A Brotherly Letter to All ROCA Clergy

A Letter to our Brothers

Dear Fathers and Brothers! Christ is among us!

We believe and hope that this greeting is not simply a formality of church tradition, but is a spiritual reality. In the Holy Gospel we see the example of our Savior, Who was always humble, patient and merciful, and Who, having once again witnessed the disorder in the Jerusalem temple, took decisive action. In response, He was asked the canonical question, “By what authority are you doing these things? And who gave you this authority?” (Matthew 21:23). Met. Antoniy (Khrapovitskiy) instructs us, the servants of the Church, that we are appointed not only to celebrate church services and administer the holy sacraments, but through these actions to guide to salvation those souls entrusted to us. It is specifically the responsibility to minister to Christ’s flock, as well as the desire to objectively understand the last several turbulent years, that compels us to take a decisive and extraordinary step – the convocation of the Sixth All-Diaspora Council.

We hear the same protestations, “Who gave you the right, the authority?” Our response: thank God that there are bishops, clergy and loyal sons and daughters of the ROCA who have decided to put an end to the self-righteous abuse of power and unfair accusations that stem from Met. Agafangel (Pashkovskiy) with the connivance of members of the Odessa Synod. In the past several years the utmost deference has been shown to Met. Agafangel, out of the profound respect due the office of the First Hierarch and in consideration of the dignity of this service, while acknowledging the vagaries of human character and its weaknesses. But deference cannot become indulgence.

It would seem that having been consecrated by bishops, who in 1994 had been forced into retirement, Met. Agafangel would acknowledge the evangelical mercy shown by the ROCA hierarchs when they accepted him in his bishop’s rank. It was expected that this example of the spirit of the historic ROCA would be a governing principle in his service as the First Hierarch. Unfortunately, we have seen the opposite and this has resulted in the crisis in our Church Abroad.

The time has come to reach objective conclusions; so that members of the Synod will no longer fear being excluded from the Synod for taking honest and principled positions, so that the dishonorable practice of punishments and banishment, without either a trial or a hearing, will be stopped, so that encroachments into other bishop’s diocese will cease, so that justified and respectful appeals from church members will no longer be met with prideful silence, and so that, last but not least, a person can come to church and pray to God in peace and without the concern that his rector or ruling bishop has been banned from serving for disagreeing with the bellicose policies of the Metropolitan.

The ROCA is too dear to us, and we did not refuse to join the MP in 2007 to calmly watch our Church be transformed before our very eyes into something little different than the Patriarchia. Dear brothers, time will pass, the dust that others are now throwing in your eyes to discredit our efforts will settle. All that will remain is the immutable and eternal, “By their fruits you shall know them.”

We now call upon you to take part in the Sixth All-Diaspora Council. With the help of God, may the truth be revealed as to what has transpired in our Church these past years and what conclusions must be drawn for the future. If you have disagreements or questions, we can answer them together, drawing on the Holy Gospel, church traditions and the glorious path of the confessors of the Catacomb Church in Russia and the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad.

The Pre-Council Committee October 22, 2016