Archimandrite Alexis Pobjoy: The Move to Fili (2006)

By Father Alexis,  

Saint Edward Brotherhood, Brookwood, Surrey, U.K.

The decision of three communities formerly of the Russian Church Abroad in England to place themselves under the omophorion of Metropolitan Cyprian of Oropos and Fili, of the Synod in Resistance in Greece, has already received wide coverage in internet lists. 

The three former ROCA communities that have joined the Synod in Resistance are: 

a) the Convent of the Annunciation in London, which was founded by St John of Shanghai in 1954, and until 1999 was under the spiritual guidance of the Ever-Memorable Abbess Elisabeth (Ampenoff); 

b) Saint Edward Brotherhood founded in 1982 with the blessing of the Blessed and Ever-Memorable Metropolitan Philaret of New York and Eastern America, then First Hierarch of the ROCA;

c) the nascent Mission of St Boniface at Ryde on the Isle of Wight. 

The reasons for our leaving the Church Abroad were summarised in a letter which I wrote on 13th December (N.S.) last year, namely: “In all conscience, members of the Brotherhood do not feel that we can accept the present rapprochement. The question of Sergianism does not seem to have been adequately addressed, and the Moscow Patriarchate’s involvement in ecumenism seems to be growing, although they have made some concessions on paper. More fundamentally, our acceptance of this mode of rapprochement requires us to accept that the Patriarchate is, and has been for decades, the Mother Church of Russia - this is not something that we have ever been taught. One may claim that the MP is the de facto Church in Russia, that she is established, even flourishing - but, for a number of reasons, her canonical basis is not as firm as ROCA’s was until, in the last few years, she has decided to allow that to be questioned.” 

Having thought and prayed about our dilemma and written to ruling ROCA hierarchs without receiving substantial replies, on our own initiative we opened a correspondence with Bishop Ambrose of Methoni of the Fili Synod. On 23rd December / 5th January, I wrote to Archbishop Mark, asking for letters of dismissal so that we might join the Synod in Resistance. His Eminence replied on 9th January that he could not issue such letters, saying: “I cannot grant such letters of dismissal by which I would agree to you placing yourself outside the Orthodox Church.” As the Synod in Resistance had for many years been a Sister Church of ROCA, and there was no evidence that she had changed her confessional course, this response appeared to us to lack foundation and spiritual sobriety. 

I wrote to Archbishop Mark explaining why in all conscience we felt compelled to make this move: “Thank you very much indeed for your letter December 2, 2006 / January 9, 2007 (sic). We appreciate that you did not feel able to give our communities a blessing to seek spiritual protection under the omophorion of Metropolitan Cyprian of Oropos and Fili, but thank you for at least leaving the door open for us to leave, and not forbidding us to do so [His Grace wrote to us subsequently explaining that we had misinterpreted his letter and that he did not intend this kindness.]. 

"Personally, I could not understand your objection, that by placing ourselves under the Synod in Resistance we would be placing ourselves outside the Church. One of the decisive factors in our joining Fili was that until recently they were a Sister Church of the Church Abroad, that in 1994 the Council of Bishops of ROCOR published minutes of a meeting held on 28th June / 11th July, in which they stated that the ‘Synod of Metropolitan Cyprian adheres wholly to the exact same ecclesiological and dogmatic principles as our Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia,’ and you yourself praised the witness of the Synod in Resistance when you visited Brookwood, shortly after going to Fili in your efforts to sort out the troubles which ensued when the Prophet Elias Skete on Athos was snatched from us.…

“Again, I would like to thank you for your care in the past, and express our sorrow that in all conscience we feel unable to follow Your Grace and those with you into union with the present administration of the Moscow Patriarchate. We feel no sense of triumphalism over this move, but a sadness that the Church which we have tried faithfully to serve for years has changed her course to one which we do not recognise.” 

At the end of the Liturgy on Christmas Day, so that I would be able to reach the greatest number of parishioners, I announced the fact that we had applied to Archbishop Mark for letters of dismissal and our intention to seek the spiritual protection of the Synod in Resistance. 

It may be of interest to our readers to know why we left ROCA at this time - many others are contemplating leaving in May, when the Patriarch and Metropolitan Lavr sign the Act of Canonical Communion and concelebrate. However, the hierarchs’ decision has been made, and ROCA’s path ahead is clearly determined. Further, on a very practical point, Archbishop Mark’s decision to hold a Diocesan Conference in London in mid-January presented us with a problem: should we attend and risk throwing the whole meeting off course by announcing our decision, or remain silent and allow the participants to make plans which we knew would be jeopardised. It seemed best that we should leave, and allow the conference participants to plan their future course untrammelled. 

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I travelled to Greece just after the Orthodox celebration of Christmas and spent three days at the Sacred Monastery of Sts Cyprian and Justina at Fili. During my stay there, on 28th December / 10th January, the feast of the Twenty Thousand Martyrs of Nicomedia (so surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses) the three communities with two priests, Fr Stephen Fretwell and myself, were received into the jurisdiction of Metropolitan Cyprian. 

