Gathering Dark Clouds

When the tempest arose and Christ and His disciples were at sea, He slept. The boat began to take on water. St. Peter awoke the Master, pleading with Him. He rebuked the storm, and all was well. His words then spoken were a quiet and loving "Oh, ye of little faith..."

So we must greet the storms rocking the Church Militant today. They are many, manifold. But simply have faith. Christ will rebuke the storm and we will be saved. Fair weather and safe harbours are a matter of our redoubling prayer and bulwarking our lives on the bedrock of a granite faith.

So when we consider the utterly disheartening situation in the OCA with its Metropolitan awakened to the reality of impending extinction of the Russian American mission, we must pray and have Faith. No, a reduction in membership from 1,000,000 in 1976 to 85,000 today, just 35 years later, is not the end. Millions in debt and obligations which lack any and all possible means of solvency are not the issue. God will provide. But in this dark night, grace has not abandoned the OCA, no it has simply receded, watching, waiting for the OCA to repent of the errors of the Theodosian era and begin rebuilding and renewing in the Holy Spirit and in the Tradition of the Church, to begin forming an actual American local tradition, and not one of Russian assimilates who prefer to dishonour their mothers and fathers, grandparents, their forefathers and their millenial Russian Orthodox piety. The Holy Spirit awaits the return of the Prodigal Son and He will prepare a rich banquet for him, that we all may feast, for our brother was dead but will be alive again. Grace upon grace waits to abound and bless Orthodox America. Let us pray.

Metropolitan Jonah approached the OCA Holy Synod with the prospect of self-annulment of the "autocephaly" as the OCA cannot continue on as it has existed with its FAILED "Americanizations" and RENOVATIONIST follies. He felt it more desirous to be succoured by the Mother Church, Moscow, than to eventually be absorbed by Constantinople and then have the OCA's holdings sold to pay whatever debts the Greeks (or Antiochians) can. His proposal is the best way. The old guard, of course, was furious. His resignation was demanded. It was quickly received. But fear of exposure of their failure cooled their tempers and they suspended their own Metropolitan "to think it over." To think, Metropolitan Jonah was once known to scoff at denunciations of "schmemannism," but it seems, he is now the victim of its polity.

They have to go and this event crystalizes that realization, EVEN FOR HIM.

No, Metropolitan Jonah is hardly a confessor of Orthodoxy, his is the type of "social activism" of a Frank Schaeffer who shouts at the rooftops of the failure of the Religious Right and laments abortion is still legal, prayer in schools is nigh now impossible and the gay agenda is victorious BUT then goes on to be a vehement Barack Obama partizan. This innate inconsistency of a certain generational archetype gives one little hope that Metropolitan Jonah will do little but eventually cave, and, thus, the old Russian temples of the OCA will either eventually be demolished or sold on the auction block to meet its debt burdens once Constantinople assumes full control of the North American Episcopal Assembly. The future is ominous but can be avoided. Sadly, Metropolitan Jonah can not be a constructive figure in that future. He is far too inconsistent and lacks a proper Orthodox formation to be part of the accomplishment.

In the final analysis, be it return to Moscow and a chance at resuscitation or absorption by the EP and a firesale, in all prospects, the OCA "autocephaly," even in theory, is a dead letter (and was from the very start).

In ROCOR, still nothing has been done to investigate the masonic influences in Synod and an insidious wave of unannounced modernizations has begun to creep in where a "neo schmemannism" and "quiet ecumenism" and blind eye to Renovationism have begun to reign. This is what happens when you have chancellors with no more than a high school education and "essential" churchmen of Los Angeles who gained their appreciation of their Russian Orthodox heritage by reading about it in an Ivy League university library.

While in the Mother Church, the fires of ecumenism yet rage with a quiet agenda which has not been seen since the schemers and deceivers of the Brest Unia. No, our crypto Uniate RENOVATIONIST Nikodimite hierarchs rage in all fury fastidiously seeking to recognize the Unia! They wish a modus vivendi with the UGCC! They are prepared to not only betray Orthodoxy but even the very ethnic heritage of the Little Russian and Rusin peoples whose history and character have been shaped by oppression, forced uniatization and armed struggle with and valorous victory over in abolition of Unia as THEIR HISTORICAL INDEPENDENT SOVEREIGN IDENTITY. No, the Nikodimites would condemn Gonta anew to the Polish-papal gallows. I believe that if this NIKODIMITE HERETIC DARES TO RECOGNIZE THE UGCC in the name of Medvedev, Putin or whomever, that it is time for AUTOCEPHALY FOR THE SEE OF KIEV in much the same fashion it was declared when Isidore brought the Byzantine Unia of Florence to Moscow. That is the answer this heretic should receive. It is high time, the Nikodimite party either begin TRADITIONALLY missionizing the post Soviet masses in the "Russky mir" or simply admit that it can't and step aside and let others act, locally, if necessary.

Saving souls, ending abortion and reaching the youth and secularized, not reeping profits from cigarette sales, is the concern of the Russian church. It is high time the patriarchate BEGIN honouring its vocation and STOP seeking Rome's help to address these issues. It itself MUST DO THE WORK.

At the Treaty of Hadiach, the "Ukrainian" Getman Vygovsky (who called himself a RUSSIAN) had the BREST UNIA ABOLISHED AND DRIVEN OFF ALL RUSIN AND LITTLE RUSSIAN TERRITORIES UNDER HIS CONTROL. This was a treaty recognized by recz pospolita. It is HIGH TIME IT BE ENFORCED! Renovationism was anathemized by St. Tikhon and HNM Benjamin of Petrograd among many other Confessors of Orthodoxy and it is time it be DRIVEN FROM OUR CHURCH, wherever it rears its ugly head and the anathemas of the Seventh Ecumenical Council regarding those "who innovate and become iconoclasts of the Holy Tradition ARE ANATHEMA!" be read aloud and obeyed.

Thus, I would suggest for the "Ukrainian" UGCC even a status of PATRIARCHATE, provided that they RENOUNCE UNIA AND BECOME FULL FLEDGED LATIN RITE PAPAL CHRISTIANS. The Unia must be abolished and it has no place on ANY EASTERN EUROPEAN OR HISTORICALLY ORTHODOX SOIL. Let Rome sway its followers with ITS OWN RITE! No, let them TOTALLY RENOUNCE ANY AND ALL KINSHIP TO HOLY RUS' AND HAVE ONLY A CONTRIVED AND FOREIGN CONCOCTED "UKRAINIAN" IDENTITY! LET THERE BE NO RUSSIAN PAPAL HERETICS! This is not something Rome wants to entertain as an option BUT IT WILL IF THE ISSUE IS EMPHASIZED AS A NECESSARY STEP FOR FRUITFUL DIALOGUE. While the "UGCC" is prepared to "enter schism" if Rome should take that step. Thus, Rome should consider how loyally papal these neo Nazis really are. So is Rome interested in rapproachment with Russian Orthodoxy at least so that constructive dialogue can occur or does it only want a Nikodimite quiet unia?! These are considerations it must finally consider in honesty and treat with good faith. The East is not stupid and IS NOT going to be deceived into Unia. Papal primacy isn't even an issue to discuss when THERE ISN'T AN ORTHODOX PAPACY. Rome, REPENT, RETURN TO ORTHODOXY AND BRING THE CHURCHES IN COMMUNION WITH YOU. Rome needs to engage this conversation honestly in paradigms of resolution so that dialogue may have an Orthodox and Catholic successful outcome.


Patriarch Kirill, Metropolitan AND HERESIARCH Hilarion Alfeev, Orthodox Russia tells you one thing in a loud voice, WE WILL NEVER ACCEPT UNIA AND WILL ONLY EVER RECOGNIZE ROME WHEN ROME IS ORTHODOX AGAIN! WE DO NOT AFFIRM MSGNR NIKODIM ROTOV's DECEPTIONS AND WILL NOT HAVE THEM! NEVER TO UNIA! NO PAPAL PRIMACY! THE "SACRAMENTS" OF HERETICS ARE GRACELESS! RELIGIOUS SYNCRETISM CALLED ECUMENISM OR UNIA IS APOSTASY AND ECCLESIOLOGICAL HERESY! Yes, Metropolitan Alfeev, EVEN "unleavened wafers" are blasphemous, for they deny the New Covenant and the REALITY THAT THE CHURCH DOES NOT HAVE THE BREAD OF HASTE BUT WE THE CHURCH HAVE THE BREAD OF LIFE LEAVENED BY CHRIST JESUS RISEN FROM THE DEAD TRAMPLING DOWN DEATH BY DEATH! That's why the Orthodox Eucharist is leavened (and why it was leavened in the Western churches prior to the schism). Don't even DARE to offend the Russian Orthodox faithful with common prayer with these HERETICS UNTIL THEY ARE ONE IN FAITH or mention a papal visit to Russia UNTIL THEY AT VERY LEAST REMOVE THE FILIOQUE FROM THE NICENE CONSTANTINOPOLITAN CREED THROUGHOUT THE PAPAL COMMUNION AND END THE UNIA!

WE WILL NEVER RECOGNIZE NOR ACCEPT UNIA ON RUSSIAN SOIL AND ANY PERSON WHO IS A LATIN HERETIC OF WHATEVER RITE ON RUSSIAN SOIL IS AN ACCURSED TRAITOR TO HOLY RUS'!

Let that be clear, Heresiarch Alfeev.

Aside from the Nikodimite minority, the most distasteful survivals of the Renovationist heretics on the soil of Holy Rus' are the UAOC and the "KP." They must either be legally reincorporated in the successor states as "Protestant churches" or disbanded and deprived of all legal protections as parasitic organisms seeking to uproot the historical Church of St. Vladimir engaging in a religious counterfeit, ie disbanded on the basis of their committing conspiracy, fraud and an organized criminal enterprise.

