AWAKE!

By Eugenia Richards

It is truly a done deal. As sin and evil seem increasingly familiar and benign the longer we are exposed to them, so this unification with evil itself is becoming less of a menace in our church life as time goes on. When (by whomever’s evil suggestion) we dropped the commemoration of the “persecuted” Russian church and openly began to commemorate and pay homage to the “Russian” church, ask yourselves, ask your bishops, and wake up. You are commemorating the church of agent Drozdov and his cronies, who, despite the fall of communism, are still enthroned and run the prostitute church in Russia. What was the point for men of conscience to stand in staunch opposition to that institution for seventy years? What was the point of constantly emphasizing the difference between the truth and pure evil, at such great risk, knowing that by opposing and staunchly defending the truth, there was no earthly gain, there were no gold mitres, no financial or earthly rewards – it was a difficult, lonely, impoverished road of few followers – that was the Russian Church Abroad. However that narrow road was the truth (remarkable, the Savior’s words come true). For, isn’t He, what it is all about? Isn’t that God-man, our God, crucified and abandoned, Who is now again being crucified and abandoned? Don’t we all nurture the secret thought during Great and Holy Friday, that had we been there, WE would never have run away and abandoned Him as the apostles did out of fear? But let’s open our eyes and see. For some, the comfort and consolation of the church, the parish, the mission, the community, the cathedral with all its members, the hierarchical structure are all more important than following the truth and listening to the voice of our conscience. We have allowed ourselves to be lulled into complacency and to filter out the lies which abound these days. We don’t tolerate lies in the political, economic, social or personal spheres of our lives. We are quick to express opinions on various injustices in our lives which affect our social or economic well-being. But why do we tolerate the ton of lies which is being dumped on us in our church life? We complacently accept statements and actions of the Russian church. We know all of their misdeeds. We hear that instead of complying with the pre-conditions for unification, these demands are thrown back in our faces with the characteristic communist gall and bravado, and distorted to make black white and white black. The chess-mastery, the communist plotting, disinformation and distortion are in full swing. Renounce Sergianism, we say – they respond by glorifying him. Renounce ecumenism, we say – they respond by accusing us of having no love. Repent for the actions of the KGB collaborator church in the martyrdoms of millions of Russian martyrs under the communist yoke – they do not repent and resign from their bishoprics – on the contrary, they are as firmly entrenched as ever. Yes, the distortion of the truth has reached such outrageous proportions, that our glorious predecessors and hierarchs are maligned – their stand against ecumenism and the evils of the world order are degraded to “personal opinion”. Even the history of the church abroad itself is rewritten to place it into a context which automatically associates it and unites it with the Russian church. How many more times will we celebrate and attend liturgies where at the Great Entrance we ignorantly commemorate “the Russian Church”. Whom is it that we are commemorating? Under whose omophorion are we placing ourselves at that point? If there are no longer any true bishops, for there are those who are pure evil and those who collaborate with pure evil, then we have only one Bishop left – the First Bishop, who ordained unto Himself Bishops from among the apostles. He is the truth, the Word, the Path. It’s not the first time in the Church’s history when everyone had gone astray, and those fighting heresy and falsehood were numbered in the single digits. But we are afraid to be alone. We cling to our various sources of security. We make excuses – it would be too hard to remain an Orthodox Christian without a community, a church nearby. We need to receive the sacraments, so we will receive them from a wolf in sheep’s clothing (a church which has made a conscious decision, for whatever reason to compromise the truth and the faith, and has designed a course of persecuting any opposition). These priests who have embarked on the path of priesthood for personal reasons, (career, ambition, etc.) and who disregard the truth and persecute the truth embody the abomination of desolation in high places, which the Savior warned us of. Did He not whip the moneychangers in the temple and overturn their tables, saying that they had turned His Father’s house into a den of thieves? How is our situation any different. Yes, He is meek and humble of heart, but are not many of us refusing