natural result of its merger with the communist state. The present patriarchate has no true Patriarch—no voice of its own and no Christian, concerned word regarding the mass killings taking place—and yet this has always been the duty and obligation of the Church, even from the time of John the Baptist, who rebuked the unrighteousness of King Herod. The fall of the part of the Russian Orthodox Church formerly under the administration of Metropolitan Sergius became akin to the fall from the spiritual firmament of a faded star, like the fall of Lucifer—the fallen Angel cast down from the Kingdom of God.

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Unlike the New Martyrs and Confessors, Sergius Stragorodsky possessed a weakness that was unpardonable for his position—he could not resist external force and, at the decisive moment, yielded to it. Thus, much earlier, “during the arrest of His Holiness Patriarch Tikhon, he betrayed Orthodoxy and became a Renovationist. After the unexpected release of Patriarch Tikhon, Metropolitan Sergius ‘repented,’ but, as the Optina elder Nektary expressed concerning him, ‘the poison remained in him’” (Ivan Andreyev, The Russian Church Abroad and the Catacomb Church in Soviet Russia). What is this poison of which the Optina elder spoke? From the Gospel perspective—it is lack of faith, expressed in fainthearted actions. The fruit of the poisonous tares sown by the devil in the hearts of men includes, among other things, the possibility that any one of us might waver in the face of mortal danger and, thus, deny Christ (as Peter did, denying Him three times out of fear). No one can know how he would act in the face of inescapable peril. Sergius Stragorodsky gave in—and not merely gave in and then repented (as Peter did), but gave in and became the slave of the one to whom he yielded. That is, within his soul was already the spiritual poison (the diabolical element, or the “leaven of malice”), the bitter and poisonous fruit of which eventually became the heresy of Sergianism (so named after him). It is not fearful to make a mistake, or even to act faintheartedly—what is fearful is to fail to repent of it afterward. Even more fearful is to attempt to justify one’s faintheartedness. But the most dreadful of all is to make an idol out of the one before whom one fell, for the sake of one’s own justification and well-being. This is a full and final fall through the breaking of one’s personhood—which is the direct opposite of repentance.

In 1943, Stalin decided to make a part of the Orthodox Church under the administration of Sergius Stragorodsky into an instrument for identifying the “anti-communist element” within the country (including the discovery of catacomb dwellers and anti-Soviet individuals—which is evident from now-declassified denunciations written by clergy of the Moscow Patriarchate and accessible in the archives), and, on the other hand, into an inseparable part of the deceitful Soviet propaganda throughout the world. And he did so.

The Fallen Star of the Constantinople Patriarchate

The Church of Constantinople followed a different path. After the fall of the Russian Empire and the cessation of financial support by the Russian Emperor to the Local Churches, the Patriarchate of Constantinople, together with certain other Greek patriarchs, inclined toward the side of the Freemasons and began to promote their directives.

It should be noted that the goal of secret Masonic societies has always been the seizure of both civil power as a whole and control over major, key spheres of life. The main focus of the Masons’ actions, as they themselves define it, is the struggle—supposedly—against totalitarianism, that is, against any singular authority, whether monarchs or dictators. Freemasonry is a collegial authority of a group of people who rule, as it were, “from the shadows,” putting forth from their group this or that ruler—president, chairman, or other leader—along with his close circle, who not so much govern independently as they carry out the instructions of the Masonic lodge in the interests of that lodge. In this way, despite the changing of presidents, the same secret group of people always remains in power. There exist several major Masonic lodges, and they conduct rather fierce competition among themselves—in the end, likely, the one from whose ranks the Antichrist shall emerge will prevail.

Based on their goal—to achieve world domination—the Freemasons are leading humanity toward globalism. They have no need for strong states, since they seek monopoly power solely for their group, beyond the boundaries of nation-states. Religions and national—even small—entities, as well as individual strong and independent leaders, stand in the way of the global power of the Freemasons and must be eliminated. A grey mass of people without nationality or religion, fully controlled, and a group of Freemasons at the head of this mass—that is the goal of the coming world government—both communist and Masonic. The elite, the nomenklatura—own and enjoy everything, while ordinary people are slaves serving the elite, whose number must be minimal—only enough to maintain the functioning of society (so that they eat and breathe less, until they are all replaced by machines).

