Metr. Agafangel Declares Other ROCOR Jurisdictions Lack Grace

Editor’s note: While I am willing to wait for a clarification, this is absolutely non-sensical. It would appear to me that in the comments of the Metropolitan’s blog post, while the Metropolitan explains that he means that a “lack of peace” is evidence of the denial of grace (which really makes no sense), he means quite clearly that other jurisdictions have no grace, and this flies in the face of other comments and positions he has taken. This flies in the face of Ukaze 362. When debates about the ROCOR-A’s positions on other jurisdictions started a couple of years back, we were handed the idea that because they took the higher ground of dialogue, they were more right than other ROCOR jurisdictions, which Metropolitan Agafangel himself never hesitated to point out. With this declaration, there is now practically no difference between the other jurisdictions’ positions on the ROCOR-A and vice-versa, except that the positions of the other ROCOR groups– particularly on the question of the Moscow Patriarchate– have been consistent.

The translation given triumphantly by the “ROCOR Refugees” blog gives the following:

All his life, Metropolitan Anthony affirmed that the truths of the Church are inseparable from morality. In his article “The Moral Component of Church Dogma,” he considers the life within the Church to be full of Grace and that that life contains “Christ’s life, which He gave to the Church and which is instilled in the soul of every single person.” He avers that the Church is the means of this Grace and is called to unite all the various people into one human state redeemed by Christ.


If one agrees with this definition of Grace, then it follows for example that the MP truly does not have Grace, as it cannot exist where, for example, a diocesan authority is led by a group of homosexuals or where all other sorts of wickedness are permitted.


It turns out that Grace also cannot be found among the ROCA “fragments,” as the “centripetal movement” towards Christ does not exist among them at all.


One can ask does such Grace exist within us, does our communal life lead towards the spiritual rebirth of our parishioners? I believe it does.


I have not claimed that Grace exists only among us. You must read what I said carefully.


I wrote that Met. Anthony’s concept is that the life within the Church itself is Grace and it unites in Christ all its participants. If the members of the Church live according to Christ’s commandments “without compulsion,” then Grace exists among them.

Apparently it is permissible to waver on the question of grace in the Moscow Patriarchate (or indeed in some cases to simply affirm it), but not other traditionalist Orthodox jurisdictions! If I may be excused for a few moments: I need to go collect the pieces of my brain, which seem to have exploded into a horrible mess. Hopefully this is clarified somehow. This new Royal Path is starting to feel, as they say, curiouser and curiouser. — DJS