By Silence, is the Truth Betrayed

Long-time champion of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad, protodeacon Hermann Ivanov-Thirteenth, comments after the decree of the Odessa Synod of May 2, 2017.

So sad!…

Where here is the spirit of Christianity?…

And more, we only just celebrated holy Pascha and for a whole month yet we will continue to live in this Paschal spirit, sing Paschal hymns — and what? Let’s look at the photo located on the Internet Sobor website of Metropolitan Moses of Toronto of the fraternal Greek Church, taken next to Archbishop Andronik (Kotliaroff) and Fr Nikita Grigoriev. What do we see? We see a person full of heartfelt Paschal joy who came to exchange paschal greetings of Christ is Risen! and kulich with his brothers. In other words, we see complete harmony with the Paschal verses; we can even say we see the embodiment of the triumphant final verse: “It is the day of Resurrection, let us be radiant for the festival, and let us embrace one another, let us say even to those who hate us: let us forgive all things on the Resurrection, and thus let us cry: Christ is Risen …!”

But what do we read on the Internet Sobor website? “How will Metropolitan Moses explain his meeting with these heretics!” And not only is it strange to read this and this, to say the least, baseless accusation, but one can even see this as a slightly veiled threat, cunningly implying the desired punishment of the guilty Metropolitan for such a terrible “crime”, for such a “sin” … Let’s hope that the possible reaction of Archbishop Kallinikos will be in a different spirit.

True, the “guilt” of Metropolitan Moses is re-doubled yet more by the fact that this meeting with Vl. Andronik took place only a few days before “still another spiritual fall”: the meeting made to look “alluring” between Archbishop Andronik and the Syriac clergy! And on this subject, the Internet Sobor site devotes an entire article entitled “An Ecumenist Meeting Happened between Former Archbishop Andronik (Kotliaroff) and Archbishop Titus Yeldho”, accompanied by an official portrait of this ruling bishop of the North American Diocese of the ancient Syriac-Jacobite Church. One reads there that this is as if in fact there had taken place an inter-church meeting akin to the Havana meeting between the Pope and [Kyrill] Gundiaev. The Internet Sobor site finds it difficult to say whether Vl. Andronik has thus established eucharistic communion with him, yet one reads “but the start of such a thing, one can already say, has been laid”.

But in fact, what really did happen? Vl. Andronik, with two clergy, went to a restaurant to eat seafood. Sometime later, some strangers entered with [apparently] Orthodox cassocks and with crosses on their chests. In the American context a more unexpected thing could not be. Naturally they were interested to know who these strangers are. They chatted together, sat down at the same table, drank some Coca-Cola and soon a picture was taken as a souvenir before they went their separate ways. And that’s all. Where here is the heresy of ecumenism? But upon simple minds such statements can have an effect, and alas have had! Dressing in the robes of the zealot, these [self-appointed] guardians of Orthodoxy, being such clever people, consider themselves emboldened to write that “in the Kotliaroff para-synagogue the sacraments are not performed and the Eucharist cannot exist there”, the bishops are called clowns, and their actions those of clowns. But in the end, we must understand that the responsibility for the spread among the flock of such “linguistic excesses”, not to say conceptual and spiritual excesses, based on such unverified statements.

I have been silent for a long time, I do not think I am alone in hoping that the situation, if not corrected, will be, in any case, stabilized. To do this, it is necessary to declare some kind of a moratorium, to stop pouring oil on the fire. Already enough has been written and superfluous things said. It is hard to imagine that this fake information, based on nothing, only promotes the goal of aggravating the accusation of ecumenism, which was not based on anything, addressed to Vladykas Andronik and Sophrony and those like them. But their entire “sin” is that not in words but in deeds, they are trying to achieve what for 15 years has been prayed for by all the true sons of the fragmented Church Abroad: to re-assemble the separated parts of it. And this is imputed to them as the worst of heresies ecumenism! This is testified to by yet another decree of the [Odessa] Synod of May 2, which reaffirmed their incredible accusation of “a profession of the heresy of ecumenism” precisely at a time when it is with great difficulty that they might be able to begin to restore the torn church tunic. One very much wants to believe that this holy cause will be crowned with success together. But there are times when for even the most simple Christian it is not possible to remain silent any longer. In fact, by silence, is the truth betrayed.

The Proto. Hermann