№ 15 - 2005.
Th
The Editorial Board is glad to inform our Readers that this issue of “Fidelity” has articles in English, and Russian Languages.
С удовлетворением сообщаем, что в этом номере журнала “Верность” помещены статьи на английском и русском языках..
Contents - Оглавление
1. Проповедь о Бориса (Ефремова) в день Св. Апостолов Петра и Павла. .
2. On Fr. Alexander's letter to the ROCOR Synod on July 14, 2005.
3. The spiritual Darwinism of Fr. Alexander Lebedev. Vladimir Moss
4. Покинутые православные патриоты. М.В. Назаров
5. Русская Православная Церковь, власть и народ. М.В. Назаров .
6. Экуменизм. Ипод. Н. Шевельчинский
7. Обновленчество. Ипод. Н. Шевельчинский
********************************************************************************
Эта
проповедь
была сказана
в
Джорданвилльском
Свято-Троицком
Монастыре
десять лет
назад, в 1995 году,
рясофорным
монахом
Борисом (Ефремовым).
Печатаем ее в
сокращении
ВО
ИМЯ ОТЦА И
СЫНА И
СВЯТАГО ДУХА!
Дорогие
братья и
сестры во
Христе.
Сегодня
мы празднуем
день святых
первоверховных
Апостолов
Петра и
Пренебрегавшие
всеми
опасностями
ради
христианства
и ради истины,
они не
Когда
усечена была
честная
глава
Павлова, от
раны истекла
кровь с
А Апостол
Пётр, для того
чтобы его
смерть не
была похожа
на смерть
своего
Богоучителя,
попросил
палачей
распять его
вниз головой,
чтобы быть в
Проходит
почти две
тысячи лет с
тех времён и
чем же могут
порадоваться
сегодня
святые
Апостолы
Пётр и Павел,
смотря с
небес на
С
самого
начала
проповедания
истины
Христовой,
Церковь
боролась с
Если
раньше
Православные
обличали
еретиков и
наказывали
их, то
Спаситель
прямо
называл
книжников и
фарисеев
лицемерами,
безумными,
Экуменизм
становится
неотъемлемой
частью жизни
всех
вероисповеданий
Не можем мы
остановить
попущенное
Богом, но
тогда пусть
все одетые
Имеется
достаточно
случаев,
когда
католические
общины в
Италии и в
Сегодня
даже сами
еврейские
газеты
отмечают, что
за последнее
время
Но
можно ли
называть
экуменические
сборища
Церковью
Христовой?
Нет, конечно!
На том же
Соборе
Московской
Патриархии в
декабре 1994
года
«Патриарх»
Алексей 2
закладывает
постройку
Храма Христа
Спасителя
На Родине
пробуют
восстановить
монархию,
только не
Самодержавную
«Ваши
радости –
наши радости».
И правда, этот
сергианский
лозунг
И после
всего этого у
нас
появляются
те, кто спит и
видит
«До
слёз горько
смотреть на
землю
Русскую, –
говорит наш
По стране
бродит 3
миллиона
бездомных
детей.
Души
человеческие
развращаются
порнографией
через газеты,
телевидение,
кино и
всякими
другими
способами.
Разграбление
исконных
земель
Русских и её
природных
богатств
идёт
Доллары
заменяют
рубли.
Скоро
по-русски
перестанут
говорить.
Алкоголизм
искусственно
вводится как
средство
геноцида
русского
Смертность
превышает
рождаемость
почти в два
раза.
Среди
населения
растут
фатализм,
скептицизм,
цинизм и
отчаяние.
Люди
перестали
различать
добро и зло.
А где голос
Церкви?
Почему
молчат её
служители,
главным
образом
Но
почему же
происходит
такое
страшное
отступление
от Бога,
Тепловатый
– он
равнодушен к
православному
учению, к
истине. Ему
И
что же
происходит с
людьми,
лишившимися
протянутой
Руки Божией?