Ecumenism—the abolition of all religions through their mixing—is one of the principal conditions for the establishment of the power of the world government. Therefore, possessing money and resources, the Freemasons incline both Christians and representatives of other religions toward unification, for the sake of ultimately establishing their control over the resulting amorphous pseudo-religious environment.

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It is known that the highest hierarchs of the Church of Constantinople were Freemasons. Patriarch Meletius (Metaxakis) of Constantinople entered the Masonic lodge “Harmony” in 1910, as was reported in 1935, upon his death, by the Masonic journal Pythagore — Equerre. His successors were also Freemasons—there is sufficient factual material on this in publicly available sources on the internet. Moreover, even his becoming Patriarch was quite noteworthy. In 1921, Metropolitan Germanos (Karavangelis) was lawfully elected Patriarch of Constantinople (with 16 out of 17 episcopal votes). However, Freemasons from the lodge “National Defense” intervened and persuaded him, for $100,000, to renounce the post in favor of Meletius. This he did, intending, according to his own words, to remedy the Church’s catastrophic financial condition at the time. Incidentally, Metropolitan Evlogy (Georgievsky) found himself in a similar situation—he supported certain decisions at the Councils of ROCOR, but upon his arrival in Paris, the Freemasons on whom he was financially dependent inclined him toward entirely opposite actions.

At the initiative of the Freemasons, the Patriarchate of Constantinople held in 1923 the so-called “Pan-Orthodox” Congress, the main actors of which were those same Freemasons, headed by Metropolitans Meletius and Basil (Georgiadis). The Congress set as its goal the introduction into the Church's enclosure of destructive and foreign-to-the-Church principles—under the pretense, supposedly, of renewing and improving the Church. And they achieved their main goal—they brought division into the Church’s enclosure in the form of the “new” calendar, and along with it introduced the ecumenist heresy. Since then, Constantinople has been at the forefront in the promotion of the heresy of Ecumenism, which renders it fallen from patristic Orthodoxy, and with it, from the teaching of Christ. The Patriarchate of Constantinople is yet another star fallen from the spiritual Heaven.

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The Russian Freemasons, who found themselves in emigration after the 1917 coup and were rejected by the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad, gathered around Metropolitan Evlogy (Georgievsky), and he was in complete dependence upon them. He himself and his followers, the Evlogians, always wavered between their conscience and the Moscow and Constantinople Patriarchates. And these wavering continue to this day.

The Earthly Battle of the Fallen Stars

In our days, as never before, two forces of Masonic origin have clashed in fierce opposition—on one side, the “Soviet power,” which was Masonic in its roots and later transformed into a communist dictatorship, along with the Stalinist Moscow Patriarchate and its undying dream of world domination; and on the other side, Masonic Europe with the Patriarchate of Constantinople under its control. Moreover, the war is a real one, currently unfolding—as people now say—in its hybrid form. The Kremlin, recognizing its grave failure—the catastrophic lack of Soviet agents in the leadership of the Patriarchate of Constantinople—is now hastily filling this gap through the FSB’s deployment of infiltrators such as Kuraev, Uminsky, and many other “cadres,” who have loudly or quietly (each in their own way) “transferred” from the MP to the CP. If the need arises, I believe Hilarion Alfeyev will also be “transitioned” and sent there on a special assignment. Meanwhile, the CP is asserting itself on today’s main battlefield—Ukraine—where popular anger is entirely against the FSB agents in cassocks, together with Patriarch Kirill. After the end of military operations, on the remaining Kyiv-controlled territory, the Moscow Patriarchate in any form will most likely no longer exist at all, since all of its high-ranking representatives are Kremlin agents—something that is already clear to everyone, everywhere.

