1990 Epistle of the Synod of Bishops of the ROCOR
As God willed, in 1920 a portion of the one Church of Russia
found itself, as a result of the bloody Revolution, outside the
boundaries of the homeland, where thirty-four bishops, headed by
Metropolitan Anthony of Kiev, founded the Russian Orthodox Church
Outside of Russia. The flock of our Church has been comprised of
emigres from all parts of Russia. Thus has our Church existed for
seventy years. And now many heterodox Christians are converting
to the Orthodox Faith and joining it. The canons of the Church,
the decisions of the All-Russia Council of 1917-1918 and the 1920
decree of His Holiness Patriarch Tikhon form the foundation of
the portion of the Church of Russia which is abroad. Supreme
authority belongs to the Council of Bishops, who govern the
Church independently. But this temporary autonomy has not rent
apart the seamless robe of the Body of Christ.
The Russian pastors and flock abroad have always remained a
branch unsundered from and spiritually united with the Mother
Church, which has been crucified by the minions of Antichrist who
have risen up against Christ and His Church. Far from our
homeland, which has been cut off from us by the Iron Curtain, we
have lived through great struggles of the faithful children of
the Church and have experienced the tribulations of the Mother
Church as her own, rejoicing in her joys and fervently praying
for those who suffer in our native land.
In defense of the persecuted, Metropolitan Anthony, the First
Hierarch of our Church constantly appealed to the primates of the
autocephalous Churches, to the governments of Christian nations,
asking for moral help at each new blow directed against the
Church: The imprisonment of Patriarch Tikhon, the danger of the
false council of the Renovationist Schism, etc.
Our bishops have been part of the episcopate of the Church of
Russia, never having separated themselves from it. They
commemorated the name of His Holiness Patriarch Tikhon at the
divine services until kits repose. Afterwards, they commemorated
the name of the legitimate locum tenens of the Patriarchal
Throne, Metropolitan Peter of Krutitsa, on the basis of the
decision of the Council of 1917-1918, despite the many years he
spent in prison, until his repose in exile. The head of Our
Church remained and called himself the Metropolitan of Kiev until
the end of his life.
One after another, His Holiness the Patriarch and even
Metropolitan Sergius considered us their own and wrote to us
abroad. Yet Metropolitan Sergius, while only the deputy of the locum
tenens; unexpectedly exalted his own authority,
violated the episcopate's oneness of mind, and, contrary to the
opinions of the overwhelming majority of the hierarchs and
without consulting with them, issued his own declaration on the
unity of the interests of the Church and the atheist government.
The senior hierarchs, Metropolitans Peter and Cyril of Kazan,
condemned this act and severed communion with Metropolitan
Sergius.
The portion of the Church of Russia abroad followed their
example. The Council of Bishops, in their encyclical dated 9
September 1927, declared: "The free portion of the Church of
Russia is terminating administrative relations with the
ecclesiastical administration in Moscow [i.e., with Metropolitan
Sergius and his synod], in view of the fact that normal relations
with it are impossible and because of its enslavement by the
atheist regime, which is depriving it of freedom to act according
to its own will and of freedom to govern the Church in accordance
with the canons."
Thus, it was Metropolitan Sergius who created the schism
within the episcopate of the Church of Russia. Some (the
majority) trod the path of martyrdom; others chose that of a
forced compromise.
Within months of the regime's legalization of the
ecclesiastical administration unexampled reprisals were directed
against the majority of the bishops who disagreed with
Metropolitan Sergius. Audaciously, without having any right to do
so, Metropolitan Sergius retired the inflexible ones, personally
suspending them from serving the divine services, thus giving the
authorities grounds for bringing them to trial, imprisoning them
in jails and camps, and exiling them, where they died as martyrs
for Him Who loved them.
This vendetta against the episcopate brought it nearly to the
point of total annihilation. Metropolitan Sergius had to create a
hierarchy anew. Those bishops who managed to escape the
devastation went into the catacombs, i.e., led an illegal
existence.
Unvanquished catacomb Christians who totally repudiate the
contemporary Patriarchate of Moscow, despite terrible and
pitiless persecutions, exist in great numbers, by God’s
mercy, even in our times, though, alas, they have no single
hierarchy.