Finally, with the GOCs and "Katakombniki"... It would be good for the Milan Synod to achieve a ROCOR-like status with the Mother Church, the MP, but its diasporan Metropolia with its heretical Matthewite ecclesiological stupidities needs to be brought under control and also into Communion, perhaps with the OCA. It would be good for Fili and her Bulgarian and Romanian confederates to finally begin to regularize their status with their mother churches with the patronage of the MP, but they must stop concelebrating with deposed hierarchs who commemorate deposed Patriarchs of Jerusalem. Enough is enough. Yes, it is encouraging to see HOCNA moderate its ecclesiology but would be most beneficial if it finally resolved certain moral issues.

This storm is but a ripple in the ocean of the Church Militant's pilgrim sojourn on earth. Christ will calm this storm. The end is not near. Have faith. Keep the Faith. Be strong. Despair not! Christ is Risen!

R M Malleev-Pokrovsky

Relations between the Orthodox Church in America and the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia

OCA Holy Synod of Bishops blesses Joint Statement of OCA, ROCOR Commissions
Posted 12/14

SYOSSET, NY [OCA] -- At their fall session held at the Chancery of the Orthodox Church in America here November 16-18, 2010, the members of the Holy Synod of Bishops gave their blessing to the Joint Statement of the Commissions of the Orthodox Church in America and the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, titled "Relations Between the Orthodox Church in America and the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia.

The Joint Statement was drafted by members of the OCA and ROCOR Commissions at a their meeting in Sea Cliff, NY October 5-6, 2010. [See http://www.oca.org/news/2289 and http://www.oca.org/news/2285 for background information.] The text was submitted to, and received the blessing of, the OCA and ROCOR hierarchs.

The text of the Joint Statement reads as follows.



Relations between the Orthodox Church in America and the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia
Joint Statement of the Commissions

of the Orthodox Church in America and the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia

+

October 5-6, 2010
The Orthodox Church in America (OCA) and the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia (ROCOR) share a single origin – the local Church of Russia – and a long history on the North American continent. It was the Russian Church that first sent missionaries to America, established the first parishes, sent the first bishops and established the first dioceses. Prior to the Bolshevik Revolution, the North American Diocese of the Russian Church was the principal canonical ecclesiastical authority here, and although there were clergy and parishes of differing cultures and languages, many were in the archpastoral care of the bishop of the Russian Orthodox Church. Therefore, there is no question that the formation of multiple jurisdictions on this continent was largely due to the ecclesiastical chaos that ensued after the Revolution of 1917.

The life and witness of the Russian Orthodox Church in the 20th century was marked by violent persecution at the hands of the totalitarian atheist Bolshevik regime brought to power by the communist revolutionaries in 1917. The decades of persecution included the martyrdom of bishops, priests, monastics, and lay people in overwhelming numbers and in numerous killing fields and gulags. Thousands of churches and monasteries were desecrated and destroyed. The voice of the church was silenced in the public arena. Charitable and educational ministries were made illegal. In the midst of massive anti-religious campaigns and by means of unjust laws religious believers, both clergy and lay, were deprived of their rights and put on the margins of society as objects of derision and discrimination.

The decades of persecution were a time of human suffering and genocidal cruelty. These years were also a time of witness to Christ and faithfulness unto death. What the Russian Orthodox Church endured during Soviet rule affected Church life outside Russia.

In the Diocese of the Aleutians and North America, the loss of contact with the Church of Russia and the loss of support from Russia created confusion and even chaos in the midst of uncertainty. From this turmoil emerged the Russian Orthodox Greek Catholic Church in America (popularly known as the North American Metropolia), which is today the Orthodox Church in America.

For the millions of refugees fleeing from revolution and civil war in Russia and settling in the Balkans and Western Europe, in Asia and the Americas and Australia, there was need to find comfort and support within Church life under new circumstances.

With regard to the situation of the clergy and parishes of the Russian Church that were found abroad, there were two distinct directions that evolved. The first was the striving for a unified central Church Administration which could oversee the ecclesiastical life abroad until conditions would change in the homeland and the Patriarchate, independent of Soviet control, could be restored. The second was the striving toward the establishment of a completely independent self-administered Orthodox Church in North America.

These two directions are the essence of the conflict between the bishops, clergy and parishes which would become the Orthodox Church in America and the bishops, clergy and parishes which would remain part of a central Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia.

However, even after the rupture of relations that occurred at the 7th All American Sobor in 1946, there were periods of close collaboration and mutual support between the North American Metropolia and the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia. Even when the close collaboration faltered, support and welcome to the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia was offered by the American Metropolia in the period when the Synod of ROCOR bishops moved from Europe to the United States.

On December 11, 1950, a joint meeting of the Metropolitans Anastassy and Leonty and bishops of the Metropolia and ROCOR was held in New York. As noted in the official Minutes of ROCOR’s Council of Bishops, the Metropolia and ROCOR hierarchs had during their meeting “unanimously recognized that the sad fact of ecclesiastical separation causes significant damage to the holy cause of Christ’s Church: it weakens the preaching of Orthodoxy, undermining Church discipline and a sense of responsibility among clergy of the Church, is a temptation for the faithful, diminishes the prestige of the Church in the heterodox world and makes more difficult its struggle with militant atheism. It was unanimously determined that the Church's unity is necessary.”

Those Minutes also note that: “after the discussion of practical ways for achieving Church unity the hierarchs of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia in conjunction with the bishops of the American Metropolitan See, accordingly recognized that the most appropriate path for that time was the preservation of the existing organizations of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia and the American Metropolia, which will exist in parallel, but will be in close fraternal cooperation between themselves, periodically calling meetings of hierarchs of both Church organizations to resolve common or contentious issues with a firm hope that further ways to more closely achieve canonical unity with God's help will be provided by life itself.”

After the meeting of the two first hierarchs and members of their Synods, the Great Council of Bishops of the North American Metropolia issued an Archpastoral Epistle dated December 2/15, 1950, which included the following statement:

“Let enmity between brothers be abolished and let mutual respect be established on the basis of our mutual acceptance of the co-existence of two paths for the Church in this country, one permanent and one temporary, which are the result of the exceptional sufferings of our time, full of terrible events, and forebodings, imperiously demanding from all the greatest submission to the Lord, the greatest brotherly love and moral support for each other. This does not break, but further strengthens the historical path of our Metropolia.

“What happened after the close of the Council on December 11, i.e. Metropolitan Anastassy twice visiting our newly elected primate at the Holy Protection Cathedral, and the talk that we bishops had which took place the same evening with the hierarchs of the Russian jurisdiction Outside of Russia who visited us, determines the possibility of peaceful life in parallel, subject to internal mutual respect and clear delineation of our canonical rights and historical foundations. The Russian Church Outside of Russia has its own flock in America as well. She has spread her wanderers’ tent in this country, too. Let the peace of God be with its zealous hierarchs, its kind shepherds and its laity!

“Let brotherly love prevail, and let mutual forgiveness of past wrongs be accomplished. The American Metropolia wishes to live in peace with these brethren as well, based on the temporary presence of their hierarchical administration on the territory of America until the future free All-Russian Local Council.

“No treaties or agreements protect this decision of our Church coexistence. It rests upon the requirements of life itself and the clear precepts of the Savior: "By this shall all men know that you are My disciples, if ye have love for one another" (John 13:35).

“The clear and unconditional definition of our own canonical path, made at the 8th All-American Sobor, requires us to have an attitude of brotherly love toward those who, while wishing to preserve their temporarily separate ecclesiastical administrative organization next to ours, are our brothers in Christ.”
Despite these mutual efforts toward establishing brotherly relations, the paths of the Church Outside of Russia and the American Metropolia continued to be separate.

In 1970, by recognizing the self-governing status of the Metropolia with the granting of the Tomos of Autocephaly, eucharistic communion between the Russian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) and the American Metropolia was restored and reconciliation was achieved.

At the beginning of the 21st century, the deep and extensive changes in Russia with the renewal of church life, the restoration of thousands of churches and monasteries, the freedom to bear public witness to the Gospel in Russian society, a process of dialogue between ROCOR and the Moscow Patriarchate led to the restoration of canonical unity through the Act of Canonical Communion in 2007.

It is now time for the Orthodox Church in America and the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia to declare together in the spirit of mutual repentance and mutual forgiveness that we are committed to living together as brothers in Christ and as sister Churches, and to sharing a common witness to the Gospel of Christ and the Holy Orthodox Faith. This common witness should most clearly and most fully be expressed in eucharistic communion.

In addition, we see the need to work together in harmony on joint projects, such as pastoral education, parish schools, student outreach, translations of services, ministering to the poor and needy, and missionary efforts. To work in harmony we will need to reflect together on theological, pastoral, and liturgical issues which we face in our ministry in North America. We also affirm the need to examine together and develop a common understanding of the historical record concerning our churches. These hopes and endeavors can be encouraged and advanced through periodic meetings of our first hierarchs, bishops, clergy and laity to discuss matters of mutual concern, including those theological, liturgical and pastoral issues.

We are committed to the processes and goals expressed in the Chambesy accords of June 2009, specifically the active participation of both our Churches in the regional Episcopal Assembly as we strive to achieve Orthodox unity on this continent.

The following text from the Epistle of the Holy Apostle Paul to the Ephesians is addressed to us, and therefore to the believers of the Orthodox Church in America and the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia: “I … beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one Baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in you all” (Ephesians 4: 1-6).

We ask for the intercession and blessing of the Holy Hierarch Tikhon, Patriarch and Confessor of Moscow and Enlightener of North America and all the saints who have shone forth on this continent as we labor “for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ” (Ephesians 4: 12).

