September 6/19 2015 To
the Holy Synod of
Commemoration
of the Miracles The Russian True Orthodox
Church
of the Holy Archangel Michael
Our
Common Duty:
The
Unity of the True Orthodox in Truth and Love
By
this all will know that you are my disciples:
if
you have love for one another.
John
13:35
Your Eminence, Your Graces,
Most Honored Brother Hierarchs in the Lord!
Please allow the least and
youngest of Your brothers to address You with this humble letter of plea for
the unity of true Orthodox Christians.
One of the greatest
blessings of our work in the vineyard of the Serbian Church in these difficult
times has been the true brotherly love, understanding, and support that we have
experienced from Your Hierarchs, Holy Synod and the entire Russian True
Orthodox Church. Your concern for our
fragile Serbian True Orthodox Church is a great comfort to us, and we pray to
continue in communal growth and unity in the Holy Faith in which the Lord has
called us to be fellow fighters.
In the spirit of openness
and brotherly trust which has always existed between us, we would like to begin
an exchange of reflections on the direction we should take for the unity of the True Orthodox Churches.
As You know, the Holy
Fathers warn us of two great dangers which can separate us from the
Church: heresy and schism. In our times, the great majority of the
historical Orthodox Churches, or to be more exact, the institutions and their
followers, have fallen into the heresy – or, rather, pan-heresy - of ecumenism,
most likely the greatest heresy of all time.
Meanwhile, within the small minority of True Orthodox remaining, numberless
schisms have appeared. Thus many who
would seek refuge in the True Church and who sincerely desire to abandon the
ruins of “World Orthodoxy,” can only be scandalized and confused, and ask,
“where is the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church”?
A
pure confession of faith is absolutely necessary for someone to be in the
Church, but it is not enough.
Just as we strive to
confess the faith, so at the same time and with the same fervor should we
strive to be in communion with those who share our confession. Just as we should be the champions of True
Orthodoxy, so should we be champions for the unity of the Church. We must never be satisfied with such a state
of affairs as this in which those who confess the Orthodox faith are
nonetheless ecclesiastically separated and cannot commune of the Holy Mysteries
of Christ together.
In light of the great need
for the unity of the True Orthodox, we would like to ask You to reconsider two
of Your recent statements:
1.
The statement of
December 11, 2014, in which You categorize the union of the former “Synod in
Resistance” with the Church of the True Orthodox of Greece as the fall of the
Greek TOC into the heresy of crypto-ecumenism or “Cyprianism,”
And
2.
The announcement of
August 11, 2015 of the reception of Greek clergy “temporarily under the
omophorion of the Hierarchical Synod of the RTOC until the establishment of a
hierarchy of the True Orthodox Church of Greece” with the intention of the RTOC
establishing an episcopacy of the Greek TOC, on account of the fact, as it
states in the announcement, “that the current hierarchy has departed from an
unsullied Orthodox confession of faith which is the result of a union with the
Greek Synod in Resistance.”
Of course, we share Your concern about “Cyprianism” and are
wary of the direction which the Greek TOC has taken in entering into this
union. Be assured that we are on guard,
like allied firefighters, who after the wildfire (Cyprianism) has been
extinguished, keep vigil over the ashes from
which in some places sometimes appears some smoke. The Greek TOC, however, until now has not in
any way demonstrated a fall into heresy, and we believe that it is
inappropriate to qualify them as apostates or heretics. There is no reason to pronounce such a severe
and final condemnation, which declares, “they are finished, they are outside
the Church.”
In order to
eliminate any doubts about the Orthodox confession of the Greek TOC after the
union of March 2015, we consider it needful to address a representative of the
Synod of the True Orthodox Christians of Greece, most likely Bishop Photios,
the secretary of their Synod, directly and personally, in order to clarify the
situation by asking him questions to
which we wish to know the answer, and to become acquainted with his synod’s
point of view. Too often in the history
of the battle of the True Orthodox, over the last few decades, there was no
attempt to establish honest communication and mutual understanding among
hierarchs who, as it became apparent later, did not differ in matters of faith.
