Christmas Epistle of Bishop Andrei

“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us…” (John 1:14)

Dear Fathers, brethren and concelebrants, mothers and sisters,

I congratulate everyone on the great Feast of Christ’s Nativity!

Probably, the Magi who travelled from afar to worship Christ’s Nativity, were bewildered to see the people of Jerusalem not sharing in the least their zeal to find the newly born King of the Jews. What can be said of our times, when even Christmas is celebrated in the world in such a way so as Christ’s name is not mentioned.

Faith in Christ is disappearing in the world. The words of our Lord Jesus Christ are being realised: “When the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:8).

What are we celebrating on this joyful day of Christ’s Nativity, brothers and sisters? Listen to what Apostle John says:

“That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our own eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of life – the life was manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and declare to you that eternal Life which was with the Father and was manifested to us” (1 John 1:1-2).

Eternal Life, True Light and Word, which was with the Father, appeared on earth as a Man. All the fullness of the Godhead dwells in the small body of the Infant. (Col. 2:9).

The name of the city of Bethlehem translates as the House of Bread. Bethlehem is truly the house of the Bread that came down from heaven. Christ is the heavenly Bread descending from heaven and giving life to the world.

“I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever, and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world” (John 6:51).

He, Who is in need of nothing and is the source of life and bliss, wants to have as many participants as possible in His life and bliss. Christ wants us to be nourished by Him and live by Him.

What nativity gift can we bring to the Newborn on earth for our sake? What can we bring to Him Who has no need of anything? As Saint Gregory the Theologian teaches, let us bring to the Archetype that which has been created in His image. Let us offer ourselves to Him by cutting off our will and subordination to His laws.

The outgoing year 2022 was an anniversary year for the Russian Church Abroad. And the anniversaries of this year, both joyful and sorrowful, are in a sense tied with one another. Foremost is the 15th anniversary of the catastrophe that determined our current Church situation. This is about unification, but more accurately, the subjugation of the Russian Church Abroad to the Moscow Patriarchate on the 17th May 2007.

The MP was created from its beginning with the aim of enslaving the Church to the godless regime. This counterfeit church structure – a parasite on the Church body, has been corrupting the soul of the Russian people for nearly one hundred years, and inflicting on them immeasurable spiritual harm. The last criminal act of this false church is her open blessing of the fratricide war.

The other anniversary that we have commemorated recently, is the 25th year of the martyrdom of Brother Joseph Munoz on October 31, 1997. Recently, our Bishops formed a commission that will work on preparing the canonization of Brother Joseph as a Martyr.   

And there is another jubilee, which is the 40th year since the beginning of the miraculous myrrh-streaming from the Iveron-Montreal icon of the Mother of God icon, on the 24th November, 1982.

In the history of the Church, there are repeated instances of miraculous myrrh-streaming, but usually it didn’t last long. But the myrrh-streaming from the Iveron-Montreal icon is completely unique because it continued for 15 years – up to the day when the guardian of the icon, Brother Joseph was killed and the icon vanishing without a trace.

Forty years back then, there was a time of spiritual blossom for the Church Abroad. Saint Philaret was the head of the Church. A year earlier, Holy New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia were canonized (1981). Brother Joseph himself linked the miraculous myrrh-streaming with the glorification of the holy New Martyrs. The presence of this miracle among us for a long 15 years was an immense blessing to our Church. We were not worthy of such a miracle.

But as the years passed, traces of a gradual spiritual decline in the Church became more noticeable. While the Russian Church Abroad still held the banner of Her former ideology, there were fewer and fewer who actually lived by these ideas. Those same former words were repeated traditionally without putting the heart into them, and they were just words. Consequently, with a change in situations, these words were easily replaced with others.    

Today, fifteen years after the union, we are astounded as to how low ROCA had fallen spiritually. How could such a change in the Church occur so quickly? How is it that a Church of Confessors became a church of betrayers?

Those who are incapable of seeing anything but the exterior, maintain that nothing has changed in ROCOR-MP.  In reality, only the external church life has remained the same, but in a spiritual sense, ROCOR-MP appears as the very spiritually lifeless part of the MP.

One example will suffice. When Patriarch Kirill met with Pope Francis at Havana’s airport in February 2016, and made with him a joint statement that was totally heretical, it created a wave of outrage in Russia. Among the MP priests, a movement was formed of those who don’t commemorate the patriarch at liturgy.

Whereas in the Church Abroad, not even one mouth opened in protest, although the ROCOR clergy enjoy much greater freedom and independence than the priests in Russia.

And this is not surprising. After all, the faithful in Russia belong to the Moscow Patriarchate through ignorance since they don’t know another Church. Whereas the episcopate and priests of the Church Abroad, consciously rejected the true Church in which they were brought up. Such a betrayal cannot remain without spiritual consequences. One priest in Russia put it well about the ROCOR clergy: “After the union they have suddenly become blind, deaf and mute Sergianists”.

Faith is rapidly disappearing on earth and the fall of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad 15 years ago greatly facilitated this.

To preserve our faith in Christ to the end and pass it on to our children as a precious inheritance, is the paramount mission of our lives.

May the Lord Who was born on earth and became like us, as to unite us with Him for all eternity, help us in this.

Amen.

Bishop Andrei

Nativity 2022/2023