to face what it is that we see, and act decisively and bravely in the name of truth. We hide behind obedience and meekness in order to escape the responsibility of witnessing. The Lord has told us that if we deny Him before men, He will deny us. By our inactivity, silence and acquiescence, we are denying Him. Have we not all read the lives of the saints – how many of them were martyred precisely because they refused to accept false religions. How bravely they spoke out even while being martyred! And let us not forget our true soulmates – the new Russian martyrs. Yes, they could have attended the sergianist services and received the mysteries and heard the beautiful chanting and gazed at the historic icons and beautiful iconostases. But they chose to keep an icon corner hidden inside a kitchen cupboard or in a forest, or a cellar. They lived in a regime where they knew the hierarchs were all collaborators with the atheist regime and secret police. They knew, that wherever Christians gathered to read the scriptures or to pray, they would be brutally attacked and killed. Is the memory of the young persecutor Sergei Kourdakov forgotten? Is his death, and the death of Jose Munoz, who refused to take the myrrh gushing icon to Russia forgotten? The new Russian martyrs lived in the terrible era of annihilation of truth, when crosses worn in public were ripped off their necks, where bibles were confiscated, where any preaching or teaching of Christianity was banned, EXCEPT IN THE OFFICIAL CHURCH? Why? Because, quite simply, through the sacrament of confession, all secret or clandestine movement of the faith was suppressed. All activities deemed contrary to the atheist doctrine were viewed as inimical. Think about it! A totally atheistic regime – militantly anti-Christ, with the sole objective of wiping the teaching of Christ from the face of the earth! Would any of us in clear conscience, if we lived in Russia during those horrifying years, have collaborated with that regime? Would we have accepted positions as priests in those churches in order to provide us some security, but paid the price of informing the secret police on our spiritual children? What kind of unconscionable monster must one be, to become a priest and betray the innocent? And these are the people who are still at the helm, still forging five and ten year plans, still seeking to devour the remnant of the faithful flock of Christ, who managed to escape their clutches after the revolution. Let us ask ourselves – who are these people? It’s gone far enough, for we all know of their actions. Among us there are those who in desperation express outrage, from time to time, about their actions and statements. But these are mere puffs of smoke, which pass and are forgotten with every new episode. We express outrage at the actions of our bishops who appear to be in collaboration with the post-soviet machine, and attempt to blind us and lull us into following. But this is Orthodoxy, and our bishops can be fallible – they are human, susceptible to the same temptation and corruption as all. This we must see and have the courage to face, for even the Lord Himself came down to us as a God-Man, not only in divine nature. What a message He sent us – “I love you so much, that I let you know how difficult it is to be a human by taking on your form.” Does this mean that we must rebel against our bishops? Certainly not, but the formula is there for us in the scripture – “if thy brother shall trespass against you, go and tell him his fault…but if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican.” (Mt:15-17). The offence must find a resolution. But we who are offended, are being silenced, our voices stifled, by those who claim to be the church. We are verbally attacked and threatened. These bullying tactics of repression and diabolical discoloring of the truth are the well-known, familiar one-two soviet style tactics. There are the multitude of voices crying out in Russia, that our church abroad has betrayed them. We, who live in “freedom” have chosen bondage, and yanked the rescue cord out of the hands of those poor truth-fighters, who are our fellow brothers. Under the guise of helping the Russian people in embarking on this disasterous course, we have trampled on the survival of the true flock Yet we keep telling ourselves and each other – let’s continue to sit on our hands and see what happens. What are we waiting for? Is it not enough that the sinister plan to commemorate Drozdov has been obliquely accomplished by dropping the word “persecuted” with the excuse that after 1992 there is no longer persecution? If that is not convincing, then examine the commemoration after every service “the episcopate of the Russian church”. Can anyone argue that this does not mean the patriarchate members of Moscow, for after all, what other Russian church is there? We are not commemorating the part of that church which is in opposition