Не
это ли самое
происходит
сейчас в мiре
с людьми,
обезумевшими
от
Дальше
звучит
приговор
суровый, но
справедливый:
«да будут
осуждены
Идёт
повальное
безразличие
к Истине, то
есть к Богу.
Но
не все
поддались на
удочку
сатаны и его
служителей.
Наша
Зарубежная
Церковь с
теми, кто в
невероятных
условиях на
Под
конец
хотелось бы
отметить, что
в последнее
время со всех
И в это
тяжёлое
время для
всех,
сознавая
наши немощи,
нам
Хотя мы и
грешим
каждодневно,
но дай нам,
Господи, не
отступить от
********************************************************************************************
On Fr. Alexander’s Letter to the
Synod on July 14, 2005:
That’s it?!! That’s all we have to show for after all those vaunted negotiations between the Church Abroad and the Moscow Patriarchate? After all the bloated hyperbole surrounding this “momentous time” in the church’s history? After our hierarchs have the rare pleasure of being in the presence of His Eminence, His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II (and a III there never will be)? After the negotiating commissions from both sides had their photo ops in the important cities of the world; Moscow, Munich, Paris? There they were, looking so studious and earnest, healing the wounds that afflict our two churches. A thorough examination of all the issues will be accomplished, in order to join together in complete harmony and go forward together to bring succor to our people. As they say, an elephant begat a fly.
First, we get the “documents,” the result of the commissions’ work; ham-handed Soviet bilge-water. Tortured prose saying Moscow will make some minor concessions, while it continues to do as it pleases, and our side sits there smiling silently. You have been assimilated! Now you will enjoy it and keep mum. Then Archbishop Kirill of San Francisco dons his rose-colored glasses and waxes poetically about the peace that will descend upon us all if we just do what Moscow wants. To make sure there is some steel added to the California fluff, Archbishop Mark then weighs in. The Teutonic message is loud and clear – you will take it or leave it, love it or leave it. Now, we simple-minded laypeople couldn’t possibly rise to the level of understanding that our bishops enjoy, so our hierarchs call in the village priest, Fr. Alexander Lebedeff, to give it to us straight; you guys are nobody, you were nobody and if you want to be somebody, you better “get real” and get with Moscow. Get your mind right, boy, and stop your whining.
In a condescending tone, Fr. Alexander sets out to explain the facts to us hysterical, uninformed ninnies. “Rapprochement” between the churches was always mandated, always desired, there was never a problem with the Moscow church. It was all just the paranoid delusions of some people. People who have a sick desire to see Metropolitan Sergius tar and feathered and all the Moscow clergy “scourged.” Not quite, Fr. Alexander. Nothing like taking the extreme views of an isolated few and applying them to the vast number of people who simply desire a reasoned, principled approach to such important matters.
Then Fr. Alexander launches into a rant of overheated rhetoric that is supposed to put us to shame and shut us up. We can’t possibly understand what it was like to live in the Soviet Union, how much they suffered, how they were forced to make compromises just to survive! How the church was their only hope, a shining beacon to lead them. And there at the forefront, fighting bravely with no concern for himself was Met. Sergius, martyr, hero and example to us all. Then the war came, and while we were enjoying scones and clotted cream, Met. Sergius and the Moscow clergy were manning the ramparts, laying down their lives for their homeland. A patriotism none of us are capable of. And we’re so selfish, we don’t even want to allow a simple monument to this great church leader. How dare we!
What bunk. Talk about buying into Soviet myth-building. The émigré communities throughout the world contain families from every period of our sad history from the 1917 Revolution on. They know very well what life in the Soviet Union meant. They endured many hardships and it broke their hearts to leave their homeland. They arrived in other countries with a suitcase and a few dollars in their pockets. They struggled to create a life for themselves and their children. They served in the military. And no matter where they were, their first priority was to gather their pennies and build a church to stay true to their faith. We all live the life ordained to us by God and carry the cross given to us. We don’t need to compare ourselves to others and decide who is better. The émigré community always concerned itself with those left behind in Russia and did not forget them.
