The Return of ROCiE? New Bishops, Organization, Glorification

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(source: roca-sobor.org) In a flurry of communications that appeared of late from their official website, the Russian Orthodox Church in Exile (Vladimir/Anastassy), in what appears to be rapid response to events in other Russian TOC Churches, have held a second Episcopal council since the splintering of ROCIE in March of 2007 and again in November– and their reorganization into two districts (see here for article).

During their most recent Hierarchical Sobor which completed on Nov 26 (New Style), two new Bishops were elected for the ROCIE: Bishop Victor of Paris and Western Europe, and Bishop Alexey, vicar for Moldova. The Council also announced that it officially would glorify the holy Metropolitan Philaret on Aug. 23, 2009, in both Ukraine and Canada. Both the RTOC and the ROCOR-PSCA held glorification ceremonies last month. However, the decision to glorify Metropolitan Philaret had been planned on the part of the ROCIE since March of 2007, according to the Russian archives of their websites, and had remained in planning stages due to the splits that took place within the Church.

It appears that the ROCIE is now reorganizing, and issued through the Sobor statement a sharp response again refusing to recognize the ROAC, the Luriyites, the ROCOR (Anthony) and the single-handedly consecrated grouping under Abp Anthony Rudei. However, these condemnations paled in comparison to the statement they had towards the PSCA a paragraph earlier, condemning Metropolitan Agafangel of the PSCA as one who “persecuted the elder-Metropolitan Vitaly, and trusting in Archbishop Laurus until the very last moment” and reiterated that with the PSCA they could have no communication.

Finally, in a bizarre twist of events it was reported that a miracle-working icon of Our Lady of Vladimir was venerated with an Akathist done before it– in a temporary chapel. It appears that in the midst of the reorganization, Bishop Vladimir was removed from the home of Mr and Mrs Peter Budzilovich, and the house chapel of the New Martyrs in New York was dismantled. Services were held in a temporary location, and Bishop Vladimir suddenly finds himself without a permanent residence. NFTU

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