to the official institution. Clearly, we are commemorating Drozdov and his apparatus. When was this permitted to occur? What are we waiting for – for a piece of paper written by human hands which will claim to be truth, where a decree or resolution is recorded by which at the Great Entrance, Drozdov’s title will actually, finally appear in our services? Brothers, we’re already there. Where shall we go from here? Why is that question such a frightening door-closer? Where shall we go? Did not our soulmates – the Russian martyrs ask that question? I submit to you, that they did not have the luxury. There was no escape from the Soviet Union – no one was allowed out! What a terrifying prospect! They were forced to live in a country where their faith was the precious pearl constantly hunted and trampled by the hateful atheist beast. They were hunted down for their faith and we all know what treatment they received. It is beyond description, history is a witness. Yet they had the courage and love of truth to stand up for the truth and not submit by attending official church services. Are we to have no church to attend? Is there really no place to go? And yet the Heavenly Spirit is everywhere present and fillest all things. Can it be so, that we cannot offer up the sacrifice, without committing the sin of complacent acquiescence, offending the holy new martyrs by calling ourselves outside of Russia for reasons of truth, but putting ourselves before the very altar of the Drozdov apparatus who shed the blood of those martyrs? Think about it. The divine liturgy is mystical – yes, there are physical, ritualistic motions which are the vessel for the invocation and indwelling of the Holy Spirit Himself. How important, therefore, every word must be – how pure, innocent, guileless and holy must every word uttered in that most divine imparting of the Divine Body and Blood be! How dare we pollute and defile St. John’s work by calling out the name of evil so many times during the services? Gradually, this sinister plan is coming to fruition. We have by now become accustomed to hearing “the Russian church”. And many say, I don’t mind praying for the Russian church. Next, we won’t mind commemorating Alexei II or his successor – it too will become natural. Next, we will be communing Roman Catholics, just as the MP has been since the 1970’s – that too will be OK. Of course, because we are accused of having no love, we will rush to embrace ecumenism, without heeding the warning even of New Calendar Greeks, who lament their secularization and loss of spirituality because of involvement in dialogue with the world council of churches. And is the Lord God and the devil physically visible and engaged in a tangible, concrete war on some plain, which can be videotaped and shown on TV? Can we pick up the hotline and dial up heaven for direction? We foolish humans are of such little faith. Show me, appear to me, speak to me, then I’ll believe. If our fellow clergy are involved in this earthly, physical endeavor to merge, then in the earthly, physical sense all that is lacking is a piece of paper, a legally binding document. But, in the metaphysical, spiritual, unseen world (folks, that’s where our Lord dwells), this paper is superfluous. He already sees that union, for if we called Him on the hotline, I think His first question would be, what are you doing in My liturgies, commemorating the Russian church? Am I not your God and are you not to have any idols before Me – then why is your idol Russia? Are we such cowards, are we so ignorant, are we so unprincipled, that we will continue to do this, when we live in a free country and we are under no obligation to commemorate a decrepit, corrupt, post-communist apparatus whose ideology is light years from ours. Man plans his own history. Man wrote his own history, that he would some day return to Russia when the atheist regime fell. But man supposes, God disposes. The truth is that the apostles did not sit in their country of nationality, because that was the thing to do. On the contrary, on Pentecost they were endowed with new tongues, to evangelize the world. Russia, for some is a safe little fox hole, where one can retreat mentally and not have to face the fact that what makes Orthodoxy is not Russianness, but a 2,000 year old battle to preserve the truth revealed to us by our Creator. He is most important. Would Ukrainians, French, Americans, etc., etc. etc., like to live out their lives, and how many have, and face the great Judgement with only one thing to say, ‘yes but I was a loyal nationalist’. Is that an ultimate justification/substitute for faith? Indeed, are we not urged to be not of this world? This is the great deception under which many of our clergy have fallen. There seems to be some earthly seduction in merging with Russia – a passionate blindness which refuses to sober up, to discuss, consider, pray, think. Just hurry up and do