Two Churches


I describe everything exactly as it was experienced by me in those days. Of course my interpretations were often biased and sometimes simplistic.

It is easy to conclude that my opinions about the various churches were determined solely by their acceptance (or not) of my trousers or the friendliness of their congregations. It may look this way but it was not so. It is true that I was stunned with the absurdity of the clothes-related situations and blind sticking to Pharisee like rules but it was only a part of the whole atmosphere which did not feel right to me. I felt very uneasy in the evidently monarchist and nationalistic environment in which Russianness was somehow placed before Orthodoxy. Back in the USSR I was brought up on the ideals of “equality and internationalism” ideals (how much they had to do with a real life is another matter); my major influence, the left-wing Orthodox priests and theologians were free from the nonsense of “Orthodox Nationalism” , not to mention anti-Semitism and Fascism. It is natural then that I felt and still feel suffocated in the close proximity of “the Orthodox nationalists”. I am simply a member of the Orthodox Church of course but it is not just my peculiarity: open the Gospels and see what Nationalism, anti-Semitism and other degrading humane dignity “-isms” have to do with Jesus Christ – nothing apart from the fact that nationalists and Priests murdered Him.

That was my impression of the ROCOR with its nationalism, monarchism, glorification of the “patriot” Vlasov, collaboration with the Nazis (not all the clergy but a substantial part), hatred for the USSR and Communism. The ROCOR disapproved the ROC (Moscow Patriarchate) because of a lengthy story the details of which would take too long to explain here. In short, the ROCOR considered the ROC to be an illegitimate daughter of the whole, undivided until 1917, Russian Orthodox Church. According to the ROCOR, after the death of Patriarch Tikhon Metropolitan Sergiy Stargorodsky took over power in the Church and sold himself and the Church to the State, receiving (later) the Patriarchal throne and the very limited freedom of conducting rituals under the total control of the State (a huge part of the Church did not approve, broke off and formed so-called Catacomb Church; it is noteworthy that such a catacomb priest baptized Fr Alexander Men). This change resulted in an unprecedented VCHK/…/KGB/FSB infiltration of the Church and the paralysis of the spiritual life.

I agree that the story is correct but cannot agree with the conclusion of the ROCOR that as a consequence the sacraments of the ROC are devoid of grace. I did not believe it many years ago when I did not know the full story and I do not believe it now, even after I became burdened by an extensive knowledge of the scale of corruption inside the ROC and even after the recent scandals which exposed the top clergy as cynical non-believers, some of them not unlike Nazi lunatics (and very much like ROCOR; there is certain irony in the fact that with the years each Church began looking more and more like the image created by its accuser). Nevertheless, I still maintain that its sacraments are true because I have experienced them as true and because I am convinced that God would never abandon those who believe in Him, even if they were the members of the most corrupted church in the history of the world.

That does not mean that Orthodox Christians cannot choose which Orthodox Church they need, or will fight for. Luckily for us we have options.
 

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