Fr. Alexander continues with the accusation heard so often
from every priest supporting imminent union with Moscow; the opposition is made
up of thick-headed Cold Warriors who don’t “see the magnitude of the changes
in Church life” and want to “demonize
the clergy of the Moscow Patriarchate as if nothing has changed.”
How tiresome this has become already.
Let us repeat it again for the millionth time - most of us understand
very well how much has changed and we fervently wish to be a part of it.
We don’t seek to demonize the clergy, we seek to free them of their
unrepentant, compromised hierarchy, because among them nothing has changed!
If that wasn’t enough, Fr. Alexander ends with a personal attack; how small and insignificant our Church Abroad is and how dare we accuse the real Russian church of anything. The “old-line” parishioners have abandoned their churches, its mores and traditions and don’t know what it means to be Orthodox anymore. There has certainly been much erosion, but it is the sorrowful legacy of the fall of Russia, not weakness of spirit. Through intermarriage and other powerful forces, every émigré community becomes assimilated and begins to lose their cultural identity. In which case, instead of bowing and scraping before the recent arrivals from Russia for personal, prideful reasons, Fr. Alexander and other priests should work even harder to keep the “old-line” parishioners involved in the church. There are many priests who do just that and people old and young alike respond greatly.
What Fr. Alexander calls the “Southern Sub-Deanery” has been strong in their opposition and he singles them out for particular abuse. (These are the parishes throughout the southern part of America that are largely made up of devoted churchgoers who converted to Orthodoxy.) He ridicules their “Southern Baptist” roots and accuses them of “shunning” people who don’t agree with them. Fr. Alexander points out they are unlike the people in Russia, who “are completely supportive of their Russian Church and their Patriarch. To them there is no other Church.” How despicable for a senior priest to impugn the faithfulness of these people. Also, do you have to be from Pimsk, Minsk and Omsk to apply for membership in our church? The converts have brought new life to our parishes and are a testimony to the power of Orthodoxy.
They are completely supportive of their Russian Church and for them there is no other Church. That is exactly why they don’t want to see the Church betrayed! They understand that the Orthodox tradition is to stay true to its principles and not blindly follow, without question individual bishops. In the meanwhile, the “Southern Sub-Deanery” has a vibrant church life with many youth programs, which attract large numbers of children of all ages, Russian and other. But this group obviously presents an obstacle to church leadership either here or in Russia, so Fr. Alexander obliges to be the hatchet man and attempts to discredit them.
This has been the method of operating for clerics such as Fr. Alexander, disparage anyone who dares to question or disagree. You are to obediently march along in lockstep and believe that others know what is best for you and the church. We are to be consoled with general statements that do not resolve the issues before us. Every time the bishops and priests insist that the questions of sergianism, ecumenism and others have been settled, it becomes clearer that they haven’t been. Then they wonder why there is still a lack of agreement. We are left with an uneasy feeling, because there is nothing uplifting in these pronouncements, no sense of accomplishment. It all seems so tawdry and pedestrian.
It’s not surprising when leadership in all spheres of
life has largely disappeared. Where
are the great men of prayer of the past? Bishops
who finished theological academies, devoted their lives to study and knowledge?
Where are the political leaders who fought for the advancement of their
peoples? Nowhere to be found.
Replaced by selfishness, vanity and materialistic desires.
So no, Fr. Alexander, we will not just meekly submit to your rude
remarks. We will insist that the
Truth be served and that there are things in life that matter.
God grant us all the wisdom to do what is right.
***
THE SPIRITUAL DARWINISM OF FR. ALEXANDER LEBEDEV
Vladimir Moss
The title of Fr. Alexander Lebedev's recent
posting on the internet: "It's Time to Get Real" tells us much about
the nature and quality of its content. This is not going to be an exhortation to
follow the strait and narrow path, to struggle harder against the world, the
flesh and the devil. This is not going to be a warning about the end of the
world and the coming of the Antichrist and possibility of losing everything
through carelessness at the last moment. No: "it's time to get real",
that is, stop trying to run against the tide of the modern world. Be realistic:
you're too small, too insignificant, above all too out-dated.