OCA Commission

Bishop TIKHON of Philadelphia
and Eastern Pennsylvania (Chair)

Archpriest Leonid Kishkovsky
Archpriest Alexander Garklavs
Archpriest John Erickson
Igumen Alexander (Pihach)
Alexis Liberovsky (consultant) ROCOR Commission

Bishop GEORGE of Mayfield (Chair)

Archimandrite Luke (Murianka)
Archpriest Alexander Lebedeff
Archpriest David Moser
Priest Peter Jackson
Archpriest Seraphim Gan (consultant)

A Russian translation of the text may be found at http://www.synod.com/synod/2010/12rocorocastatement.html."


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http://www.oca.org/news/2353



Tserkovnye Vekhi Responds:

Christ is Born! Give Ye Him Glory!

Beloved Brothers & Sisters in Christ,

We should be thankful to the Mother Church for coordinating this new era of pan-Russian Orthodox unity in North America. Such events as the restoration of Communion between Russian Orthodox brothers are blessed occurences, even when the auspices and personages associated with these events are less than ideal. While such an event inspires us to not only support such a step at unity but to broaden its scope to include other jurisdictions functioning in North America. Great opportunities for the Russian Orthodox mission await.

As a rejoinder to the OCA commentary on this joyous occasion, it is necessary to note that, no, the FICTION of an OCA feverishly seeking to derussify itself and create an American fiction out of a Russian (or post Russian) immigrant reality is shockingly appalling to read "as an official history" here YET AGAIN. While it is true that the ultimate goal of the Russian mission was and is A NORTH AMERICAN LOCAL CHURCH (As opposed to an "autocephaly" seemingly annulled with the latest concordats with the Phanariots), it must be reiterated that these things don't artificially transpire or "spontaneously coalesce by a fiat declared in conjuncition with Nikodimites" but are the result of a natural process of RETENTION of the core of believers of ones missions and the broadening of their ranks with native populations (and generations) on the missionary territory on which they function.

Disparaging RUSSIAN HERITAGE MUST STOP IMMEDIATELY IN THE OCA, and this occasion should be taken to not only ratify a better relationship with ROCOR but with the entire RUSSIAN Orthodox (AND "Orthodox Traditionalist" or "Authentic" or "Catacomb" or "Old Rite," etc.) immigrant community, within and without the OCA, to express regrets for the disturbingly unwarranted "Americanizations" which only engendered the most myopic of russophobias and created a climate of alienation which has resulted in the nullification OF THE MISSIONARY ROLE the Mother Church has assigned to its NORTH AMERICAN DAUGHTER. Loss of ones core of believers and 80%+ (and still declining!) of its membership is something for the OCA to lament and overcome. An embarassing era of OCA "nativism" has cost the Orthodox mission in this nation, on this continent, and it must be addressed satisfactorily if the OCA is to survive.

With ROCOR, many historical issues of cessation of intercommunion with the OCA still remain in regularizing the North American mission:

1). Renovationism, liturgical, canonical, theological, Patristic, Scriptual and otherwise. It must be cemented in the minds of all THAT THE SEVENTH ECUMENICAL COUNCIL SPECIFICALLY ANATHEMIZES ALL INNOVATIONS (it also condemns musical instruments in Orthodox worship).
2). Ecumenism and sectarian "dialogues" with the heterodox which have resulted in HERETICAL ecclesiological "concordats," crypto-Uniatism (Something the OCA was initially created to combat), HERETICAL ecclesiologies and endorsements of such SECTARIAN documents as the WCC's BEM, and a general denominationalist approach to Orthodox identity and purpose in North America. It is not without reason that the OCA has blunted its message and become BANAL in proferring a model of an "ACCEPTED POST RUSSIAN AMERICAN (RUSSOPHOBIC) DENOMINATION" "adapting to the American religious mainstream" which SECTARIANs like Fr. Kishkovsky (and Fr. LebedeV) envision as a "fellow denomination."
3). Not only a spiritual immaturity, but a total immaturity in approach to catechizing and churching both "cradle" and "convert" Orthodox Christians. The OCA as it has imploded has disastrously lost what resources and institutions it even had. Moreover, it remains a "post Russian" (not ethnically American!) body primarily as opposed to a LOCAL expression of Orthodoxy. There is no American Orthodoxy even in sight. Sadly, the OCA offers no acceptible paradigms for its advent.
4). New Calendarism. Lack of liturgical unity and rejection of the Holy Canons of Nicea for the ROBBER SYNOD of 1923, which even the Greek churches have in actuality abrogated (viz. RESTORATION OF THE JULIAN PASCHALION, REJECTION OF SECOND MARRIAGES FOR PRIESTS AND DEACONS AND A MARRIED EPISCOPATE, RETENTION OF BEARDS, CASSOCKS, ORTHODOX FASTING, FOREGOING DENIGRATION OF MONASTICISM, etc.) emphasizing that this 1923 Phanariot convention of Greek Renovationists is at best DUBIOUS by the very fact the Greek Robbers have themselves UNILATERALLY "uncanonically" altered and postponed its decisions. If they don't even respect their schismatic and heretical innovations, how can we?! There are no canonical grounds for the IMPOSITION of the Calendar Reform in the OCA while the fact the Mother Church retains the Orthodox Calendar makes this act at very least quasi-schismatic.

Yes, it is true that St. Tikhon felt it both possible and even necessary to implement a "new calendar" for Western missions, but when he learned the auspices of the way the current GREEK calendar reform was implemented, he ANNULLED the adoption of it by the Russian church and condemned it as "uncanonical" and an "INNOVATION WHICH PRECIPITATES SCHISM." The witness of such luminaries as St. Alexis Mechev is clear in relating the Russian church's reasons for non-adoption and condemnation of the GREEK calendar reform. The theological writing and acumen of St. Seraphim of Bulgaria cements it.

Likewise, the OCA with its first hierarchs from Metropolitan Platon to Metropolitan Leonty to even Metropolitan Ireney were at best "UNCOMFORTABLE" with the prospect of a calendar reform and generally patently opposed to it as something which "promoted unnecessary disharmony and divisions" (ie schism). It must be noted that when it was propagandized in the OCA in the late 1970s and early 1980s, that noteable hierarchs like the Bishops of S. Canaan and of Alaska openly called it "UNWARRANTED" and "SCHISM."

Thus its implementation has proven UNCANONICAL, SCHISMATIC, ruinous and unscrupulous in the OCA. It has failed in its stated goal of "Americanization." While honouring the American federal holiday of Christmas in nowise means that a given community becomes illegitimate in observing the Orthodox celebration of this Feast on the Orthodox Calendar. Such an observance does not necessarily embody a celebration of "two Christmases," but merely a broadening of what in the West is usually understood as a festive season of "Christmastime." Moreover, simply instructing parishes to be sensitive to Orthodox observance of the Nativity by OFFERING Christmas services on the 7, January AS WELL (at a minimum) in no wise causes acrimony with a Western religious custom which observes Christmas until the 6, January traditionally. One more day only preserves the joy and sacredness of Christmas in the West. If anything, with the rise of a new militant secularism in North America, it acts as a statement for Christ and Christmas and aids in reaffirming the sacredness of the Christmas season FOR ALL AMERICANs. Just as a variant Paschalion for Orthodox Christians exists without any great stress on the missionary witness of Orthodoxy, so too Orthodox observance of Christmas can only make it holier FOR ALL!

It must also be remembered that the US federal holiday DOES NOT RECOGNIZE THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST but merely honours Him (and Christmas) as a profound moral teacher with universal secular significance. That is all. Thus, the christological implications for associating Orthodox worship with artificial standards of such "patriotism" become shockingly evident. Arius would cringe.

It is understood that in all cases restoring the Orthodox Calendar (at least summarily) could indeed cause unnecessary upheavals in a thoroughly failed OCA. But gradual restoration (at least for the OCA "post Russian" dioceses) by episcopal observances and monastic mandates could provide a better approach to settling this unnecessary division. Dioceses and parishes should be generally allowed to return to the Orthodox Calendar while statements should be issued that 1). The Mother Church views the calendar innovation as too controversial to implement & 2). The Mother Church awaits resolution of this issue when a future Synod of Ecumenical Character can address it. THUS 3). Prudence is dictated in both having the OCA favour the Orthodox Calendar, its restoration, BUT as an act of pastoral economy, retention of the GREEK calendar reform can be observed by ECONOMY by communities who otherwise would become divided by its abolition. BUT the issue is not settled and awaits an Orthodox consensus.

5). Freemasonry in North America, although condemned by both the OCA and ROCOR (and the Russian church as a whole), should be better addressed and further rejected, especially when there are even hierarchical temptations and scandals which have arisen in regard to its evil influences and doctrine.

6). Both the OCA and ROCOR (and the Patriarchal /MP/ Administration) should use this occasion to restore a COMMON organism of North American Orthodox unity. While a Russian emphasis may indeed be at best only marginal in necessity today, a need for a Traditional Orthodox mission remains and needs to be reinvigorated in ONE institution. This institution must act and act quickly to normalize its missionary work, its work in catechesis and churching of American Orthodox.

The Russian mission in North America needs to, yes, appreciate the historical identity of Russian Orthodoxy not as an "Eastern Slavic Orthodoxy" or phyletism, but a church at its outset which united Scandinavians (who ruled Rus'), Slavs (of all regionalisms), Finns, Balts, Khazars, Bulgars, Turks, Tartars, Avars (Hungarians), Roma, Caucasians even Germans in one common religious and cultural identity, respectful to the ethnic traditions of these people with a thrust to not "reinforce Russian cultural imperialism" but Rus' as a unifying center (post tribal, not at all "nationalist") affirming the fundamental Truth and doctrine of Orthodoxy AS THE ONE TRUE CHURCH.