To great sorrow, this fierce confrontation has resulted in the deepest discrediting not so much of these now-political organizations—the Moscow and Constantinople Patriarchates—but, unfortunately, of the Orthodox Church as a whole, since people who possess a conscience, seeing their deeds, consciously or unconsciously extend their perception to all of Orthodoxy. Thus, the “gun” of the Moscow Patriarchate, loaded many years ago by the Soviet regime with falsehood, heresy, and lies, has only now truly “fired.” And this shot has proven, most likely, to be fatal for the Orthodox Churches of the Slavic peoples.

Now, in Ukraine, for example, the authority of the Orthodox Church has been completely and, possibly, irreversibly lost—gazing with sorrow upon what is taking place here, one is compelled to acknowledge this as a fact. In the Russian Federation it is even worse—the Moscow Patriarchate has been entirely transformed into an ideological instrument of a criminal regime. In the post-Soviet space, it has assumed a role not even of the ruling Communist Party of the USSR (it has not risen that high), but rather that of the Leninist Komsomol decorated with orders—organizer of processions instead of May Day demonstrations, and an obedient servant, always replying “yes” when the authorities say “it must be done.”

The Results of the Earthly Struggle

The result of the interactions between the Moscow and Constantinople Churches has been the complete marginalization of Orthodoxy as such—even openly before the eyes of the entire world. This, of course, can bring no joy. It is a great tragedy for all of us, which is undoubtedly part of the broader context of the fall and apostasy of the last times. The “official churches” today no longer even resemble the mystical, grace-filled Body of Christ, which transfigures and saves souls, but rather resemble a peculiar kind of socio-political organization with elements of cult and brainwashing. Only the outward form remains, without inner content—there are no hierarchs, no clergy, no laity as there once were, for example, in ROCOR, and most importantly, there is a complete absence of grace-filled Orthodox substance. Naturally and inevitably, it is also the case, sadly, that no one notices this fall—those who would have been capable of noticing it have almost entirely vanished from our sinful earth. This sorrowful conclusion, of course, is my personal opinion and in no way claims infallibility. I would be very glad to be mistaken—especially in this case.

There is no doubt that in the Slavic and Greek Orthodox Churches, among both clergy and laity, there are many believers and Christians Orthodox in spirit, who, through their ignorance, voluntarily submit to the higher ecclesiastical authority that long ago and knowingly betrayed Christ. This is a tragedy for faithful people who have lost true shepherds and who obediently follow spiritually blind guides. Of course, the Lord will justly render to each according to his faith and deeds, but “woe to that man by whom the offence cometh” (Matt. 18:7). Those who call themselves Christians, especially from among the clergy, must never forget that by bearing that very name, we point to Christ, and all our unseemly words and deeds—those who see and hear them will, willingly or unwillingly, associate them with the Savior Himself. One must remember this and give no cause for stumbling to our brethren—or to anyone at all.

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Besides these and other stars fallen from the firmament, there exists a considerable number of small sects, including those who call themselves “fragments,” who were never able to become stars in the first place—and for that reason, cannot fall lower than they already are. Many of them have, practically, already died out. Having chosen self-enclosure, they condemned themselves to a ruinous end of their existence here on earth, and to an inglorious fate in the age to come. The very act of calling oneself a “fragment” is equivalent to calling oneself a sect. That which is whole cannot have fragments. And in a sect, there is no salvation.

The Church in the Wilderness

Indeed, the Orthodox Church has remained on our sinful earth in the form of its remnant—the “little flock”—and has “fled into the wilderness,” hidden from many eyes, according to the promise of the Savior and the testimony of Scripture: “The dragon [the devil] was wroth with the woman [the Church], and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ” (Rev. 12:17). “And the woman [the Church] fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God” (Rev. 12:6). Today, the true Church of Christ—the gate of the Heavenly Kingdom—is hidden; one will not hear of her through the mass media, but the words of the Savior remain unshakable, as He awaits the last laborers of the eleventh hour: “The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force” (Matt. 11:12).

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In our sorrowful days, the words of the Holy Martyr Tsar Nicholas II have been fulfilled—“all around is treason, cowardice, and deceit.” Now it is all around Christ.

 

 

Russian source: 

http://internetsobor.org/index.php/stati/avtorskaya-kolonka/mitropolit-agafangel-upavshie-zvjozdy-pravoslavnykh-tserkvej