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To: Cronos; annalex; sergey1973
Kosta, do you have any details on the underground Russian church during communist times?

I don't Cronos. maybe your other two pings may. But many clergy died under the godless regime immediately after the Revolution. Stalin revived the Church when Hitler attacked Soviet Russia. After the war, the Church naturally gravitated towards the free world and was suspect.

Aseparate mMetropoly was founded for the Serbian Orthodox Archiocese of America and Canada that was polticially set apart from patriarchate in Belgrade for the same reason the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia (ROCOR) was formed: Serbian Patriarch German was uspected of having "collaborated" with the communists, and many priests were suspected of being infiltrated UDBA (KGB-like) service employees.

I think german's name was cleared and now the Serbian Church in America is fully reunited with the Patriarchate in Belgrade, just as ROCOR and the ROC have come to an agreement for reunification.

PS haven't heard from you in a while. Good to have you back.

138 posted on 04/07/2005 4:48:28 AM PDT by kosta50 (Eastern Orthodox is pure Christianity)
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To: kosta50; Cronos; sergey1973
The church was martyred by Lenin immediately after the Bolshevik Revolution. Priests were murdered wholesale; those who were not shot on the spot were hauled off to Solovki, where they died.

That was the greatest assault of the Devil on Christ's church since Nero. Mother Russia has never recovered. The hostility to this saintly Pope is another symptom of the wounds that still bleed.

A docile remnant survived physically and is now known as the Orthodox Church in Russia. Initially, few churches were allowed to operate; in rural areas a visit to church could take days. The buildings of the closed churches were desecrated and blown up. Being of solid construction, the stone carcasses still stood. Crows nested in the broken cupolas. The icons were typically rescued by the peasants and hidden in homes. Public religion became the domain of fearless grandmothers and intimidate beyond their wits know-nothing priests that learned to colaborate with the state.

Stalin's near demise in The Second World War in 1941 produced an accomodation. A few more churches were allowed to reopen and persecution of the state-recognized church officials stopped. In return the Church anathemized the Germans and blessed Stalin's regime.

Honest, even heroic priests continued to do their duty in slowly reaching out to the younger generations and teaching the universal values. Nevertheless the Seminaries were wholly penetrated by the agents of the state and the average priest would studiously avoid any political controversy.

There is no reason to think that the interpenetration between the state and the church is any less today. Indeed, it is compatible with the Orthodox model of church-state relations, and the modern Russian state seems to be genuinely sympathetic to the church. Putin, for example, seems to be a church going Christian and so was Yeltsin.

It is entirely possible that the secular forces of the Russian state had an informal say in the Patriarchy's rejection of Vatican's entreaties, but of course, some people need to die or at least retire before we know, -- if ever.

154 posted on 04/07/2005 10:18:20 AM PDT by annalex
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