That is what is fundamentally meant by Russian Orthodoxy (or its multi ethnic model which was observed in other historical churches such as the Church of Byzantium, Antioch, Alexandria, even Bulgaria). So Russian Orthodoxy IS NOT concerned with "preservation of the /Great/ Russian ethnos" but exists as a unifying force for disparate peoples in affirming Orthodoxy. In 988 AD, Rus' was a Russo-Scandinavian state, and multi-ethnic/cultural and lingual. So too an American outgrowth of Russian Orthodoxy as it is blessed by God and matures into a local church, which all of us Russian Orthodox in North America are called to accomplish TOGETHER. This means not an absorption into an ethnic Russian Orthodoxy, but, rather, an adaptation of its model of multi-ethnic unification and heritage. We need not be ashamed of SS Vladimir and Olga ever, Metropolitan Jonah! Nor do we need your venerations of Francis of Assisi, Therese of Lisieux or John of the Cross to be "legitimately" Western and Orthodox!

No, we need our OWN Cyrils and Methodiuses and our OWN holy rulers and ascetics and even martyrs and confessors HERE, ORTHODOX (not HERETICAL!) Saints. Metropolitan Jonah, Orthodoxy IS NOT CALLED TO SOME ECUMENIST AND "QUIET" UNIA /ANGLICAN COMPREHENSIVENESS/ AS YOU ADVOCATE AS AN UNCONVERTED SECTARIAN! Orthodoxy is called to be the ONE TRUE CHURCH FOR ALL MEN ALONE, the beauty, light, love and joy of the world.

Where Russian Orthodoxy is specifically a MORE FIT MODEL for America lies in the fact of its model of multi-ethnicity as opposed to the MODERN "neoGreek" model of cultural, political (and even racial) exclusivism. Yes, OCA propaganda was correct in assessing that cultural assimilation generationally makes ethnic subcultures unenduring paradigms BUT WRONG IN ASCRIBING THAT IDENTITY TO ITS RUSSIAN ORTHODOXY, ITS SHAME AT OUR COMMON HERITAGE. Thus, THE PRESCRIPTION OF THE AMERICANIZERS HAS DESTROYED THE OCA BASED ON AN IGNORANCE ROOTED IN A FALSE PREMISE. It is sad that most of the Americanizers in the OCA were at least partially of Russian heritage. Pathetic.

No, the ROCOR paradigm of a messianic diaspora is not realistic either. There is nothing fundamentally wrong with being Russian until it intrudes on being Orthodox and converting the communities which surround our parishes into Orthodoxy. No Orthodox Church, inner city or rural or in Fr. Meyendorff's "ethnic ghettoes," CAN BE PERMITTED TO CLOSE but must simply spread the light of Christ where it is shining and welcome all with a loving embrace, in Russian, Romanian, Ukrainian, or even English, Spanish, French or Vietnamese.

A common language has to be found for all, and a common language for theology, Patristics and liturgy must frame its basis. English (or Spanish) is the natural language of the majority and must be respected and presented in a dignified form in traditional worship. While the challenge of our seminaries and scholars is to forego Orthodoxy in Russian and Slavonic(Romanian/Serbian/Bulgarian, etc.) translation but to find a mode of instruction of Patristic Greek /Katherevousa/ in providing a universal tongue of scholarship and liturgy for our NATIVE Orthodoxy. Instead of Russo-Byzantinism, we are called to mature to an Amero-Byzantinism. There is nothing wrong with ethnic heritage, but we must realize that we are not building or restoring Russia (or any other faraway nation or empire). We are building and restoring Orthodoxy to the West and specifically to North America.

Thus we are called to consider ending ethnic divisions amongst the "jurisdictions" as well as overcoming "political" ones and continuing the work of ENDING the religious counterfeit of UNIA. That means calling what is left of certain communities to a COMMON and SHARED SINGLE mission in North American Orthodoxy:

1). Russians and Russian Dissidents.
2). Carpatho Russians, all Rusins.
3). Byelorussians.
4). Ukrainians (or "Little Russians").

But also:

5). Serbs.
6). Macedonians.
7). Bulgarians.
8). Albanians.
9). Romanians, Moldavians, Georgians, etc.

And also:

10). Uniates parasitizing Orthodox local churches and "jurisdictions" of every stripe. UNIA must be brought to an end, either by its TOTAL absorption by the Latins in its papal depravity or by the return of Uniates to the ONE TRUE CHURCH, Orthodoxy.

One church and ONE unity is necessary now, one TRADITIONAL AMERICAN LOCAL ORTHODOXY IN FORMATION. ONE NORTH AMERICAN LOCAL CHURCH.

While the approach of the Antiochians and their inclusion with us in ONE MISSION must be greeted with a special favour where 2nd., 3rd., 4th., 5th., 6th., etc. generations as well as new North American converts must be reached with a "kerygmatic" or "evangelical" activism coupled with traditional Orthodox churching and life. We aren't called to make America ethnic but to make America Orthodox and to frame a North American cultural and religious identity in Orthodoxy. The Antiochian approach can not only make us stronger but help us to reach those generationally lost for whatever reason and establish for us not only an "acceptance" but a "significance" and positive influence for all the peoples and governments of North America. A new symphonia and a more Apostolic model of Church-state interaction is not only necessary but possible for North America.

These observations are written to appreciate the restored intercommunion between "branches of the Russian church" and tempered by a love of and well wishing for a common and shared success for Orthodoxy in the West. Orthodoxy is the Pearl of Great Price, the Body of Christ, mystically redeeming the world in Him in the eschaton. It is the sole True Church and outside of it there can be no salvation, for salvation is the Church, is the thenthropic, mystagogical justification of humanity in Christ Jesus in the Eighth Day. Fr. Florovsky's words and emphasis ring ever more true and requisite for us and especially for the future today. Let us celebrate intercommunion and develop a new unity and a stronger missionary Orthodoxy. Let us celebrate this restoration of brotherhood and look forward to a future Feast of one North American Orthodoxy culminating in not only an autocephalous North American local church, but even a majority North American local church.

ORTHODOXIA I THANATOS!

Rostislav Mikhailovich Malleev-Pokrovsky, Tserkovnye Vekhi Blog

Again Agathangelite Confusion

Happy Thanksgiving to all in the USA and in American houses, embassies, bases and possessions throughout the world!

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I feel very uncomfortable with the various Russian dissident groups. Many times, the impression they leave is of people who intentionally wish to shock and disparage simply to get attention and cause dissensions/schisms. Other times, they latch on to a ROCOR mythology of the "past" and preach a "continuing ROCOR" russophobia for today. Having been a Tikhonite almost all of my adult existence and a one time advocate of ROCOR "dissidency," I have to admit that I do have a fundamental "former" experience both with the "old ROCOR" and with the "Filaretovtsy," along with those who have aligned themselves with a "Cyprianite" or "classical Florinite" orientation today.

Truth be told, for a short time, I even had a modified "Vitalyite" orientation and a more rigourist view of ecclesiology. I can recall the paroxysms of disdain which welled up inside me every time a "sergianist hierarch" was mentioned (or-God forbid-commemorated!). I was uncomfortable with MP institutions and even their appreciation by people as a "ruse used by the godless" to "deceive," the MP being a body whose authenticity was "dubious at best."

Then I witnessed and experienced +Vitaly's blessings of ROCOR monks to join EP monasteries, his quiet "cooperation" with EP "people" and their agenda, his advocacy for commemoration of the EP to the Brotherhood of St. Elias Skete, then his not so tempered blame game of them for their "intransigence." (Don't get me wrong--when one learns the "other side," things like this or personages like Brother Jose become complicated considerations). I saw that +Vitaly very much enjoyed even the most liberal of Greek New Calendarist clergy or the most ecumenistic of Serbian churchman. So the hypocrisy and "politikanstvo" of Vitalyism grew cold; while the excesses of his "assistant" at Synod with her Tuchkov-esque "influence" nailed that coffin shut.

Then I asked myself a fundamental question: Could +Vitaly, who walked in the shadows of the Grabbes and shared their inconsistent "zealotries" (and their penchants and corruptions) only eventually to "retire" them to "remove rivals," be really ignored for recognizing the offices of Greek New Calendarists, very ecumenist Serbs, and others, all the while declaring that he was not in Communion with them, that the charisma of their local churches was in doubt?! Could his hatred of "Party members in cassocks" in the "Stalinist organism" be taken seriously when he openly worked with freemasons in cassocks and freemasonic governments (when they took him seriously) to advance his political agenda and their open hatred of ALL things Russian (including and especially OLD IMPERIAL RUSSIA)?

What cemented my reorientation away from this type of thinking were other people he surrounded himself with. One of those fellows (whose divorce and later "episcopacy" he advocated) was known to savour memories of his service in the US Army in West Berlin during the Cold War, where night time rifle shots would be taken to "murder the Reds," how he celebrated one evening where as a sentry, he tossed a grenade over the fence and had it fall at the feet of his Soviet counterpart, where that "Bolshevik sonofabitch was ripped apart when it detonated" and how he enjoyed "sending Communist scum like him to hell." To this day, when he gets drunk, he reminisces, savoring his act of "White justice."

The only way a Red Army soldier of that period differed from me and members of my family was that his family was in the Soviet Union while mine had escaped. Otherwise in culture, language, temperament and, YES, religion he was the SAME PERSON AS I (or any son or daughter of an immigrant) is. He had the SAME TYPE OF RUSSIAN MOTHER AND FATHER, who wept bitter tears that their son had been murdered for simply serving his country to keep them safe. I would wager that this Vitalyite murdered an Orthodox Christian who could have even been related to him.

That is not for me. That path and attitude IS NOT OF CHRIST. It is not a Russian mentalite and is really an enemy of every local Orthodoxy.

