Posted on 06/26/2005 10:32:36 AM PDT by BringBackMyHUAC
High Treason: The Luring of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad to the Moscow Patriarchate
(Excerpt) Read more at monasterypress.com ...
Also see:
Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) Ready to Open up New Ecumenical Relationship with WCC
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1430815/posts
If the Church is Christ Himself, then how is it possible to imagine Christ Our Lord with the traitor Metropolitan Sergius next to Him, or Christ next to Drozdov* (Alexis II)?
* Drozdov - the KGB code name for Alexis Riediger, formerly Metropolitan of Leningrad, who subsequently became the present patriarch.
Link:
http://www.monasterypress.com/contempory.html
Various statements from the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia on the question as to whether the Moscow Patriarchate is a valid Church organization containing
life-saving Mysteries
Link:
http://www.monasterypress.com/martyropinions.html
The following is extracted from a letter written by the Most Reverend Metropolitan Vitaly, President of the Synod of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia. It was written to a priest who had circulated a letter calling for a rapprochement with the Moscow Patriarchate, and also calling for our bishops to attend a Church Council jointly with the Moscow Patriarchate in order to decide the future fate of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia.
Excerpt:
What is this all about? It is a very serious matter. From the very earliest years the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia has had no communion at all with the Moscow Patriarchate for very good reasons. Let us recall how, in a document dated 25th December 1924, Patriarch Tikhon appointed one of three Metropolitans - whichever of Metropolitans Kyrill, Agathangel or Peter of Krutitsa could manage to be present in Moscow - to replace him after his death until such time as a new Patriarch could be elected. Metropolitans Kyrill and Agathangel were not allowed to travel to Moscow from their places of exile by the Soviet government. The 58 bishops who assembled in Moscow for the funeral of Patriarch Tikhon examined the document left by the late Patriarch, and then recognized Metropolitan Peter of Krutitsa as locum tenens of the Patriarchal throne until the lawful election of a new Patriarch. He was loyal to the Soviet government in the sense that he did not speak out against it publicly, but he completely refused to make any untrue statements in support of it or to meet any of its demands which were unacceptable to the Church. On 27th November / 10th December 1925 he was arrested. At first he was imprisoned in the Butyrka Prison, in a large cell together with common criminals, and then he was exiled to a remote part of Asia. A few days before his arrest Metropolitan Peter appointed Metropolitan Sergius, who was then in Moscow, as his deputy, and indicated two other possible deputies - Metropolitan Michael, the Exarch of the Ukraine, and Metropolitan Joseph of Petrograd, who was then still Archbishop of Rostov.
At first Metropolitan Sergius Stragorodsky did not sign the "Declaration" and was put in prison, but he was let out very soon after. This seemed highly suspicious to all the faithful. It turned out that now he had signed the Declaration. In other words, he had betrayed the Church to the Bolshevik government. He thereby deprived it of its own internal freedom in spiritual and administrative matters. When Metropolitan Peter learned that Metropolitan Sergius had signed this Declaration - in other words, that he had changed the whole course of the life of the Church - he wrote him two letters from prison, copies of which have been preserved. In these letters he said, very politely, "You, your eminence, had no right to change the course of the Church" i.e. to betray it to the Bolsheviks. He received no answer to these letters. And he was the real authority over Metropolitan Sergius. Clearly Sergius had concluded that by being arrested Metropolitan Peter had also been deposed from his position of authority in the Church, which is completely contrary to the Orthodox canons. Then Metropolitan Peter sent a letter by hand, thinking that it was the postal service that was at fault, and even then Metropolitan Sergius made no reply to his ecclesiastical superior, who was still his superior, even though confined to prison! For no Bolshevik government authority can deprive a single bishop or a single priest of his spiritual authority. This is something which you should know. Despite this, Sergius decided that he need no longer reckon with him as someone in a senior position. When Metropolitan Peter returned from his exile, the Bolsheviks realized that Metropolitan Peter was senior to Metropolitan Sergius in the Church, and then they immediately arrested him and shot him. None of the ruling bishops (and there were about ten of them) submitted to Metropolitan Sergius as the successor to the Patriarch. So they were all arrested, sent into exile, and ultimately killed. The Bolsheviks did everything possible to smooth the way for Metropolitan Sergius. Thus Metropolitan Sergius set out on a path drenched in the blood of the martyred bishops of Russia. On one occasion Lenin said, "If you need a Church, we will give you one, we will even give you a Patriarch, but it is WE who will give you your Patriarch. And it is WE who will give you your Church." Of course, Father, you do not know this, and so you have allowed yourself to write your composition. At the moment when Metropolitan Sergius ceased to recognize Metropolitan Peter of Krutitsa as his spiritual authority he deprived himself of the Apostolic Succession and became a usurper. Such was the path taken by Metropolitan Sergius, and after him by all the other patriarchs and metropolitans up to the present day, which is why we do not have any communion with the Moscow Patriarchate. It is a pseudo-patriarchate with a pseudo-patriarch at its head. This is the fundamental reason. So we do not point at it and say there, look what it's turned into, because the very heart of the matter is, that the Moscow Patriarchate has lost the Apostolic Succession, which is to say, that it has lost the Grace of Christ.
