Abp. Sophrony, Bp. Dionysius and Clergy (ROCOR-A) Respond to Recent Events in ROCOR-A
October 30, 2014 (Source: http://kondakov.ws/blog)
(warning: machine translation)
Dear brothers and sisters, in a watershed in the history of not only Russia but the whole of humanity, when we see the approach of the most terrible apocalyptic event, we, the undersigned, hierarchs, priests, religious and laity Russian parishes of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of appeal to you.
Great grief came on Russian land: mirovogo forces managed to ignite the flames of lawlessness fratricidal confrontation, thousands of mothers mourn their dead children; many hundreds of thousands of refugees from the Ukraine filled towns and villages of Russia.
MIP was on the verge of not only cold but also hot mirovoy war. In our temples is happening augmented prayer for peace and ending the conflict; our believers – each according to his strength – in word and deed seeks to support people who have been victims of this war.
We believe that today, every member of our Church, from the First Hierarch and ending with the most simple believer should be a peacemaker in his deeds, words and fervent prayers, remembering the commandment of Christ: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God” (Matt. 5 9).
But, unfortunately, we have to admit that some of our members are trying to change the entire course of a traditional ROCOR church life by putting on the high road to the historical hatred of Russia.
Is there an impending split in ROCOR-A?
These trasnsaltiosn of the articles are difficult to follow.
Fr. Peter,
If I have the time, I can touch up the google translation to make it more flowing; however, while the machine translations are always difficult, you still can get the basic idea (even if you can’t read Russian). If you read the response and the link, you will see that, though Abp. Sophrony, Bp. Dionysius, and other clergy and laity in ROCOR-A are upset at what they say are uncanonical actions by Met. Agafangel at a recent synod meeting, that they will nevertheless not break communion. Much of this has largely to due with the feeling among Russian ROCOR-A people in Eastern Ukraine and Russia proper, that the ROCOR-A HQ in Odessa is pro-Ukrainian nationalist. At least, that is what I gather. I did think it was interesting that Nazarov is still in good standing among the ROCOR-A Bishops, Abp. Sophrony and Bp. Dionysius, and that they and other clergy and laity in ROCOR-A Russia don’t recognize the excommunication pronounced by Met. Agafangel against him as being canonical (or don’t recognize it so anymore).
In Christ,
Fr. Enoch
HmkENoch,
Do Bishops, Abp. Sophrony and Bp. Dionysius support Nazarov? Is this not Nazarov who promotes union between Catholics and the Moscow Patriarchate?
Fr. Peter,
I don’t know much about Nazarov other than he wrote some books against the Jews, Russian nationalism, and was involved in a controversy with some hierarchs. If you have any information regarding what you say, please post a link.
In Christ,
Fr. Enoch