(Uncanonical) +Filaret of the UOC KP with Catholic Cardinal Lubomyr
Posted on 04/17/2006 10:27:29 AM PDT by x5452
17 April 2006, 14:58 Division in Russian Orthodox Church senseless - patriarch
Moscow, April 17, Interfax - Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia Alexy II said on Monday that he prays for the unity of the Russian Orthodox Church inside and outside Russia in every service he ministers.
"Today there are no reasons for schism between the Moscow Patriarchate and the Russian people who found themselves abroad during the Revolution. It is our duty to resolve problems that remain in our relations," he said.
Many Russian emigrants have died and the Russian Orthodox Church outside Russia "is losing its Russian nature," he said.
He called on members of the Russian Orthodox Church outside Russia who still accuse the Moscow Patriarchate of cooperation with the Bolsheviks to review their opinion.
The accusations are mostly based on the appeal by Metropolitan Sergius (Stargorodsky), who asked the Soviet authorities not to regard the Church as a counter-revolutionary organization in 1927. Some Russian emigrants viewed the appeal as a form of cooperation with the atheistic regime.
Metropolitan Sergius was trying to rescue the Church and put an end to the executions of clerics on counter-revolutionary charges, Alexy II said. The metropolitan showed that the Church rejoices at the Fatherland's joys and grieves at its sorrows, he said.
Unfortunately that is the problem with many of the Orthodox churches (esp in America)--they are too fixated about their Russian-ness or their Greek-ness. As long as their doctrinal Orthodoxy is intact there shouldn't be any worry. Many non-ethnics have come into the Orthodox (esp. OCA & Antiochian) Church and though admire the beauty of the liturgy, profundity of the doctrine, rich cultural origins----but are perturbed by the ethnic club scene. ROCOR has an exceptional reputation for questioning those who visit their parishes--oh you're not Russian? ---as do many (not all) Greek parishes.
The ROCOR one we go to has a lot of converts, and they do a mixed slavonic english liturgy. A lot of folks can't speak Russian there.
It varies with each parish though i've heard the same of OCA parishes that have Russian in the name.
"Many Russian emigrants have died and the Russian Orthodox Church outside Russia "is losing its Russian nature," he said."
Phyletism!
Orthodoxy's greatest sin seems to be its forgetting its catholic mission and focusing upon being XYorZ Orthodox rather than being a smaller part of the larger Catholic Church.
I think this is a larger part of why I have chosen to practice my own Orthodox faith within the context of Byzantine Catholicism. The Roman Catholic Church's fights with secular control in the name of catholicity have kept such ethnic issues to a minimum.
I'm not denying they have existed, but phyletism is virtually unknown in Catholicism.
That's laughable wrong.
Orthodoxy is united by a common universal faith.
Individual parishes do commit Phyletism as Kolo mentioned but it is hardly universal, nor is an established church practice.
(BTW the Catholic church seems fine with Phyletism in Ukraine where the Nationalist KP is friendlier than the MP).
"I'm not denying they have existed, but phyletism is virtually unknown in Catholicism."
WOW! Not where I grew up. Trust me, an Irish Catholic would be more likely to go to the local synagogue than to the French Church, and vice versa. Up in Canada it is even worse.
From personal experience, I have found the Orthodox parishes, save for a few in the OCA won't accept you as a full member unless you are X,Y or Z ethnicity.
I'm American of irish heritage. Been to Orthodox churches all over the place, including Russia.
Never once had a problem.
"From personal experience, I have found the Orthodox parishes, save for a few in the OCA won't accept you as a full member unless you are X,Y or Z ethnicity."
With all due respect, that's ridiculous. The overwhelming number of converts to Orthodoxy in the country are either going to the AOA, the GOA or ROCOR and I suspect 99% of them are from non-ethic Orthodox backgrounds.
Most of the Orthodox converts I have met report a feeling of unwelcomeness in those Orthodox parishes that aren't predominately composed of converts. If you aren't Greeks, Copts, Russians, Romanians, etc., then you aren't welcome in those parishes.
Kolo, I am speaking from my own first-hand experience with Orthodox-convert friends.
For all practical purposes phyletism in the RC church in the US is dead. Maybe in Canada it still goes on because you have a poltical situation going on there with Parti Quebecois. RC's probably have a bit of a racial thing that no one speaks about. Eg; if a parish goes majority Hispanic, the whites go elsewhere. I know I am gonna get a lot of flak of that statement.
There's an interesting Orthodox parish in Manhattan (OCA). The priest and deacon are American born cradle Orthodox, very dedicated men. The history of that parish is very interesting. About 20 years ago it started to get an influx of converts. The old baba's (both 1st generation American and foreign born) were (& still are) extremely welcoming and loving. But then a new flood of immigrants started arriving (mostly Rumanians & Georgians, with an occasional Russian). It isn't that there's any calculated coldness on anyone's part. It's just that most of these people have limited English and more interested in socializing with their own paesans. See, the old 1st generation babas were a great bridge between the old and the new. But in their heyday there was no cradle v. convert thing, or even an ethnic issue because the composition was pretty homogeneously eastern European. It was more family with grandparents, parents & kids.
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