my (delayed) opinion
Just been too busy with iconography this week to clearly write out my opinion on the "reunification" between ROCOR & MP. I put that in quotes because it's just a unification, we're not "going back" to anything, and the MP was never our "Mother Church". I'll be away in Jordanville this weekend, so anyone who's (still) curious about my take on things
( Read more... )
Russian Orthodox Unity -- the Real Story
June 2, 2007; Page A9
Under the guise of questioning Russian President Vladimir Putin's domestic and foreign policies, Nadia Kizenko ("Church Merger, Putin's Acquisition1," Houses of Worship, Taste page, Weekend Journal, May 25) seeks to discredit the church by misrepresenting the restoration of unity between the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia (ROCOR) and the Russian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate.
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Prof. Kizenko writes that "Aleksy II . . . gave short shrift to God, but thanked President Putin." Prof. Kizenko, who was not present at signing of the Act of Canonical Communion, nor at any of the subsequent ceremonies and services at which his holiness officiated, is unaware of the numerous times he publicly expressed his thanks to God. I can attest to this myself, having heard them in person. President Putin, in fact, was not mentioned nearly as often. Yet Prof. Kizenko herself credits the president: "[I]t was Mr. Putin who first made overtures to the Church Abroad in September 2003."
Yet Prof. Kizenko herself credits the president: "[I]t was Mr. Putin who first made overtures to the Church Abroad in September 2003."
No. It was in the early 1990s that the Moscow Patriarchate (including the patriarch himself) and the Council of Bishops of the Church Abroad first stated their desire to reconcile. This process gradually expanded and was only given extra impetus by President Putin some 10 years later.
Further, Prof. Kizenko writes: "Moscow regains . . . the right to open or close all parishes." This is false. The Act of Canonical Communion, which Ms. Kizenko would do well to read, clearly states that ROCOR is "independent in pastoral, educational, administrative, management, property, and civil matters."
Referring to its behavior while still enslaved by the Soviet state, she writes that "[t]oday's Moscow Patriarchate is the as-yet-unrepentant inheritor of this legacy." I would suggest Prof. Kizenko read the "Basic Social Concept," adopted by the MP's Council of Bishops of 2000, in which subservience by the church to a state hostile to Christianity is unequivocally rejected, and in great detail. As for repentance, that is a private Christian podvig, or spiritual deed, made before one's spiritual father (as the daughter of a venerable ROCOR priest, Prof. Kizenko is certainly aware of this). Still, 16 years ago, Patriarch Aleksy performed an open act of repentance in an interview published many times since then: "It is not only before God, but also before all of those people to whom the compromises, silence, forced passivity or expressions of loyalty that the church leadership allowed themselves to make in those years brought pain that I ask forgiveness, understanding and prayers."
Prof. Kizenko used the word "secretive" in describing the reconciliation talks between the Moscow Patriarchate and the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia. Had she checked official church Web sites and publications, she would have discovered that the bilateral commissions actually published numerous documents on these talks.
Nicholas A. Ohotin
Communications Director
Synod of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church
Outside of Russia
New York
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