"One is bound to come to the
conclusion," he begins, "that most people are pretty set in their
attitudes toward rapprochement between the two parts of the Russian
Church." So right from the beginning we get the subtle insistence: there
are only two parts of the Russian Church - the MP and the ROCOR (L). Don't even
dare to think that there might be other parts! Don't even dare to think that the
Russian Church jurisdictions that have broken away - or, more usually, been
thrown out - by Archbishop Mark and company since 1990: the
Seraphimo-Gennadiites, the ROAC, the ROCE, the RTOC, not to mention those
Catacomb Christians whom up till recently we have been taught to consider the
most heroic members of the Russian Church, can even be considered as
alternatives by the person objecting to the MP-ROCOR union! Besides ROCOR and
the MP, Fr. Alexander is saying, there is nobody. So if you reject the union
between them you'll be completely on your own!
Since when did such an argument count for
anything at all to a consciously confessing Orthodox Christian?! Did it count
for anything to St. Maximus the Confessor in the 7th century? Or St. Mark
of Ephesus in the 15th century? Or St. Hermogen of Moscow in the 17th century?
Did they not rather follow other advice, advice such as: "Strive even to
death for the truth, and the Lord God will fight for you " (Sirach 4.28),
"Follow not a multitude to do evil" (Sirach), "I will not be
afraid of ten thousands of people that set themselves against me round
about" (Psalm 3.6), "Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father's
good pleasure to give you the Kingom" (Luke 12.32).?
Having tried to frighten us with the prospect of
isolation, Fr. Alexander goes on to frighten us with the prospect of
medieval fanaticism: "Some who criticize the documents, especially
the ones on Church-State relations, attack them for not openly
criticizing Metropolitan Sergius personally. It is as if the demonization
of
Metropolitan Sergius is of the utmost importance. It seems that some people will
not be satisfied unless the remains of Metropolitan Sergius are exhumed,
and then burned in the middle of Red Square, while all the clergy of the Moscow
Patriarchate are made to kneel on broken glass, while scourging themselves
on their backs with whips of barbed wire."
Eloquent stuff, but can we really take it
seriously? I know of nobody who makes such demands (broken glass even - what will he think
of next!). Fr. Alexander is raising a straw man and delighting in pulling it down. No, our demand is simple: that those who followed the
narrow path, the path of God's commandments, continue to be praised, while those who veered away from that path, continue to be condemned.
That is what we do every year on the Sunday of Orthodoxy, when we praise the confessors of Orthodoxy and condemn and the heretics and
apostates. Among the latter is Metropolitan Sergius. That has been the teaching of the ROCOR and the Catacomb Church for many decades. It is
no longer the ROCOR's teaching now - because the MP has put its foot down and will brook no opposition. And since the ROCOR fears
isolation, fears being alone in the middle of this big, cold world, it surrendered. It's as simple and as brutal and as shameful as that.
"And some of our people simply have no
understanding of the mindset of people who suffered from 80 years of totalitarian
oppression. Just about everyone in the former Soviet Union suffered enormously from the Red Terror - and learned how to survive and live
and raise families in those circumstances. This required that people
make compromises, sometimes significant compromises, in order to survive. People were forced to pretend that they kowtowed to the party
line--and woe to the one who would fall out of step."
We might call this the doctrine of Spiritual
Darwinism. That is, when times get hard and the world, the flesh and the devil compel us,
at the cost of our lives, to make compromises, "sometimes significant compromises", in order to survive, then we must make the compromises!
Because we must survive at all costs! We must survive and "raise families"! Never mind that we shall then survive at the cost of our
eternal souls. Never mind that we shall survive in this life only in order to suffer eternal condemnation in the next. Never mind that
those families raised at the cost of so many lies and compromises may later come to regret their parents' weakness and despise the evil
society it created. The important thing is that the race should survive!
