On this day in 1926, Metropolitan Anthony (Khrapovitsky), the first hierarch of the Russian Church Abroad, wrote to Deacon Lev Liperovsky, the Secretary of the Russian Student Christian Movement, regarding the attitude toward the YMCA. The YMCA began to operate in Russia in 1902, promoting the value of moral, intellectual, and physical development among young people. They funded Russian translations of many books, some of which were contrary to the teachings of the Orthodox Church. However, it would not be fair to say that the YMCA planned to subvert Russian youth and lead them away from Orthodoxy. In 1924, the YMCA began to finance publications of Russian Orthodox literature under the name YMCA-Press. In 1925, the YMCA organized a Russian Youth Conference at the Russian convent of the Lesna Icon of the Mother of God in Hopovo, Serbia. Metropolitan Anthony (Khrapovitskii) wrote about his experience there to Archimandrite Ambrose (Kurganov), the Abbot of the Russian monastery in Milkovo: “The last week, from Thursday, August 28, to Thursday, September 4, I spent at Hopovo Convent at a student conference attended by 100 students and six professors. They sat and listened to lectures all day and served the liturgy and the vigil daily. The tenderness and reverence of the youth struck me. Could one ever have expected to see such a picture after the revolution? They were all, ultimately, representatives of Russian student societies from across Europe. Finally, everyone went to the [sacrament of] confession and took Communion. Glubokovskii [a Russian professor specializing in Bible studies] arrived from Sweden for the last two days and is also delighted with everything he has seen and heard; for the last three or four days, they brought over the miraculous Kursk icon, and then the religious enthusiasm of the young people was mingled with tears of joy...” The saying goes: “Are you a part of the solution, or are you a part of the problem?” The rigid ecclesiological views did not prevent Metropolitan Anthony from making friends among the Anglicans. Another prominent Russian refugee hierarch, a theologian and teacher of the future Archbishop Averky of Jordanville, became a principal opponent of Metropolitan Anthony regarding various issues, including his attitude toward non-Orthodox Christians. The name of this hierarch was Archbishop Theophan (Bystrov) of Poltava. I wrote about him on February 19. In June-July 1926, at the Bishop Council in Serbia, a split occurred in the Russian church diaspora: Metropolitan Evlogy of Western Europe and Platon of North America left the assembly in disagreement with the council. The same ROCOR Council of Bishops banned Russian Orthodox participation in the YMCA, thus reinforcing the decision of the 1921 All-Diaspora Council regarding the YMCA. The YMCA Press periodical Put' [The Way] became a mouthpiece for the professors at St. Serge Theological Institute in Paris, which split off from the Russian bishops in Serbia. Metropolitan Anthony wanted to continue having his works published by YMCA Press. In his letter to Deacon Lev Liperovsky of July 22, 1926, Metropolitan Anthony (Khrapovitsky) explains this situation: “The regional Orthodox council, uniting personally and through written responses thirty-two bishops in three parts of the world, could not have officially blessed any institution other than those that call themselves Orthodox. Still, the council did not forbid the flock to be members of the YMCA society. The council disapproved only of their being under its spiritual leadership as an institution, although Christian, but interconfessional. The Council did not prohibit serving in this society as its officials, just as it did not prohibit participation in its publishing endeavors, in which I also took part since I have not encountered any anti-Orthodox propaganda over the past 4-5 years either in the publications of the YMCA or in the Paris Theological Institute subsidized by it, nor in its relation to Russian young people... As for the Council’s review of the YMCA society itself, it was naturally a repetition of the review of the same Council in 1921. Since then, there has been a significant evolution in the Society, but it is so little known to the Council that, learning about the latter, I could not impose my convictions on my fellow bishops, to whose Council you have addressed a request for a blessing; hoping that your growing activity, which is growing into the life of the Orthodox Church by the time of further councils, will place them in complete trust and sympathy for your movement...” (Renaissance. N 465. September 10, 1926, p. 2.). The publication of this letter in the Parisian newspaper Vozrozhdenie [Renisance], no. 465 (1926) caused a protest from Archbishop Theophan of Poltava and Pereiaslavl’.
Sources:
Pisʹma Blazhenneishego mitr. Antoniia (Khrapovitskogo) [The Letters of his Beatitude Metropolitan Anthony (Khrapovitskii)], Jordanville, NY 1988.
V. Polchaninov, “Vospominaniia o deiatel’nosti Khristianskogo soiuza molodykh liudei v 1946-1951 godakh” [Reminiscences of the Activity of YMCA from 1946–1951], Vestnik tserkovnoi istorii [Russian Church History Bulletin], 3.11 (2008). Monk Benjamin (Gomarteli), “Letopis’ tserkovnykh sobytii nachinaia s 1917 goda,”[Timeline of the Church Events Beginning in 1917]. Part I, Historical Studies of the Russian Church Abroad. |