This is the attitude especially of the Agathangelites and increasingly even of people who should KNOW BETTER like certain Bishops of the SiR. This celebrated and unapologetic russophobia is why no sane Russian Orthodox Christian should take them seriously. They are advocates not only of hating Russia but openly stand for destroying the Russian church and coordinate their efforts in doing so with not only "other ROCOR fragments," but with "Ukrainian" autocephalists and Renovationist heretics like the DEPOSED M. A. Denisenko. They relish Uniate takeovers by coercion of and violence in churches in Galicia (Red Russia), Carpatho Russia, and Volhynia (Black Russia), all over and everywhere. They support freemasonic Orange governments nationalizing and attempting to take over Russian holy places like the Kiev Caves and Pochaev Lavras. They celebrate the creation of new Uniate dioceses in Little Russia in places where they HAVE BEEN FORBIDDEN SINCE HETMAN KHMELNITSKY reunited Little Russia with Rus', since Hetman Vygovsky signed the Treaty of Hadiach, ABOLISHING THE BREST UNION AND ORDERING ALL UNIATES OFF LITTLE RUSSIAN AND RUSIN TERRITORIES. No, the Agathangelites celebrate the return of the heirs of Josaphat Kuntsevich and Vasili Lipkovsky, savouring a demoniac satisfaction that Russian Orthodox monuments like the Cossack Graves are "no longer in Moscow's Bolshevik hands."

This might be at times politically advantageous to them, but it is by no means faithful to the historical Russian church and in no wise Orthodox. It is a patent renunciation of Russian Orthodoxy OF ANY VARIETY. Their sites celebrate such vile blogs as "La Russophobe" and in the same breath try to drape themselves in the legacies of people like Metropolitan Philaret, St. John of San Francisco, Fr. Rostislav Gan or Hieromonk Seraphim (Rose) of Platina.

Would any such people EVER be associated with a blog devoted to open RUSSOPHOBIA AND HATRED OF RUSSIA, HER HISTORY, PEOPLE, THEIR CULTURE, AND RELIGION?!

But people like Fr. Nikita GrigorieV and the former Father Igor Hrebinka encourage this revisionism of hate. There is no Russian Orthodoxy they accept, save one where they assume control of Russia's Orthodox cathedras in their spiritually pornographic fantasies and destroy Russia's Orthodox dioceses and open the floodgates to their allies like Mr. Denisenko's or Cardinal Hussar's RENOVATIONIST AND HERETICAL UKRAINIAN NEO NAZIs and RESURGENT UNIATES. They gladly serve to destroy Russia and her church, to cut Holy Rus' into pieces, celebrating every setback and advocating the cause of every sectarian to undermine the Church of Rus' planted on her holy soil by SS Vladimir and Olga.

The sad fact of the matter is that the PSCA group has very little actual Russian people in it (very little people) at all, being comprised of a SMALL NUMBER of Orange agents in Cassocks in Odessa styling themselves as "Ukrainian Aryans (Russophobic Russians)," Latin American third and fourth generation assimilates, and a handful of VERY unstable North American converts who HATE ALL THINGS RUSSIAN. (Visit Tennessee and simply listen for twenty minutes.) That's it. These people deride canons, reject any conciliar authority in resolution of controversies, and refuse to accept that the Synods which consecrated their Bishops not only CAN, BUT ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR, ADJUDICATING THEIR STATUSES and suspending and even DEPOSING THEM when they rebel, become vagantes and advance schism. A Father and Canon Lawyer like St. Basil the Great would expect no less of Orthodox synods.

When Greek aligned groups STUPIDLY join this fray and have their hierarchs make similarly stupid and schismatic statements and engage in acts which canonically will lead to the condemnation of these "True Orthodox resisters" when conciliar resolution does happen, one is left with no choice but to reevaluate the hubris which denatures the spiritual peace of these Greeks. Archbishop Chrysostomos of Etna HAS NO BUSINESS ENGAGING IN RUSSIAN POLITICS TO ADVANCE SCHISM IN THE RUSSIAN CHURCH AND RECOGNIZING, CONCELEBRATING WITH, DEPOSED CLERICS. For one, such acts are CONDEMNED BY THE HOLY CANONS WHILE THEY ARE MUCH THE MORE AT ODDS WITH THE ECCLESIOLOY HIS SYNOD STANDS FOR.

My answer to this vile hatred of my people, Faith, culture and history, my identity is quite simply this: for me, it is a matter of fidelity to the legacy of St. Tikhon, the Holy New Martyrs and what Blessed Philaret represented to be faithful to the "stalinist organism" AKA MOSCOW PATRIARCHATE OF ALL THE RUSSIAS and to eschew schism. One cannot be truly Russian Orthodox and faithful to the Russian church and in the same breath hate the symbol of Russian Orthodox preeminence and fidelity to Orthodoxy, which has historically defined itself by rejection of Byzantine Uniatism and corruption of Orthodox Faith and discipline by politics. St. Tikhon didn't seek to have a patriarchate for "Whites only" but actually sought a patriarchate which NOT ONLY RECOGNIZED but served the religious needs of a Russian people who had politically chosen Soviet government (in rejection of WHITE freemasonic British pleibescites and Prussian partitions).

People often mention this or that historical fact or talk about the "good ole days" with me and end up remarking how "I am so very much a voice of old ROCOR." Liberal neo Uniates like a Metropolitan Jonah have even leveled accusations and play games of guilt by association behind my back: I have to be the ROCOR strawman for them! I tell them that I am not at all, that I have generally rejected a ROCOR mythology and am RUSSIAN ORTHODOX, loyal to the Moscow Patriarchate, rejecting equally the scandal of a Grabbe or LebedeV controlled Synod, especially one in BED WITH THE FREEMASONs, along with schisms like the PSCA or the ecumenist failures which have destroyed--and who now rule--the OCA. I would not welcome such people as +Hilarion of New York with any tolerance and would enjoy very much exchanges with unread and very ignorant Judases like Fr. Seraphim Gan or Fr. Lebedev, but in the same breath, I must emphasize that I would not hesitate to address a Pashkovsky of Odessa likewise (perhaps more directly) or even a puffed up Fr. Nikita Grigoriev. God blessed me with a sufficiently Orthodox "Traditionalist" formation and a mind adequate enough to address topics with them, even though I am by no means anything more than sinful filth. God has been merciful to me in my life and I am thankful for all things.

Then again, when stupidities like "KGB agent" innuendos and other contrived inanities shower me from the Aganthelites, they not knowing that I personally have issues with HERETICS like Metropolitan Hilarion Alfeev and the current NIKODIMITE Patriarch, I simply begin to not only doubt the sanity of these people, but even of their fundamental capabilities to reason. If they only knew that I disagreed with Fr. Shevkunov's take on the Vlasovite movement or that I reject Dugin as an agent of ISLAMIST Secretism, not any kind of acceptible Eurasianism, that I feel Putin is increasingly becoming inadequate and the "oprichnina" inaugurated with a clearly LIBERAL Medvedev is tiresome and only destroying Russian culture and 21st century Russian identity.

But, honestly, when someone, who celebrates being a RUSSOPHOBE, openly working to undermine Russian Orthodoxy, draped in a tacky, undisguised disgust of all things Russian, spews bile at me because of my Russian forebearers and my fidelity to Orthodoxy, they reveal themselves as enemies to every ideal I stand for. And when they are not Russian and shower you with John Birch stupidities, it is hyperbolic insensitivity to take such asinine assaults against Russian Orthodoxy and Russian Orthodox people and countries seriously. These are disturbed and openly ignorant people who celebrate their hate. They wallow in it like swine in their own filth. They are not only bomb throwers but stupid ones, who should be pitied for representing the "moron caste" which so defines "resisters" ("Matthewite," "Florinite," "Catacomb," etc.). When I think of ALL these unfortunate groups, I remember Lyovushka joking with people in Jordanvile and telling them, "By the way--You should know--I'm a secret /or Catacomb/ Protopresbyter." They are clearly mentally deranged, constituting nothing more than uanabashed, insipid voices of schism and estrangement from Christ, from HIS ONE TRUE CHURCH. What more needs be said?!

They presume that since they are the products of a Pashkovskyite CIA orchestrated Jonestown cult, that everyone else follows their lead and interpretation of "Orthodox fidelity" and "Russian identity" dictated by Blue and Yellow neo-Banderites. Not quite.

I recall when this PSCA schism was forming, I seriously wanted to know what they stood for and where they were going, what their vision was. I secretly tried to envision an Old Platina/Old Jordanville orientation. What became clear to me is that not only were their people NOT associated with these institutions, THEY WERE NOT FORMED IN THEM, but openly only used a system of "propaganda by association" to sell themselves. This counterfeit quickly became tiresome and distasteful when it became clear that they were not comfortable with ANY concept of Russian Orthodoxy. Which is fine. One need not be Russian to be Orthodox. Just be clear in saying you aren't. Then I asked a few of their clergy and monastics why it was important for them to insist on any type of Russian Orthodox identity, ROCOR or not. I asked since they were virtually ALL converts or non Russians or assimilates, wouldn't it make more sense to concentrate on their missions in diaspora, forming a local Orthodoxy concentrated in a Pan Orthodox approach, spirituality, ritual, and culminating in a local church to which they can and will be FAITHFUL as converts and assimilates. Yes, people, openly russophobes, could and should be Orthodox and have a place to worship. But reason dictates it shouldn't be Russian, neither for them, nor for the Russian church. Right?! They were offended by my question and began hating me for the implications I inserted into their approaches and orientations.

But, honestly, that is what they should have done. They should have done it with ETNA to avoid this nasty downward spiral of vanganteeism, schism and CIA-freemasonic directed NEO SERGIANISM. They didn't need a new jurisdiction. They simply needed to advance unity by UNITING WITH ETNA and formulating missions more Russian in ritual and spirituality than Greek in an OCA post Russian type way. So when they squawk about "splinters" and a "lack of unity," they exist as advocates of this great sin and the personifications of it. Nothing more.