We have not the slightest intention of taking part in a Bishops' Council, or Sobor, jointly with the Moscow Patriarchate, and based on your statement this means that we will turn into a sect. How, after asserting this, do you have the moral right to be a rector of a parish in a Church, concerning which you have no faith at all in its canonical foundation?
Link:
http://www.monasterypress.com/priest.html
Bump for later reading.
SERGIANISM AS AN ECCLESIASTICAL HERESY (excerpt)
On July 16/29, 1927, the deputy of the locum tenens of Russian patriarchal throne, Metropolitan Sergius (Stragorodsky), issued his infamous "Declaration", in which he more or less unconditionally placed the Russian Church in submission to the God-hating atheists, declaring the joys of the Soviet state to be the Church's joys and the State's sorrows – the Church's sorrows.
Full link:
http://www.monasterypress.com/sergianism.html
On July 16/29, 1927, the deputy of the locum tenens of Russian patriarchal throne, Metropolitan Sergius (Stragorodsky), issued his infamous "Declaration", in which he more or less unconditionally placed the Russian Church in submission to the God-hating atheists, declaring the joys of the Soviet state to be the Church's joys and the State's sorrows – the Church's sorrows. This act was evaluated from several points of view by the confessors of the faith. Some defined it as apostasy in time of persecution (Metropolitan Anthony (Khrapovitsky); Hieromartyr Archbishop Victor of Glazov); others – as a canonical transgression or usurpation of the rights of the canonical first hierarch (Hieromartyr Metropolitan Cyril of Kazan); others – as schism (Hieromartyr Bishop Alexis of Voronezh); still others – as ecclesiological heresy (Hieromartyr Archbishops Demetrius of Gdov and Nicholas of Suzdal).
All of these definitions are correct, and lead in the end to a common judgement with regard to the status of that extra-ecclesiastical body known today as the "Moscow Patriarchate". Nevertheless, since there are some who refuse to accept that the Moscow Patriarchate is outside the Church unless it can be shown to have committed precisely heresy, it may be useful to consider the question of the heretical nature of the patriarchate from two points of view: (A) the historical development of Sergianism, and (B) the definition of heresy, and how such a definition applies to the Sergianists of the Moscow Patriarchate.
A. The Historical Development of Sergianism. Sergianism is similar to its sister-heresy of Ecumenism in that it has undergone a certain evolution in time. Let us briefly examine the several phases it has passed through since 1927:-
Full link:
http://www.monasterypress.com/sergianism.html
Yeah, that's why 300,000 Orthodox Priests, nuns, monks and deacons were murdered. Tell us another one.
It difference between those two Churches is the matter of honor and self respect.
Your ignorance on the subject speaks volumes.
It is not true. It took about ten years until end of 1920s before Soviets broke the resistence of the Russian Church and and another ten years to close all churches and imprison or kill most of the clergy.
The change happened after Nazi invasion of Soviet Russia - Stalin's regime was forced to allow opening of churches and release of surviving bishops in order to motivate Russian people to fight.
The persecutions of Russian Church were renewed under Khrushchev.
Polish Catholic Church saved her independence because Communists did not have enough time before death of Stalin in 1953 to crush her resistence. But in other Eastern European countries like Bohemia, Slovakia and Hungary they succeeded.
Does this blame game it make you "look good" Can you give me one example of an institution in Soviet Union which was less "compromized"? Are you one of these guys who blame Catholic Church for not stopping Hitler and blame Poles for not saving Jews from extermination?
Re: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1427574/posts
The ROCA/ROCOR are opening the gates for a Trojan Horse. They would do well to reconsider.
==Yeah, that's why 300,000 Orthodox Priests, nuns, monks and deacons were murdered.
Agreed. But the KGB Patriarchs, priests, nuns, and monks have been left in place. The blood of those 300,000 martyrs cry out for justice (which would include the removal of these perfidious apostates).
Great post. Thanks for the info.
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