The Bishops' Council of the Russian Church Abroad opened in Holy Trinity Monastery on this day in 1953. In 1945, the Russian Church Abroad in Europe had only two bishops – Metropolitans Anastassy and Seraphim (Lade) of Berlin and Germany. In 1946, the ROCOR was strengthened by an influx of refugee bishops from the Ukrainian and Belarusian Churches and by the consecration of White Russian émigrés as new bishops. In November 1950, Metropolitan Anastassy and the Synod of Bishops moved to the United States. The first Council of Bishops in America took place in December of the same year in Jordanville. While the 1950 Council was only attended by bishops from North America, the one in 1953 saw the participation of bishops from South America, Canada, and Europe (St. John of Shanghai and San Francisco was assigned there in 1951). On October 16, 16 bishops assembled at Holy Trinity Monastery in Jordanville, NY, for the council’s opening, and its work continued in the New Kursk Root Hermitage in Mahopac until October 27 (in the photo). This council adopted guidelines for clergy regarding their interaction with non-Orthodox Christians. On September 1, describing the 1923 Council of Bishops, I mentioned the coexistence of two conflicting mindsets within the Russian Church Abroad. One is exclusivist, and the other is realistic. These two attitudes clashed at the 1953 Council. Metropolitan Anastassy mentioned the words of St. John (Maximovich): “Archbishop John says that we have not strayed from the right path shown to us by Metropolitan Anthony. We are part of the Russian Church and breathe the spirit of the Russian Church of all centuries. But from this, it is dangerous to draw the extreme conclusion that we are the only Church, that we should not pay attention to others and should not be taken into account. We are following the right path while others are deviating from it, but we cannot despise others with a feeling of pride, for there are Orthodox bishops and priests everywhere. People often quote the words of Maximos the Confessor: ‘If the whole inhabited earth receives communion, I alone shall not.’ Yet he said ‘if’. And when the Prophet Elijah thought he was the only one who had kept the faith, the Lord revealed to him that there were 7,000 others…” From the minutes of the same Council: “Archbishop John recalls that there was a decision of the Synod to receive Anthony (Bartoshevich) with the rank of archimandrite, which he had obtained from the Patriarch of Moscow.” Vladyka John said this after rather harsh anti-MP remarks by Bishops Leonty [of Chile and Peru] and Averky [Rector of Holy Trinity Monastery and Seminary]. The latter had suggested treating the MP as Renovationists. There, he makes a similar remark. The protocol says: “Archbishop John recalls that the 1938 [Pan Diaspora] Council discussed the possibility of concelebrating with Moscow Patriarchate clergy, and it was recognized that only Metropolitan Sergius himself was out of communion.” And further, after the words by Archbishop Averky about the “church of the deceitful”: “Archbishop John objects that it is important to find out whom this concerns: is it all those who are in this Church? Among the rank and file of the hierarchy, there are some very good people, but those at the top must be subjected to strict scrutiny” (Minutes of the Council, No. 5, from October 3/16, 1953). Source: Monk Benjamin (Gomarterli), Letopis’ tserkovnykh sobytii Pravoslavnoi Tserkvi nachinaia s 1917 goda. Part IV. 1950-1960. Historical Studies of the Russian Church Abroad. |