I must say that the more I take the time to consider these people and their statements, the more I become uncomfortable not only with them, but especially the modern deformation of the old ROCOR mythology. I seriously want no part of that, even though it is a major part of my formation. I would advise everyone to just take a moment and consider these thoughts I am sharing and formulate their own opinions on these Pashkovskyite VAGANTE, SCHISMATICS. Their path will lead you out of the Church and endanger your immortal soul. Since it is directed by neo-Sergianist freemasonic agents, what else could it accomplish?!


Truth be told, when I think of Russian Orthodox dissidency today, who to me is most attractive, I find myself wishing that a Metropolitan Kornily of Moscow or the Belo Krinitsa Synod would adopt a more inclusive ecclesiology and appreciation for ALL Orthodox Traditionalism (of whatever rite), for if Unia were to result from Alfeev's or Lebedev's EVIL betrayals of Orthodoxy, that would be the first place I would like to visit, hoping that they could not only act to unite Priested Old Ritualists, but also faithfully Orthodox "Nikonians." I am a Nikonian who respects authentic Russian Orthodoxy in all guises.

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, Have Mercy on us, sinners!

-Rostislav Mikhailovich Malleev-Pokrovsky

Blue & Yellow (Orange) ROCOR?! (An Open Reply To The DEPOSED Cleric, Pashkovsky Of Odessa)

Dear Sir,

Slava Isusu Khristu! Slava Na Viki!

Or is it Evlogeite! O Kyrios!

Having read your recent statements concerning the Russian Orthodox church and your innuendo directed at its constituent ROCOR synodeia, I feel compelled to ask you a few questions to ascertain your honesty and integrity.

You write often and without reserve of the "FSB's role in the Russian church today," discounting the Orthodox character of the New Russia and its sway on the Russian government. A government CLEARLY MORE ORTHODOX THAN YOUR OWN "UKRAINIAN NATIONALIST GOVERNMENT," WHICH YOU HAVE NEVER CONDEMNED FOR ITS ANTI-ORTHODOX AND PRO NEO- UNIATE AND RENOVATIONIST ACTIVITIES. Although you do make it clear (at least by implication) that the Communist era is over in Russia, you somehow maintain that "Orthodoxy is feigned and inauthentic" and that the Russian church is not really Orthodox, or at least "not to your standards." Let's address some of these "apprehensions" you seem so fond of and examine what "your standards" really are.

Firstly, your pretension to the "legacy of the pre-Revolutionary Russian church" has now become famous. But, somehow, you fail to acknowledge that that pre-Revolutionary church WAS A DEPARTMENT OF THE RUSSIAN GOVERNMENT AND HAD BEEN SINCE THE Patriarchate was allowed to lapse by Peter I. Why is it you have forgotten that? You also fail to mention that the Okhrana had so thoroughly infiltrated the pre-Revolutionary church, that it required Orthodox pastors to reveal the contents of Confessions to it. Turgenev even wrote a famous poem about it. How is it you missed that fact. You also seem to ignore that the pre-Revolutionary Russian church was administered by an Oberprocurator who promoted and demoted Bishops and clergy and at times liquidated monasteries, even censored patristic texts and canonical treatments dealing with how this office was not Orthodox in the slightest but patently Protestant. While it is also clear that your unlawful assembly WOULD NOT HAVE RECEIVED THE PATRONAGE OF THIS OFFICE and that your schism would have been undone by the Okhrana.

So you are asked, Mr. Pashkovsky, how do you in any way represent the pre-Revolutionary Russian church?!

Moreover, Mr. Pashkovsky, you seem to ruminate on the "Stalinist church" and "sergianist structure" ad nauseum and its "ecumenism." Do tell us, Sir, if by "sergianism" you mean "infiltration by a godless government into a local church's administration with the express purpose of propagating apostasy and the 'self-dissolution' of that local church, in a 'heretical concordat' with the intelligence agencies of a given local church so afflicted under a pretext of 'saving the church' or something similar"?

If such is the case, Mr. Pashkovsky, how do explain YOUR beholden associations to the American CIA and British Mi6, both representing FREEMASONIC, LUCIFERIAN ANTI-ORTHODOX GOVERNMENTS, which have led you to engage in anti-Orthodox propaganda and russophobic, ecclesiastical intrigues. Are luciferian freemasons not held to the same standards of "sergianism" then by you, Mr. Pashkovsky? Why is it you assign more weight to FREEMASONIC governments than you do to at least nominally Orthodox ones? How is it you neglect to admit that the pre-Revolutionary Russian government was in many ways only "nominally Orthodox"?

Indeed, Mr. Pashkovsky, how is it you neglect to mention that the US embassy on Ukrainian soil directed its staff to "avoid parishes and institutions of the Moscow Patriarchate" in favour of your canonically unlawful assembly and the "Kyivan Patriarchate" of Mikhail Antonovich Denisenko, a similarly DEPOSED churchman like yourself? How is it you never spoke out about the intrigues of this "Kyivan Patriarchate" in subverting Orthodox parishes and institutions to its control, ITS ECUMENICAL ACTIVITIES AND FOSTERING OF NEO UNIA, ITS BLATENT RENOVATIONISM as something condemned by St. Tikhon and the Holy New Martyrs, its attempts at gaining control of Russian Orthodox institutions such as the Kiev Caves Lavra? Or would such activities have "blown your cover" and neo-SERGIANIST ACTIVITIES on behalf of the CIA, Mi6 and the FREEMASONIC, "Ukrainian nationalist" Orange government?

Indeed, Mr. Pashkovsky, how can your unlawful assembly have any legitimacy claiming to be "resisting sergianism" in the MP when it seems to be your very method of existence since the Ukrainian (post-)Bolsheviks split with Moscow and formed their own (post-)Communist government? Have you no shame, sir, in being such an HERETICALLY SERGIANIST POLITICAL ANIMAL?!

Tell us one occasion when you have spoken out against the activities of Mikhail Antonovich Denisenko or Cardinal Husar on Little Russian and Galician territory. How can you justify your neo-SERGIANIST double standard, sir?!

Sir, are you aware that to leave your synod for another or to found your own at very least canonically requires a release from your former synod of Bishops, and until you receive such a release, you are beholden upon them or canonically treated as a "Vagante Bishop," your assembly considered SCHISMATIC AND UNLAWFUL, and those who concelebrate with you and partake of your "Mysteries" CANONICALLY CONDEMNED?! You are aware that YOUR LAWFUL SYNOD HAS DEPOSED YOU AND PLACED YOUR pseudo-synod under interdict where your ministrations are declared "SCHISMATIC" and "NULL AND VOID OF GRACE" canonically?! Why do you propagate schism and speak ill of the Holy Canons if you presume to be Orthodox and the "heir of the pre-Revolutionary Russian church" while who would be your oberprocurator in your "inheritance" of this local church?

Where have you missed that the "Stalinist Patriarchate" condemned ecumenism at the Moscow Sobor of 1948, along with half a dozen other local churches and also condemned participation in the WCC. Where did you miss the "Stalinist Patriarchate" condemned Unia at the Lvov Sobor of 1946 and reunited the Galician and Carpatho-Russian Uniates to the "ancestral Faith," WHERE THEY WERE GIVEN A CLEAR CHOICE TO RETURN TO THE TRUE CHURCH OR TO BECOME FULLY LATIN HERETICS ("Roman Catholics")and over 90% of the populations of Galicia and Carpatho Russia VOLUNTARILY RETURNED TO ORTHODOXY as a result of the missionary zeal of this "Stalinist Patriarchate"?! Where did you miss that this "Stalinist Patriarchate" CONDEMNED RENOVATIONISM AS HERESY as well the teachings of Fr. Sergius Bulgakov?! Where did you miss that this "Stalinist Patriarchate" refused to adopt the so called "new calendar" and called upon the Orthodox world and certain local churches to "rethink its implementation" for fear of breaching the liturgical unity of the Church and causing schism"?! Can it be ALL OF THESE ACTIONS WERE UNDERTAKEN BY THE "STALINIST PATRIARCHATE" NEARLY TWENTY-FIVE YEARS before ROCOR echoed their necessity and "fidelity to Patristic Orthodoxy"?! You are aware that that is what such measures were termed by Blessed Metropolitan Philaret of New York?!

So according to Blessed Metropolitan Philaret of New York, the acts of the "Stalinist Patriarchate" were not only called "legitimate," but "Patristic Orthodoxy," right?! Is Patristic Orthodoxy then illegitimate, sir? Or was Blessed Metropolitan Philaret's understanding and confession of it? How would the "Stalinist Patriarchate" be illegitimate for acting in accordance with Patristic Orthodoxy?

So how is it the "Stalinist Patriarchate" is illegitimate? Because it ministered to "Socialists"?! Where is it written in the Holy Canons that an Orthodox believer cannot be a Socialist but can be a Lucifer worshipping, freemasonic liberal democrat, beholden to a usurper "provisional" or "White" government? What canonical penalty is there for the role the "pre-Revolutionary" Russian church played in supporting the deposition of its ANOINTED SOVEREIGN for a lucifer worshipping USURPER government?! Or is freemasonic worship of Lucifer politically admissable while a Traditionalist "Stalinist Patriarchate" emanating from the canonical hierarchy established by the All Russian Sobor of 1917-18 not?!

Mr. Pashkovsky, how cognizant of Russian history and the Holy Canons of the Orthodox Church are you when you clearly speak in condemnation of YOURSELF and your own unlawful assembly and in opposition to Traditional Russian Orthodoxy and the historical Russian church? How can you defy the Holy Canons and denounce schism and heresy when YOU YOURSELF PERPETRATE IT while your Mother Church renews after persecution?