This mistrust, this coldness in relationships and lack of a fiery desire for
our brother’s salvation, this lack of Christian love, have led to various
schisms which have sorrowed and destroyed many souls.
In any case
this would be an opportunity to begin a dialogue about the resolution of
problems which the Greek TOC created with their hasty and unconsidered
reception of Metropolitan Agathangel into communion, which was a rough
interference into the unresolved internal problems of the Russian Church.
We know
very well that Your and our experiences with the Synod of the Greek TOC were
often difficult, but in spite of this we are still called to struggle for the
unity of the Church and to show true Christian love, long-suffering and
forgiveness, which implies the leaving aside of all personal motivations and
feelings so that we can dispassionately fulfill God’s will.
It is very
likely that there is no hierarch in the world at this moment with whom it would
be more difficult for us Serbian bishops to renew dialogue than with Archbishop
Kallinikos and his Synod. Nonetheless,
we honestly believe that this is what we are called to do. If the judgment that they have fallen into
heresy is not correct, if they have in fact made “Cyprianism” a thing of the
past, and if they have brought into process the formation of a large, united
True Orthodox community, including the sizable and ecclesiologically very
strict Romanian Old Calendar Church, then we have the obligation to begin a
dialogue with them with the goal of the establishment of normal church
relations. Not to do this would be the
same as opposing Christ Who summons us to unity, Who said to His disciples, “By
this all will know that you are my disciples: if you have love for one another.”
What then
should be done? Your holy Synod can make
an announcement that, despite the reasons for which you look critically upon
the union of the Greek TOC and the Synod in Resistance, upon the petition of
your brother Serbian True Orthodox Church, you will temporarily withdraw your
two announcements in expectation of further research and discussion. We, the Serbian hierarchs, are ready to
participate in a common session of our two sister Churches in order to examine
the entire problem and form a shared position about these matters. Then together we can address the bishops of
the Greek TOC, explaining to them our concern and seeking that they clarify
their position on these questions. If we
do not begin this and carry it through, if we do not give them the chance to
make themselves clear, then we become “judge, jury and executioner,” which
corresponds neither to our actual position in this matter, nor to the way in
which great and holy Fathers dealt with such situations in the past.
If we
honestly examine the history of the Russian Church Abroad, we will notice that
our fathers in the faith, from whom we have our apostolic succession, including
St. Philaret, never published on a synodal level such a clear and thorough
condemnation of ecumenism as that of the
ecclesiological statement of the Greek TOC in March 2014. They never declared that any of the “World
Orthodox” jurisdictions were “without grace.” They never formally ceased
communion with anyone except the Moscow Patriarchate, the North American Metropolia
(now the OCA), and the Evlogians. They never could agree on what the Anathema
of 1983 actually meant, whom it refers to, and whether it was in their power to
apply it to anyone outside of their own flock.
All the affirmations that the Anathema of 1983 was of world-wide
significance were personal opinions of individuals, none of which was a
hierarch of the Russian Church Abroad.
Yet this is
the very Church which consecrated Archbishop Lazarus, who, as it is known, in
regards to the validity of the Moscow Patriarchate’s and other ecumenists’ holy
mysteries had a stance very similar to “Cyprianism.” The Russian Church Abroad from which the
hierarchy of the RTOC was born was in communion with the Cyprianites for nearly
a decade. Only in the Church-Laity Sobor
of 2008 in Odessa was a clear stance against Cyprianism defined.
You have
grown in your understanding of the real state of affairs in World Orthodoxy,
and now have decided to take a stricter position about it. When your bishops Dionysius and Ireneus left
you, it was for this very reason, that you had changed your position about the
holy mysteries in “World Orthodoxy.” Not
all True Orthodox came to this strict understanding at the same speed, but
rather gradually, as God enlightened them.
If my True Orthodox Synod arrives at a strict position about these
questions before another True Orthodox Synod, does that make us “The Church”
and all the rest “schismatics and heretics”?
Do they have to make repentance to us, even if we until only recently
shared those same positions?
It is a
similar matter with Metropolitan Agathangel, who justified his separation from
the other Russian hierarchs because of their anti-Cyprianism, which he declared
a sick extremism that devastated the church.