In doing this His Eminence Kyr Cyprian noted that “having received your letter of 5th January 2007 (N.S.) in which you request that you yourself, the Brotherhood in Brookwood, and the Convent in Willesden, which is under your spiritual care, be received into our diocese, on the grounds that you are unable to accept the incumbent union of the Russian Church Abroad with the Moscow Patriarchate, we inform you that we consider your request to be well-founded, and therefore that from today you are considered to be under the spiritual protection of our Metropolis. While we would have wished that this transfer could have taken place with the consent of your former bishop, this is not considered in this case essential, as the Russian Church Abroad has declared to us that it has severed all ecclesiastical ties with our Synod.” As a blessing, Metropolitan Cyprian gave me a monastic prayer rope, red in colour, as he pointed out - “the colour of blood.” 

During my stay at Fili, besides being able to join the monastic brotherhood there at their Divine Services and see the many obediences which the fathers engage in, and the enormous cathedral church that is being built alongside the monastery itself, I was taken to visit the Convent of the Holy Angels at Afidnai which is under the spiritual care of Abbess Taxiarchia. The church there, like the one at Fili, is still under construction, but the lower church is finished and is dedicated to St John of Shanghai. The sisters showed me their workrooms - in the iconography studio, they had just completed an icon of St Edward the Martyr! - and they introduced me to their flock of goats, their chickens and their dog. We were greatly heartened that on Sunday 1st / 14th January, the first Sunday on which we served on the antimension given us by Metropolitan Cyprian and commemorated him as our Metropolitan and father, a number of the Russian parishioners from the Convent of the Annunciation supported us by joining us at the Liturgy at Brookwood. 

In response to our move, Archbishop Mark issued a series of decrees on 3rd / 16th January, in which he suspended the clergy who had left him and forbade the monastics to receive Holy Communion in his churches. On the same day, he issued a decree assigning Fr Peter Baulk “to administer to the needs of the English-speaking parishioners in the Greater London area,” and promised the setting up of a ROCA English language parish in London after Pascha, when the lower church at Harvard Road is free. He also admonished his people to abstain from attending further services at the churches which have transferred to Fili, stating that the priestly functions there are “null and void” and “serve for the condemnation rather than the salvation of those who partake thereof.” This is undoubtedly a decision which those who wish to remain with Archbishop Mark will have to accept as binding; however, our communities had already been received under the spiritual care of Metropolitan Cyprian when these condemnations were posted and we serve with his blessing. 

Our decision was not taken lightly. The sisters at Willesden have been members of ROCA for over seven decades, they left their homeland as refugees in loyalty to her. I have myself, albeit badly, served as a ROCA priest for over 30 years, as a monastic for nearly 40. The outline of events given above is necessarily rather cursory, but if anyone is genuinely concerned to learn more - not for reasons of contention, but to understand our decision, - we will gladly answer any questions, provide copies of documentation, and try to help you. 

We would like to thank all those of you who have written to us and emailed us, hearing of our move. The vast majority of messages have been kindly and supportive. A few expressed worry and concern, and two or three (literally) have taken issue with us for making this move. Although greatly appreciated, it was perhaps to be expected that we should receive messages of welcome from clergy and laypeople within the jurisdiction of the Synod in Resistance, but we were more surprised to receive so many from those within the whole spectrum of Orthodox churches and especially at this time to receive messages of support, understanding and concern from three hierarchs not within the traditionalist range of that spectrum: one from a bishop of the Œcumenical Patriarchate, one from a bishop of the Moscow Patriarchate, and one indeed from a ROCA bishop.

I mentioned in the opening lines, that there has been an inordinate amount of information (and, it must be said, misinformation) disseminated about the move of three such relatively insignificant communities. Because some of the opinions being circulated had disturbed some members of the congregation, on Sunday 8th / 21st January, at the end of the Liturgy, I advised the faithful to respond to any approaches with the utmost restraint, and, more importantly, to pray more earnestly for our detractors. As I mentioned above, we will gladly answer anyone who is confused or hurt by our move, but do not wish to enter into needless bickering, but perhaps I should attempt to correct one untruth that has been spread, perhaps inadvertently. An article, which purportedly was written even before we had received a reply to our request for letters of release from Archbishop Mark, contained several errors of fact, but it would be tedious and churlish to try and answer them, and in any case, it would spoil a rattling good yarn! However, this piece did suggest that the Bishop who ordained me later left the Russian Church Abroad. This is in fact not true, and, to respect his memory, I feel that I should correct this one point. Although unworthy, I was blessed to be ordained by the Ever-memorable Metropolitan Philaret of New York and Eastern America, whose sacred relics, on 28th October / 10th November, 1998, were uncovered and found to be incorrupt. He ordained me deacon and priest and raised me to archimandrite, but he did not die outside the Russian Church Abroad. In fact, he reposed as its First Hierarch on the feast of the Archangels, 8th /21st November, 1985. It is in an attempt to hold fast to his last testimony - “Hold that fast which thou hast” (Rev 3:11) - that in all sadness we have felt that we must leave that church and cleave to one whose confessional witness is at one with his. May his holy prayers before the Great High Priest help us to do so. 

Source: The Shepherd, St. Edward Brotherhood (Brookwood, UK), February 2007. Typos corrected.