The martyrs, of course, did not survive. Many
of them didn't live to raise families. Many took their families with them into the camps
and torture-chambers. Evidently, from Fr. Alexander's point of view, they made the wrong choice. For if it is the fittest who survive, then
those who did not survive could not have been the fittest... Or perhaps I am being unjust to Fr. Alexander here. He may say he admires the
martyrs. But he is determined not to follow their example. And in any case since "just about everyone in the Soviet Union" supposedly
did
not follow their example - a lie, since until 1945 a staggeringly high proportion of the population did suffer for Christ - it is necessary
to follow the majority. Fr. Alexander, as well as being a spiritual Darwinist, is also a spiritual democrat - the majority is always
right.
"This is the reason why people who grew
up in such circumstances are willing to see the compromises made by Metropolitan Sergius and
the succeeding bishops of the Moscow Patriarchate as understandable,
and, in fact, necessary to ensure the survival of at least the structure of the Church and some number of churches and monasteries."
Yes, of course. "The sinner praiseth
himself in the lusts of his soul" (Psalm 9.23), and so he will praise and "understand"
those who sin like him. To do otherwise would be hypocritical - and there's no need to be hypocritical in today's climate, when sin is praised on all
sides. Moreover, we, too, can understand the compromises made by Sergius and the MP. Sin is easily understandable because we all live
in it - it is holiness that is more difficult to understand.
But, Fr. Alexander, you don't really mean
that these compromises were not only understandable but also "necessary" to ensure the
survival of at least the structure of the Church and some number of churches and monasteries?! But this is the purest Sergianism! I
expected you to make excuses for Sergius, but not to say that his sin was no sin at all!
Have your forgotten God? Have you forgotten
that without God it is impossible even to cross a field, as the Russian proverb says? No
church stands or falls without God willing it to stand or fall - and God's will is inclined to mercy towards the Church to the extent that
the Church follows His will. Man's efforts to shore up his existence without God and in despite of His commandments only hasten his
downfall. And this is precisely what happened in the case of Sergius and his declaration - it had the most disastrous and catastrophic
consequences possible, not only for the souls of the sergianists, but even as regards the survival "of at least the structure of the
Church".
Consider the words of St. John of San
Francisco: "The Declaration of Metropolitan Sergius brought no benefit to the Church. The
persecutions not only did not cease, but also sharply increased. To the number of other accusations brought by the Soviet regime against
clergy and laymen, one more was added - non-recognition of the Declaration. At the same time, a wave of church closings rolled over
all Russia... Concentration camps and places of forced labor held thousands of clergymen, a significant part of whom never saw freedom
again, being executed there or dying from excessive labors and deprivations."[1]
"One must also recognize the enormous
part that the victory over the Nazis in World War II and the entire war effort has on the
formation of the psyche of the people who lived in the Soviet Union. Some 50 million people [sic] dies as a result of that war. Entire
areas of the country were devastated. In some regions, after the war,
women outnumbered men by a factor of 8 to 1. Just think what that does in creating normal demographics!"
"Normal demographics". Yes, of
course, that is a very important consideration for the Spiritual Darwinist. It's all a question of
numbers and ratios. Not enough women, and the race will not survive! Funny, then, that now, in time of peace, when this wonderful religious
renaissance is supposedly taking place, the population of Russia is
continuing to decline at an alarming rate! How do you explain that, Fr. Alexander?
In any case, what does the figure of 50
million dead in World War II - the usually accepted figure is 20 million, very many of whom died
as a result of Soviet action against their own population - have to do with the rights or wrongs of Sergius' actions? Nothing whatsoever, in
my opinion. Unless, such staggering losses are seen as the punishment of God against a people that has apostasised from Him, which was the
opinion of some of the Catacomb saints, including some, like Elder Theodosy of Minvody, who have been glorified also by the MP.
About one thing we must be absolutely clear
when discussing World War II and the role of Metropolitan Sergius and the Russian Church in
it: the victory of the Soviet Union was a most terrible disaster for the Orthodox Church throughout the world. We know from the writings of
Alexander Solzhenitsyn and others that most of believing Russia at the time was hoping for a German victory. For the Germans, evil though
they were, could not be compared as regards antichristian zeal with the Soviets. If they had won, then communism would have been
destroyed, with staggering results for world history. Of course, it would have been necessary then to liberate Russia from the Germans.