Mr. Pashkovsky, how is it your cadres are primarily NON-RUSSIAN and that you have a parity of clerics to "believers" of nearly one to one in a couple dozen institutions in the world? Why do such people even presume to call upon a link to the Russian Orthodox church, especially in light of the FACT they espouse the dissolution of the Russian local church, have an ignorance of Russian history and espouse russophobia, hatred, for Orthodox Russia while advocating luciferian FREEMASONIC LIBERAL DEMOCRACY AND POST CHRISTIAN WESTERN GOVERNMENTS?! Just, exactly, how is this not a spiritual counterfeit, even apostate movement, and attack on Orthodoxy and Orthodox symphonia? How can you morally justify such a hatred of Russia, its Church, in deceiving the very few NON-RUSSIAN converts which make up your canonically unlawful assembly?

Mr. Pashkovsky, I think these questions have illuimnated who you are and what your schismatic and unlawful assembly represents. It is hoped that bodies you have enticed into fellowship with you like the Synod in Resistance "come to see the light" and abandon their associations with you before they too are canonically condemned.

Mr. Pashkovsky, YOU ARE A FRAUD AND A HYPOCRITE, aiding and abetting "Ukrainian" neo Uniates and the "Kyivan Patriarchate" Renovationist, schismatic HERETICS at the behest of the intelligence services of Luciferian, anti-Christian governments. While in the "pre-Revolutionary Russian church," Oberprocurator Pobedonostsev would have had the Okrana round you up and exile you and members of your canonically unlawful assembly to Siberia.

That is the "truth" and "authenticity" of the PSCA. Isn't it, Mr. Pashkovsky?


ORTHODOXIA I THANATOS!

Rostislav Mikhailovich Malleev-Pokrovsky, Tserkovnye Vekhi Blog

Beneath Contempt ( A Second Open Letter To Fr. Andrew Phillips & The Clerics Of ROCOR)

Otche Blagoslovite.

It has now been nearly a month since my initial correspondence to you. You have as yet not responded. On your website, Orthodox England, you have felt it necessary to provide your readers with a Russian history lesson and a list of Russian freemasons, which curiously omits many of the ne'er thee wells of the last Duma as well as the Provisional Government and Army, not to mention the former Imperial House, viz. the "Nikolaevichi" and "Vladimirovichi." Pathetically, you also fail to mention YOUR OWN Metropolitan in that list and his Latin American "concordats" which have resulted in certain "juridicial advantages" for a ROCOR unwanted and morally compromised in the eyes of Latin American believers.

But you do make one curious statement which reads roughly, "Of course, it is well known that the freemasons were responsible for the overthrow of the Russian monarchy." Then you leave it at that. No mention of Arthur Ransome's DIRECTED role in the Rasputin slander of the Holy New Martyr Tsarina Alexandra and the martyred Tsarevny, DIRECTED BY AMBASSADOR BUCHANAN AND THE BRITISH FOREIGN OFFICE (BFO). You curiously fail to mention how that BFO directed the strikes and Duma reaction to them in those days of late february. You fail to mention that that BFO essentially appointed the "provisional" (USURPER!) governments, be they that of Lvov or especially that of Kerensky. You fail to mention that that BFO encouraged the "dual rule" which transpired as a result of the February White Treason and had a hand in the various soviets as well as their orchestration of an "arrangement" with Lenin and the Bolsheviks as a result of the "July Days" of the FREEMASON AND TRAITOR (The Bolsheviks were ARMED by Kerensky at the suggestion of Arthur Ransome through the BFO), General Kornilov. You also curiously fail to mention that the White Movement was started by these same Russian freemasons and that they WERE IN NO WAY INTERESTED IN RESTORING THE LEGITIMATE RULER OF ALL THE RUSSIAs, BUT WERE, FOR ALL PRACTICAL PURPOSES, ATTEMPTING TO ORGANIZE A WESTERN FREEMASONIC PLEIBESCITE AGAINST THE BOLSHEVIKS, WHO VACILLATED BETWEEN BRITISH & PRUSSIAN PATRONAGE. After all, Arthur Ransome relayed intelligence to the Bolsheviks and Trotsky at the behest of the BFO, in turn receiving intelligence on Prussian activities in Russia. Arthur Ransome, who was so ever present at meetings of Bolshevik soviets, even in the aftermath of the April Theses of 1917.

Perhaps, you weren't so fully aware of these things and the role of your VILE nation, Britain, a nation increasingly GODLESS BY POPULAR VOLITION and a pioneer in the "renunciation of baptism" movement poisoning the "New Europe," in the savagery and atrocities YOUR GOVERNMENT SET IN MOTION on Russian soil. Or is guilt for the martyrdom of old Russia something you wish to "politely ignore"?! How +Kallistos Ware of you. Enough of your cowardice and presumption. You have entered the Russian church and are beholden TO THE RUSSIAN ORTHODOX people and not vice versa. YOU WILL NOT IGNORE THE RUSSIAN ORTHODOX PEOPLE IN DIASPORA OR TREAT THEM WITH CONTEMPT. HOW DARE YOU?!

Did you miss that the Russian church hierarchy GREETED FEBRUARY AND TRIED TO INGRATIATE ITSELF TO THE VARIOUS PROVISIONAL, "WHITE" (FREEMASONIC!) GOVERNMENTS OR THAT YOUR OWN METROPOLITAN IS AT VERY LEAST "ASSOCIATED WITH THE CRAFT" IN LATIN AMERICA?! Is it not BENEATH CONTEMPT to have a Metropolitan associated with the VERY PEOPLE you admit responsible for the Russian February Revolution and the horrors that befell Russia in its aftermath?! Is it not BENEATH CONTEMPT to allow a person COMPROMISED BY LUCIFERIAN ASSOCIATIONS to be your ruling hierarch without so much as a dot of spittle from your refined and "traditionalist" ROCOR "loyal opposition"?! Or is worship of Lucifer "a perfectly acceptible English avocation" in "some circles"?!

Moreover, have you managed to notice that the ROCOR website, managed by such (in-)credible Judases as Fr. Seraphim Gan, Fr. Alexander Lebedev, and Bishop Jerome (The former Fr. John Shaw, who, AFTER OVER FORTY YEARS AND EPISCOPAL CONSECRATION, STILL HAS NOT BEEN BAPTIZED IN THE ORTHODOX CHURCH, the UNA SANCTA. Since when did ROCOR adopt the WCC's BEM?!) has perpetuated your folly with wrath, albeit with more honesty. Metropolitan Alfeev's odious and sectarian FILTH is something they cherish there, calling him their "beloved Metropolitan Ilarion." It seems they want to distinguish between their freemasonic Hilarion and their crypto-Uniate, Renovationist, HERETIC "Ilarion." They do so ever enjoy parading images of photo opportunities between Anglican HIEROSODOMITES and your ROCOR Archbishop of San Francisco. The images that stirs of the "faithful" he ministers are appallingly inappropriate. Is this his "Christian concession" to "San Francisco values"?! The ROCOR site even relishes photo ops with a pretender to the Throne of All the Russias, whose direct ancestors were freemasons and at the gates of the Winter Palace in 1917, threatening the Tsarevich, the Tsarina and the Tsarevny. It seems they like association with such unrepentent ENEMIES OF THE RUSSIAN MONARCHY AND THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE. After all, the Grabbes and Rodziankos were/are "esteemed" churchmen of ROCOR, are they not?! Or is Fr. Potapov's matushka "not to blame" for pursuing the SAME COURSE OF BETRAYAL AND MARTYRDOM OF RUSSIA her grandfather perpetrated with abandon and revolutionary fervour?

Where is your "history lesson" for them, Father?

I personally attended seminary with the man who is now Fr. Seraphim Gan. He was a boy then fresh out of high school, all of eighteen years when he entered. I noticed then a proclivity to slavish fealty to the various cliques which surround ROCOR hierarchs and their "agendas" along with a thorough awe of Russian officialdom, often at the expense of even a modicum of understanding of fundamental Orthodoxy or Russian history. At that time, when Jordanville was still baiting the "Paris school" (Which you still perpetuate), this FRAUD, who was to become Fr. Seraphim Gan, "cultivated" by a certain hierarchical clique, found it so very "Russian" and "sophisticated" to "try" to ruminate on the "Russian theology" of Fr. Sergius Bulgakov, Nicholas Berdiaev, Anton Kartashev and other personae of the Paris school, always failing to mention its more sober representatives like Archimandrite Kiprian (Kern) and speaking with disdain for traditionally Orthodox churchmen like Fr. Georges Florovsky and Vladimir Lossky, who at one time or another had some association with the Institute of Saint Sergius. When it was brought to his attention on occasion that Fr. Bulgakov and his teaching was condemned by ROCOR and the MP as HERETICAL, Fr. Gan found that to be "typical" of the "old school" and intimated its "boorish lack of enlightenment" in hushed conversation. Witnessing where he has piloted ROCOR's website has only confirmend appreciation for the contempt this cleric has for Russian Orthodox traditional theologians and traditional Russian Orthodoxy.

His grandfather, being of a confessor temperament, would disown this Judas as a bareheaded Renovationist, something which he considered even more vile than a "sergianist." Alas, his grandson has demonstrated his esteem for TRUE RUSSIAN ORTHODOX THEOLOGY AND TRADITIONALISM. Sic transit gloria mundi.

Curiously, where has your "variance" with the ROCOR website and certain ROCOR "personae" been, Fr. Phillips? Where were your words when Fr. Lebedev UNILATERALLY vacated the decisions of the San Francisco ROCOR sobor, which predicated reunion with the Patriarchate only after ecumenical activity was renounced and cessation of participation in the WCC called upon to be permanent?! Why did you not cite your "traditional Orthodoxy" and "fidelity to the Russian historical church" then?! Where are your words today when your Archbishop Arndt is praying with heretics and also pursuing freemasonic associations in the "New Europe"?!