The free portion of the Church of Russia has remained
spiritually, and with regard to grace, with the martyrs and
confessors, glorifying their struggle and seeing there the glory
and triumph of the Church during the dark and bloody days of her
devastation.
Carefully preserving the memory of the martyrs and desiring to
emulate their struggle (in the not always easy conditions of life
abroad), the Council of Bishops, conscious of its duty before the
Mother Church, and supported by clergy and the faithful in
Russia, did what could not be done in the homeland: it
glorified all the new martyrs and new confessors as saints, entrusting
the fate of the Church and Russia to their prayers.
By the act of canonization, the Council of Bishops bore
witness to our real and unbroken bond in prayer with them in the
one Church of Russia.
With fear and trembling, and aware of our own unworthiness, we
consider ourselves their kinsmen in Christ Jesus.
We are striving to preserve outside Russia that for which they
received the crowns of martyrdom. And only the renunciation of
the martyrs can place us outside the Church of Russia. May God
forbid!
Now, when the carefully erected Iron Curtain is beginning to
crumble, we have the possibility to meet with and have direct
fellowship with our brethren and sisters in the homeland and to
rejoice in their steadfastness and firmness in the Faith and in
love for Christ. The grace of God strengthens them and puts the
ungodly to shame.
We believe and confess that in those churches of the
Patriarchate of Moscow where the priest fervently believes and
sincerely prays, showing himself to be not only a "minister
of the cult", but also a good shepherd who loves his sheep,
to those who approach him with faith, the grace of salvation is
accessible in the mysteries. Such churches are few in number on
the immense territory of the Russian land.
The churches of the catacomb Christians, our brethren, in
which the divine services are celebrated by priests who have
preserved canonical succession from those who received the crown
of martyrdom, the true archpastors of the Church, are even fewer
in number and inaccessible to the vast mass of believers.
This is why priests and believers from Russia are appealing to
us to cover them with our omophorion, to impart grace to them.
Our pastoral conscience tells us that we not only can, but we
must help them, investigating in each case the reasons which
impel them to turn to us. However, we are approaching this our
new ministry with great caution' trusting in the help of God, for
what is impossible for man is possible for God. We still do not
know how far the Soviet regime has become democratic and to what
extent perestroika is real. For 0ur part, we are ready to
extend our hand to those in need of our help, if God so blesses.
Will we be creating a schism within the Church by doing this,
as some who do not understand the Church's life of grace think
and say? They obviously have forgotten or do not know that the
schism Within the Church of Russia was caused sixty-three years
ago by Metropolitan Sergius and his followers.
The Patriarchate of Moscow has not overcome the terrible
consequences of the declaration, having lost the inner freedom of
the Church by flagrantly violating Canon 30 of the Holy Apostles,
and it stands resolutely and irrevocably on the path of
destruction, even now when all levels of society are freeing
themselves from the sins, false hood and hypocrisy of the past
decades.
In due course, former renovationists entered the
ecclesiastical administration of the Patriarchate of Moscow, and
they have introduced modernism and a passion for ecumenism.
The following question lies before us: Can the hierarchy of
the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia have its own
bishops in Russia, on Russian territory? We think and believe
that it not only can but must. For Russian bishops the land of
Russia in not the territory of another autocephalous church. The
territory of Russia is vast, and in it there are millions of
believers who remain without priests, without the nourishment of
grace. We are receiving a great many letters from believers who
are suffering from lack of spiritual food, in which they beg us
to provide them with priests. Like poor beggars they beseech us
to give them spiritual bread. Can we then place in their
outstretched hands the stone of indifference? Let it not be so!
It is our duty to do everything possible to satisfy their
spiritual hunger.
The Patriarchate of Moscow obviously cannot do this, and
therefore has no right to hinder us.
No one knows what still awaits our homeland, what changes will
occur in her life even in the near future. While there is a crack
open, possibly only temporarily, we must take advantage of it.
The rest is in God's hands; for our God is the God Who works
wonders. May His holy will be done!
3/16 May 1990
Bishops of the Council
From Orthodox Life, vol. 40, no. 3, May-June 1990, pp. 23-26.
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