But very many true Russian patriots viewed such a prospect with much
less alarm and foreboding than the continuation of the Soviet regime. For what was the result in fact? The consolidation of the power of
militant atheism from Berlin to Vladivostok and, a little later, to Peking; the enormously enhanced power and presige of communism
throughout the world, the destruction of the Churches of Eastern Europe and the enslavement of Romania, Bulgaria and Serbia to
communism; the Greek civil war between the monarchist and communists, which claimed one million victims; the fleeing of the ROCOR Synod from
Europe to America; the falling away of the American Metropolia and the Russian Church in China to the Soviets, etc., etc.
In this terrible victory of satan on a
world-wide scale, Metropolitan Sergius and the MP played a very important part by their
unstinting support for the militant atheists and in their loathsome worship of Stalin. Thus in response to the MP's description of Stalin
as "the chosen one of the Lord, who leads our fatherland to prosperity and glory", Metropolitan Anastasius, first-hierarch of the ROCOR,
wrote that this was the point "where the subservience of man borders already on blasphemy. Really - can one tolerate that a person stained
with blood from head to foot, covered with crimes like leprosy and poisoned deeply with the poison of godlessness, should be named 'the
chosen of the Lord', could be destined to lead our homeland 'the prosperity and glory'? Does this not amount to casting slander and
abuse on God the Most High Himself, Who, in such a case, would be responsible for all the evil that has been going on already for many
years in our land ruled by the Bolsheviks headed by Stalin? The atom bomb, and all the other destructive means invented by modern
technology, are indeed less dangerous than the moral disintegration which the highest representatives of the civil and church authorities
have put into the Russian soul by their example. The breaking of the atom brings with it only physical devastation and destruction, whereas
the corruption of the mind, heart and will entails the spiritual death of a whole nation, after which there is no resurrection."[2]
"So," continues Fr. Alexander,
"if there are efforts in some places to raise a monument to Metropolitan (later Patriarch) Sergius
in his birth city of Arzamas - it is perfectly understandable."
Of course, perfectly understandable. Just as
it was perfectly understandable that the Soviets should have raised a monument to Judas
Iscariot in the city of Tambov in 1919! Sin, as I said before, is always perfectly understandable. But not excusable...
"What matters is not Metropolitan
Sergius himself - but the course of subservience to the atheistic government that needs to be
condemned - and that was clearly and unequivocally done in the
approved Joint Documents."
It was not. There was no study of what this
subservience to the atheist government actually led the MP to, nor any unequivocal
condemnation of it, but only "excuse for excuses in sins".
"Some critics of the process have
brought out fiery denunciations of the Moscow Patriarchate by some of the renowned clerical
representatives of the Church Abroad--all made during the time when the Church in the Soviet Union was under totalitarian oppression - as
expressing the attitude that we must have toward the Moscow Patriarchate today. This is just the same as if one were to bring out
fiery speeches made by the President or other political leaders of the United States during World War II denouncing Nazi Germany or Japan -
and say that they reflect the attitude that we should have today toward the German or Japanese governments or people. At that time,
Germans and Japanese were demonized--and called "gooks" and
"krauts" and other offensive names.
"Times change..."
Ah yes, that favoured argument of the
Darwinists: times change. Just as the biological Darwinists, having failed to provide any direct
evidence for evolution, resort to the "argument": "billions
of years passed, and in that period new species must have evolved", so it is
with the spiritual Darwinists. Times have changed, so the MP must have changed for the better. But has it?
Fr. Alexander tries to show that both the MP
has changed by a long series of statistics: "20,000 new churches! 600 new monasteries!
60 new seminaries and pastoral schools! Thousands of parochial
schools! Thousands of religious newspapers, web sites, magazines, radio and television programs!" He even tells us how much more he
rakes in from his parishioners in Los Angeles, as if his parish were
already part of the MP!
