ROAC Victory Over Seizure of Relics by MP and State

As reported in this June 06, 2013, interview by Portal-Credo with Metropolitan Theodore of the Russian Orthodox Autonomous Church (which is perhaps the largest, if not among the largest, of the True Orthodox Russian Churches; though, it has certainly been the most persecuted by the MP and Russian state), Met. Theodore explains how ROAC has, for the moment, won its case to retain the relics in its possession. Previously, the Moscow Patriarchate had begun a campaign to confiscate all religious relics from the ROAC. The defeat of the MP in this case, even if it is temporary, should be a cause for thanksgiving. If the MP says it owns all relics, or begins to seize some, it would eventually lead to a situation in which the MP could, theoretically, take all the relics out of all the antimensions and reliquaries of all non-MP bodies. ROAC hierarchs, clergy, laity, and others have attempted to make public the proceedings by the MP against ROAC. The appeal in arbitration court which began some time ago, has now finally ended. It was the most recent (though, by no means the last) in a long list of attacks upon the ROAC. The attempts to accuse reposed Met. Valentine of abuse (all of which were thrown out of court, despite the full force of the Russian state and Moscow Patriarchate directed against him; but, there was simply no evidence for the made up charges, after all the witnesses said they lied and were told to do so by the Russian government) was perhaps the most prominent by “official Orthodoxy’ of the Moscow Patriarchate and Russian state allies.

Then, of course, there was the case when Met. Valentine was rolled up in a carpet and nearly beat to death. We then have the all too familiar attempts by the  MP and  government to seize ROAC temples (even in cases in which the buildings were built from the ground up by ROAC, let alone ROAC acquiring burnt town buildings that the MP relinquished all claim to) with the MP manufacturing deeds. And let’s not forget the “arrest” of icons and vestments by the MP and Russian government, it has been one evil after another.  The MP, again, as you can tell, really hates the ROAC more than any other TOC jurisdiction.

Yet, it seems for all the absolute vitriol and hate spewed at the ROAC by the Moscow Patriarchate, the faithful clergy and laity of ROAC aren’t disappearing. Maybe the MP should concentrate on its own problems, and that of its sister patriarchates?