The “Agathangel Synod” jurisdiction is built on these Cyprianist
doctrines. Nevertheless, the union of
March 2014 enrolled Metropolitan Agathangel, despite all of his shortcomings,
into the ranks of those who took a stand on the firmly Orthodox foundations of
the Ecclesiological statement of March 2014, which indirectly meant a clear
rejection of the Cyprianite teachings.
This is not
a matter of disagreement about the dogmatic teaching of the Church that heretics
are outside of Her and that the mysteries of those outside the Church are not
salvific. Rather, it is a disagreement
about the application of this
teaching in our situation. In the
attempt to make a basis for the manner in which this teaching should be
applied, the Cyprianites went astray into a dogmatic error in that they
asserted that they know that the
grace of God remains with public and unrepentant heretics until they are anathematized
by some special body, a so-called “unifying council.” Those who hold to such a teaching will in the
end come to the conclusion that no single heretic has ever been excommunicated
by the Church. It turns out that no one
is a heretic if he was not excommunicated by the Church first! However, the Church excommunicates heretics because they have a heretical
confession; She does not “create”
heretics by excommunicating them! They
have abandoned such a stance, as can be clearly seen by the Ecclesiological Statement
of March 2014, which states that the Church does not assert that the mysteries of the heretics have grace. The Greek TOC bishops who received them into
communion decided for the sake of the unity of the Church not to seek from them
a public repentance for heresy, accepting their explanation that these theories
had never been accepted as dogmas, but were rather like some kind of
experimental attempt to deal with these complicated theological questions. If the former bishops of the Synod in
Resistance were insincere when they said this, then let the sin be on their
souls. The Greek TOC condescendingly
chose to accept their explanation, even though they were the ones who had
suffered the most in the misfortunes created by these dogmatic errors and the schism
of the reposed Metropolitan Cyprian. As
they realized that the flock of the Synod in Resistance has a great respect
towards Metropolitan Cyprian, and that his posthumous anathematization would
needlessly drive these people away from uniting to the Church, they decided to
cover his errors with their mercy.
Instead of
reproving the hierarchs of the Greek TOC for their action, would it not be
better to talk with them about it, aware of the fact that we ourselves have for
many years fought to understand these things and come to our own ecclesiology, and
that we as well have only with much difficulty applied this ecclesiology in our
own pastoral situations. The dogmatic
error of Cyprianism asserts that they know
that grace is present among the heretics, and that heretics will have the grace
of God until the end of time unless they are condemned by some imaginary organ,
a so-called “unifying council.” The
position of our fathers from the Russian Church Abroad, on the other hand, was
that they did not yet know whether the
Official Orthodox were outside the Church, in that situation which reigned in
the twentieth century, and that they did not make so bold as to make a ruling
about it.
Thus,
if we, in our situation, several decades later, have to confirm publicly who is
within and who is without the Church, let us do this with fear and trembling, always having in mind the unity of the
Church. The Church of the TOC of
Greece and the True Orthodox jurisdictions who are in communion with her are
discussing the holding of a general council of all True Orthodox to resolve the
problem of the practical application of the church teaching that “outside the Church
there is no salvation” to the ecumenists. Should we not support them in this
endeavor? Should we not also wish to be
a part of this council?
Our wish, furthermore, is that the Russian
Church consolidate and strengthen herself by means of the union of your Holy
Synod with the Synods of Metropolitan Agathangel and Metropolitan Theodore of
Suzdal. You are three related parts of
the Russian Church, who today preserve an identical confession of faith and
even have the same sources of apostolic succession. Love and zeal for the unity of the Church can
heal all the previous wounds and bring the Russian Church closer to the
glorious, lofty place it always occupied among the family of Orthodox
Churches.
We beg you
to forgive our boldness, venerable Fathers and
beloved Brothers in Christ, Hierarchs of the Russian TOC,
and that you receive our words in the spirit of brotherly love in Christ, the
same in which they have been written.
+Bishop
Akakije of Uteshiteljevo
President
of the Holy Hierarchal Council
of the Serbian True
Orthodox Church
+Bishop
Nektarije of Shumadia
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