To Archbishop Paul of Sydney: Question from Russia About Grace

 

Your Eminence!

I accidentally found your address and decided to write, although I understand that I am taking up your precious time, Vladyka. But the problem facing me and my friends is very serious.

... I have always been interested in religion, and along the way, I even graduated from the Faculty of Atheism. This is what led me to the primary source—the Gospel; I converted and was baptized in the Orthodox Church...

After baptism, my spiritual development progressed more quickly... But by that time, we already understood everything. And thus, the Gospel verses sounded in sharp dissonance with the real life of the Soviet Orthodox Church. There is probably no need to tell you about this. However, briefly: in the Novosibirsk diocese under the omophorion of Metropolitan Gedeon, cowardice, greed, lies, and the cult of Gedeon (from whom they paint the image of God the Father, etc.) flourish. The Church has bowed before the Beast.

And we began to wonder: is the Soviet Church true? Are the sacraments performed by KGB agents in cassocks valid?

Vladimir Solovyov writes that the personal qualities of a clergyman do not matter at all if he "enters by the door into the sheepfold," meaning he is ordained through the correct hierarchical succession, and the grace of God is granted to us through him during the sacraments.

And here, Vladyka, is my question, for which I have addressed you—is the priesthood in the USSR legitimate, i.e., in accordance with the Apostolic rules? After all, all those ordained pass through the filter of the KGB, the "patriarch" was openly imposed, his election was conducted with an open roll-call vote in the presence of atheists, and so on.

My friends tried to establish contact with the Catacomb Church—without success, they found no one. Then everyone decided that the red Church was finished, the West is far away, but the Catholics are nearby. Now in Novosibirsk, there is a Catholic church, with a wonderful priest, loved by the youth, and so our group, having lost faith in the Pimen-Sergianism, is gradually converting to Catholicism... And I am almost the only one left still doubting.

Yes, undoubtedly, the Catholic Church is a Christian Church. What we see in Soviet Orthodoxy is paganism and Satan worship disguised as Christianity. But there is also the Western ROCOR! And I would like, Vladyka, to know the opinion of the Church in exile on these matters. I ask you to respond.

May the Lord keep you!

(signature) 26 September 1989

 

Response of Archbishop Paul of Sydney and Australia-New Zealand (+1995)

 

Archbishop Paul of Sydney and Australia-New Zealand                                                                 20 Celtsford Ave, Croydon N.S.W. 2132

Phone: 747 5892

 

Friday, October 21st / November 3rd, 1989                                                                                   Feast of St. Hilarion the Great.

 

Dear in the Lord,

Sergei Yuryevich!

Having returned last Tuesday from an almost two-month trip abroad, I read your letter from September 26 of this year. I will not hide that your letter not only alarmed me but also shook me. Everything you write about Sergianism, on which the existence of the Moscow Patriarchate is based, is well known to us here in the free world, and the position of the Russian Church Abroad on Sergianism is absolutely clear—we categorically reject it as a betrayal and treason against the Church. I am shaken by the consequences of Sergianism—this terrible disease that has afflicted our Church, or rather, a certain part of its organism. But one cannot expect anything else: godlessness is incompatible with the holiness of the Church, and the distortion is evident. You are also bearing witness to this.

Not long ago, at a meeting of the Synod of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad, after reviewing letters and testimonies from Russia about the harmful influence of the leaders of the Moscow Patriarchate on the souls of believers, we discussed the very question that concerns and troubles you—namely, the question of grace. All the actions of certain leaders of the Moscow Patriarchate speak against them. But what, then, can be said about the millions of faithful Orthodox Russian people? Are they truly deprived of the grace of the Holy Mysteries? And all of us, bishops of the free part of the long-suffering and persecuted Russian Orthodox Church, while fully and categorically rejecting Sergianism, expressed the view that it is precisely for the sake of these little ones that, despite the unworthiness of the ministers, the Lord does not take away His grace. The Lord Jesus Christ speaks to the people and His disciples, saying, “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat; so practice and observe whatever they tell you, but not what they do” (Matthew 23:1-3). From this, it is evident that the Lord, to some extent, still recognized some authority for teaching in the Old Testament Church even among those who had betrayed Him. This can be applied to today's situation. However, by these words, we do not in any way defend or justify the Moscow Patriarchate.

Who and what is the Russian Orthodox Church for all of us Orthodox Russian people? It is our Mother, who, for over a thousand years, has given birth to each of us into a new life of grace in Christ through the Sacrament of Baptism; who has nourished us with the Body and Blood of Christ, strengthened us with the grace of God, created in us the image and likeness of God, the image of the Orthodox Christian, the character of the Russian person, and the character of our entire nation, defining our historical path, our national self-awareness, and our very existence. In short, she is our loving Mother, to whom we owe everything. And who are these unworthy ministers of hers? They are diseased, infected members of her body. But should we abandon our Mother because of this, leave her, betray her? Where is our duty to her? Where is our love, where is our filial gratitude? We must help our Mother recover, cut off the infected parts of her body, but not abandon her, not betray her. Or can we reject all of our historical past, our Russian essence, what has created Russian culture? Catholicism, if it were in Russia, would have created a different culture, a different Russian person—not the one the Russian people have been, with their spiritual beauty, their holiness, and their saints, which have amazed foreigners. To convert to Catholicism is to betray Orthodoxy, our historical path, and Russian culture, that is, to cease being Russian, to abandon our people.

I implore you and your friends, despite everything, to remain Russian. Russia needs you; it needs healthy, fresh forces to overcome the evil that now reigns within her. If you betray her, what will become of Russia?! Communism is a disease that has afflicted Russia, a temporary phenomenon. It will pass! And it depends on you, our Orthodox Russian youth, our hope and future, what Russia will become. We believe in you. May the Lord help you and bless you in the righteous and holy work of serving the Truth—Christ and His Holy Church.

With sincere love for you and all your friends, the Orthodox Russian youth, and those who are wavering.

+Archbishop Paul

 

Russian source: https://kirillov-v-y.livejournal.com/41243.html