To be an Orthodox cleric and yet so disingenuous and dishonest is, frankly, beneath contempt, but ever so +Kallistos Ware in modus operandi, quite dishonestly English.

Of course, by now you have become aware of Elder Raphael's call to act to safeguard the Russian church from (neo-)Unia and the Nikodimite orientation which is threatening Russian Orthodox renewal and perverting it as this correspondence is typed. Why is it you choose to ignore it in your +Kallistos Warean "confessorship"?! Why is it you choose to ignore that the HERETICAL Metropolitan of Volokolamsk has been instructed to advance the RENOVATIONIST agenda of the "Eighth Ecumenical Council" with the UNIATIZING EP, an agenda which includes not only an imprimatur for the New Calendar but a new paschalion, recognition of "papal primacy," formal adoption of "Two Lungs Ecclesiology" (Wasn't this condemned at the 2000 Moscow Sobor as "unacceptible and heretical ecumenism"?!), recognition of Latin "sacraments," second and third marriages for Priests and even Bishops, and the list goes on and on?! Perhaps, your +Kallistos Wareanism and its intentional deception and hypocrisy finds comfort in this orientation and its celebration by the ROCOR website. After all, it would allow you to not jettison your Anglican baggage (along with your Bishop Jerome and your Archbishop Arndt), would it not and be a triumph of the "comprehensiveness" of your (former?) Anglican "denomination"?!

Tell us, Father, how you reacted to the deposition of Bishop Diomid and condemnation of his anti-ecumenism by your European ROCOR Bishops, who then proceeded to vote for the election of a Nikodimite and his curia to rule the Moscow Patriarchate?! Perhaps, the neo-Nikonianism inherent in such betrayal of Russian Orthodoxy is what attracted you to silence and "appreciating the foresight and propriety" of such Iscariotism.

Tell us, Father, have you ever encountered the Russian expression "GOD IS NOT MOCKED!"?!

No, Father, your deception and BETRAYAL of Orthodoxy, historical Russian Orthodoxy in this instance, is beneath contempt.

These correspondences are being addressed to you, Father, for you presume to "wear the mantle" of Orthodox Traditionalism in the New ROCOR. While, your fellow ROCOR clergy are also addressed in commensurate condemnation of their betrayal of Orthodoxy in a spiritual counterfeit they are perpetrating with you. Your lack of shame, of honesty, of fundamental Christian decency is hatefully beneath contempt; while the ROCOR flock is being informed of YOUR COMPLICITY in the Nikodimite ruin that is overshadowing the Russian church today.

You, Father, along with those clergy who walk your path of betrayal with you, will not relish reformation of the Orthodox Church. You will be held to account and stopped.

Of course, an explanation for your willful betrayal of Christ's Church and the Russian local church would be appreciated. Perhaps an understanding as to why your "Traditionalism" lacks such consistency and why the Anglican petticoat shows even upon a cursory examination of your misdeeds. Please explain for the ROCOR faithful (and those of the Russian church as a whole) just what exactly you are trying to accomplish with your "confessorship." Can it be that your "sin by silence" is something not fully understood and appreciated even by yourself?!

Do tell us, Father. Do condescend from your Warean perch to enlighten the "unwashed" (Yet Bishop Jerome celebrates he truly is unwashed?!) and explain to us the contradictions inherent in your "Orthodox pastorship."

Perhaps, your fellow ROCOR clerics can also explain why they tolerate freemasonry establishing itself amongst the ROCOR higher clergy and their acceptance of the Alfeev-Lebedev neo-Mysteriology and its accompanying ecclesiology.

They are your contemporary St. Cyprians of Carthage it seems.

That is, of course, when you can emancipate yourself of the notion that you are "above the Russian Orthodox flock" and "don't have to answer to them."

No, Father, in a good year, your silence and haughtiness would be a disgrace to Russian Orthodox clerics and a statement of false "traditionalism," but in this Nikodimite season of neo-Unia, you and those ROCOR clerics with you have become reminiscent of the handful at Brest in 1596 who proclaimed a "submission to the Holy Father" they had already made in 1595 at the behest of the Polish crown.

The holy memory of such Russian confessors as St. Athanasius of Brest and St. Germogen of Moscow sits in judgement of those ROCOR "traditionalists" like yourself. Perhaps, you might mention them in your next Warean "history lesson" and explain to us why the House of Romanov was chosen to rule Russia in 1613 in the face of Polish attempts at conquest and unia.

This correspondence is written, Father, for the benefit of the Russian flock that they see you and your compatriots for who they are, that they begin appreciating the threat your quiet betrayals and ommissions foreshadow. You ROCOR clerics are betraying Orthodox Russia and the Russian land and people in your feigned "traditionalism."

ORTHODOXIA I THANATOS! (Have you encountered the Lives of the Holy Martyrs of Zographou yet?)

Rostislav Mikhailovich Malleev-Pokrovsky, Tserkovnye Vekhi Blog

French president calls for closer cooperation between Europe and Russia

ST. PETERSBURG, June 19 (Itar-Tass) -- Europe and Russia should cooperate closely in the spirit of trust, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said on Saturday closing the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum.

The Cold War is over, the Berlin wall is down, Russia is a great power and we shall be more close, said Sarkozy who headed a big delegation of French businessmen. “It is a strategic choice,” he stressed.

“I believe in Medvedev’s word, I highly appreciate our work with him, when we managed to find a solution despite our differences,” the French president said and noted the two country’s stands on key issues of the international agenda were very close or even coincided, including on the Iran nuclear program.

http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=15243884&PageNum=0



Russia should become dream-country for anyone in the world – Medvedev


Russia should become a dream country for anyone in the world who seeks success. This is the objective that President Dmitry Medvedev set when speaking during the opening of the International Economic Forum in St. Petersburg. The objective is perfectly real, he said, adding that one should only use correctly the resources available.

The current, 14th, economic forum boasts a record great number of attendees ever since the event was held first. Over 2,000 conferees from 69 countries have come to attend the forum in Russia’s Northern Capital.

Today, on the last day of the forum, Dmitry Medvedev is due to hold talks with his French counterpart Nicolas Sarkozy. The two leaders will “synchronize watches” as regards options to consolidate European security.

Medvedev will then address the concluding full-scale meeting of the forum on “Re-thinking global development”, specifically on world economic growth in the post-crisis period.

http://english.ruvr.ru/2010/06/19/10160797.html



Vatican ambassador to Russia urges Catholic priests to periodically attend Orthodox divine services


Moscow, June 18, Interfax – The Holy See ambassador to the Russian Federation Archbishop Antonio Mennini suggested that Catholic priests every now and then attend divine services in Russian Orthodox churches.

The nuncio said it addressing participants in a regular session of Russia's Conference of Catholic Bishops in Sochi, its general secretary Rev. Igor Kovalevsky told Interfax-Religion on Friday.

According to Fr. Igor, Archbishop Mennini pointed out that Orthodox-Catholic relations had significantly improved and urged to develop "fraternal relations between Catholic and Orthodox clerics."

The nuncio also stated that state-church relations improved after establishing diplomatic relations at the ambassadorial level between Russia and Vatican.

The Conference of Catholic Bishops made a statement regarding abolishing religious symbols in public schools of Europe and pointed out that the cross is one of most important elements of European identity. The bishops mentioned Russia's tragic experience when struggle against religious symbols resulted in prosecutions of believers and moral decay of the society.

http://www.interfax-religion.com/?act=news&div=7377



Metropolitan Hilarion regrets the Church lacks stable source of income


Moscow, June 17, Interfax – Head of the Moscow Patriarchate Department for External Church Relations Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk believes the question of stable income is actual for the Church.

"The Church should have its own stable source of income and this income can't be based only on parishioners' donations. The Church can't exist only on money received from selling candles, icons or church literature," the Metropolitan said on air the Church and World program on the Rossiya 24 TV.

According to him, hierarchs spend major part of their time searching for sponsors and "surely, this situation is not normal." Metropolitan Hilarion noted that the Church pays for electricity, restoration and "these expenses are huge, multimillion."

He believes the Church lacks permanent income as its property was "nationalized and stolen."

http://www.interfax-religion.com/?act=news&div=7370




Clergymen of the South American Diocese Who Followed Former Bishop Agathangel Into Schism Are Suspended


According to an ukase issued by His Grace Bishop John of Caracas and South America, of May 31, 2010, published on the official website of the South American Diocese, “clergymen of the South American Diocese who did not accept the decision of the Council of the Russian Church Abroad on the reestablishment of Eucharistic communion with the Church in the Fatherland, leaving their lawful hierarchy and creating a schism together with former Bishop Agathangel (Pashkovsky): Protopriest Vladimir Shlenev, Protopriest Valentin Iwasjewicz, Protopriest George Petrenko (who calls himself “Bishop Gregory”), Protopriest Konstantin Busygin, Priest Alejandro Iwasjewicz, Protopriest Vladimir Petrenko, Priest Michael Berduk, Deacon Igor Baratov, Deacon Caesar Mortari and Deacon Eugene Braga—are suspended from performing divine services in accordance with the following Holy Canons: Apostolic 31; I Ecumenical Council 16; Carthaginian 10, 11; Double Council 13, 14 and Laodicean 57.”

The matter of Priest Alejandro Iwascewicz, who is under criminal indictment in Uruguay, is also being considered.

The Diocese recalls that “even without suspension, any act of divine service, if performed outside of the bosom of the Holy Church, is not a salvific Mystery, but only a blasphemous private action by a person in clerical rank.”

http://www.russianorthodoxchurch.ws/synod/eng2010/6enbuenosairesclerics.html