All very impressive, but just what does it
prove? Nothing, if all this external activity is not matched by inner holiness and the inner
regeneration of the people. Of course, the possibility of such a regeneration cannot be excluded, and in fact several prophecies talk
about the regeneration and resurrection of Russia - but only after the enthronement of a truly Orthodox tsar and the removal of almost all of
the bishops of the official Orthodox Church.
But now, when polls show that fewer people
believe in God in Russia than in America or Western Europe, and those who believe
entertain all sorts of false beliefs and superstitions (especially prevalent is the belief in reincarnation and the idea that abortion is
permissible), it is much more likely that it is the following prophecy
of Bishop Theophan the Recluse that is being fulfilled: "Although the Christian name will be heard everywhere, and everywhere will be
visible churches and ecclesiastical ceremonies, all this will be just appearances, and within there will be true apostasy. On this soil the
Antichrist will be born..."[3] And the Antichrist, according to
another prophecy of St. Seraphim of Sarov, will be a Jew born in Russia...
Fr. Alexander cites the following example in
support of his thesis that the MP really has changed: "Archbishop Vikenty clearly
states in his answers that women should not wear slacks. Period. Not
just in Church, but anywhere..."
Well now, that is an achievement! And how
typical of the pharisaical hierarchs of the MP, who strain at a gnat (slacks on a
woman outside church) and swallow very many enormous camels! Thus as against this enthusiasm for getting women out of trousers, we can cite
the following facts: the MP hierarchs are deeply immired in the pan-heresy of ecumenism; they kow-tow to the neo-Soviet government of
the Freemason Putin in a disgracefully servile manner; they allow some priests to idolise Stalin publicly, and others to agitate for the
glorification of Rasputin and Ivan the Terrible, and yet others to build sectarian communes that destroy families; they build churches on
Mafia money and import alcohol and tobacco duty-free; they allow widespread homosexuality both amongst themselves and in the
monasteries; they persecute and slander True Orthodox Christians and steal their property...
Enough said. The fact of the matter is that
the shining cupolas and trouser-free churches of the MP hide an inner corruption and
shamelessness that is frightening in its depth and extent. There has been no repentance, and what change there has been since the time of
Metropolitan Sergius has been undoubtedly for the worse.
But one thing we can follow Fr. Alexander in
congratulating them on: they have survived. Like the "fitter" species of the
biological Darwinists, and like the "superior" races of the social
Darwinists, they have survived by a process of natural selection - that is, by selecting out of their midst all the true confessors of the faith, and
selecting into their midst assorted apostates, criminals, bouncers, KGB agents, sexual perverts and unscrupulous business men. And now,
through the mouths of turncoats like Fr. Alexander, they are propounding the cardinal doctrine of spiritual Darwinism, otherwise
known as Sergianism: might is right! We have the numbers, the money, the churches, and the political power, therefore we are right, and
therefore you must join us on our terms or be cast ignominiously into the "dustbin of history"!
As in the original debates on Darwinism, we
have to choose our ancestors, the race to which we wish to belong. "The question is
this," said Benjamin Disraeli in Oxford in 1864: "Is man an ape
or an angel?" And we must answer with him: "My Lord, I am on the side
of the angels." That is, we are on the side of the martyrs and confessors who, living as if without bodies, confessed the truth of the Orthodox
Faith event to the shedding of their blood. We are not on the side of the apes, the beast-like men who think only of physical survival, and
of whom the Prophet-King David said: "Man, being in honour, did
not understand; he is compared to the mindless cattle, and is become like unto them" (Psalm 48.21).
July 2/15, 2005.
Deposition of the Robe of the Most Holy Mother of God.
St. Swithun, Bishop of Winchester.
[1] St. John Maximovich, The Russian Orthodox Church Abroad. A Short
History, Jordanville, NY: Holy Trinity Monastery, 1997, pp. 28-29. Italics mine (V.M.). Even a recent biography of Sergius by an
MP author accepts this fact: "If Metropolitan Sergius, in agreeing in
his name to publish the Declaration of 1927 composed by the authorities, hoping
to buy some relief for the Church and the clergy, then his hopes not only were
not