Very Reverend Nikita Grigoriev answers the question posed by reader Dan Everiss

Fr. Nikita,
Bless Father!
Why do you seem to be supporting and indeed a part of this schism? Or do I misinterpret your motives? I hope I am wrong. Am I? In a previous email to me, you stated that you have been trying very hard, for years, to prevent a schism. Now I see your name as a member of the schismatic committee. Why Father Nikita?
Please respond. Thank you father.
Rd. Daniel Everiss on Oregon

Dear Dan,

I am not aware that my name is listed as a member of any “schismatic committee”.

But speaking of schisms I can say this. From the very beginning the enemy of Christ and His Church has tried by all means to destroy it.
At first by savagely murdering its leaders and members, starting with Christ Himself ( who, by the way, was put to death by the legal and properly consecrated Church leaders, albeit very corrupt).

After the centuries of attempts to physically exterminate the Church, the enemy proceeded with distortion of the Holy and God revealed dogmas of the Church (the DNA of our living faith as I like to call them). With the victory of Orthodoxy in the Ecumenical Councils, the enemy turned to a different tactic: schism. This proved quite effective, starting with the Roman schism, because it at first did not actually preach any known heresy but nonetheless began the process of splitting the Church.

Alas this tactic has proven so effective that it continues to our day in greater and greater subtlety and sophistication, “to deceive even the very elect”.
Recall that comrade Tuchkov was assigned by the Bolshevik government to work on Met. Sergius NOT to help him subjugate the Church to the Godless authority but to SPLIT the Church. Afterwards Tuchkov was awarded a medal and a citation for SPLITTING the Church. The Bolsheviks at first certainly were not interested in having their own church, they just wanted the Church completely destroyed and have NO church whatsoever. The schism was just the best means to that end.

Similarly the schism in 2007 in our ROCA was engineered to split and weaken the Church.

There can be no doubt that ten years later the next schism in our ROCA is being prepared and will be accomplished. It is clear that people are working very hard to create a schism in our Church to further diminish it and weaken it. The real question is WHO is doing it?

It’s very important to remember that often things are not what they seem or are made to appear.

For that reason now it is crucial to deal with this crisis the way the Church has always dealt with crises, by gathering the whole Church, the clergy and the lay members, to sort out all the issues in a conciliar and transparent manner, letting the voice of the Holy Spirit guide the decisions of the Church.

Naturally those who seek the truth will welcome and support this normal and proper course for the Church to resolve any problems that arise (and by the way this is certainly not the first time in the history of the Church that such a situation has arisen, and probably not the last).

Those that eschew the truth will try by all means of slander and falseness to undermine an attempt to convene the Church in a council or Sobor to restore order and clarity in truth.

Those that are gathering the Church together for a Sobor are not schismatics because they are GATHERING the Church and not scattering it. It is those who would prevent the Church from gathering, are the ones who wish to see it split and dispersed. Now is the time to not lose one’s head and blindly follow loud propaganda but to exercise utmost sobriety and in diligent prayer ask for discernment from Christ that we be not deceived but see things as they really are. It is for our indifference and complacency and sins that God is allowing the evil of another schism to try our faith.

Know that the Church of Christ is always the one where the Comforter, the Spirit of Truth lives and breathes.

Father Nikita