it! Of course, everyone has forgotten that we will lose everything. We will lose the very ground we have fought for all these years – the voice of conscience – the only remant of guardianship of the truth – our integrity and guiding light to the world and other Orthodox jurisdictions – the unfailing consistency and unwavering staunchness without compromise – the Lord God’s favor and mercy upon us for following Him and not the world. Why isn’t anyone speaking of those intangible, invisible, lofty losses, as if they are meaningless? We hear clergy here and there worrying about the loss of the church building, or property. We hear some expressing fears of what happens when Alexei orders us to perform gay marriages, or replaces us with his own clergy and takes away our parishes. What happens when he comes and confiscates our convert monasteries and fills them with Russians? Are these not the materialistic, superficial concerns. Did the new Russian martyrs have those concerns – I believe they did not, for all those petty, earthly concerns are within the realm of the Father, Who knows the number of hairs on our heads. If we are faithful to Him, His truth, and we do not compromise for the sake of worldly gain, but keep our eyes focused on Him and His narrow, oh so narrow path, that is what makes us true Christians. Have we not read the Scriptures, the Holy Fathers, the lives of the Saints? Sometimes, it seems that we are adherents to different religions than the one holy Catholic and Apostolic.

Wake up! Ask your bishops the one question that everyone is avoiding and not wanting to ask. “What is this Russian church that we commemorate during the Great Entrance, which symbolizes the Truth, Christ Himself, coming to teach?” Then you will know it’s over, it has been over for some time. The fat lady has already sung. Many priests remark woefully that they’re tired of this uncertainty with the fate of the church. But if you ask your bishops that question, you will undoubtedly hear the dreaded answer, and then you will no longer be able to linger suspended and be carried along by this devious wave of deceit (until everyone has become used to the idea). While we still have some reservations about the idea, we need to get to the bottom of this, and not allow our fears of big changes in our lives in order to stand for the truth. We want to go on and pretend nothing is happening. And until the concrete reality is finally here, we would go on with our heads in the sand, remembering only what we stand to lose, remembering only the security of the ostrich. But when the moment has finally come, when the conspirators know that we have become used to the idea, then the ugly serpent will rear its head, but by then we will have lost sight of the truth and think, well, he’s not so ugly after all. But beware of the answer some bishops give – that is, the Russian church we commemorate is some kind of a symbolic, historical entity, a body which existed in Holy Russia, suspended somewhere in time and space between the earth and the heavens, but happens curiously to include the MP. Those who have ears should hear the lie in that explanation. But soon, we’ll have no ears, nor eyes, and we’ll be dumb beasts who have our nice little parishes, properties, friends, cars, jobs, etc., but we will have lost that pearl of precious price. We will have squandered our ability to love the truth and stand up for it, for we have permitted our brothers in the cloth to distort it and teach falsehood to countless sheep. Yes, Russia gave America Orthodoxy, but do we have to pay Russia’s price and give it back? Do we owe Constantinople something – should we all become Muslims? Do we owe Palestine something, or Israel something because our faith originated from their territories? The faith and truth are outside of and far beyond nationality. History does not turn back. Languages change, evolve and even mutate, so how can a national identity claim to remain unchanged – Holy Russia is a topic for writers of memoirs, but the world goes on until the second coming. What, the second coming – who even thinks about that? We’re too concerned rewriting history so that by some imaginary time machine we can go back and relive history. How foolish, how bizarre, how beneath any Christian is this? Shame on all those who have dipped their hands in this old blood and wear the garment of a clergyman. Shame on all of those who have participated in this conspiracy, to trample the remnants of truth. Shame on all those globetrotters who seek personal glory by setting foot on the soil drenched with martyr’s blood and trample it, in pursuit of their own ambitious agenda. Shame on all those who accepted ordination, God’s honorable ordination, to make a political scam out of the church whom they were ordained to serve. Shame on all of them. The Russian Church Abroad was the only remaining bastion of truth, a prick to the conscience of other Orthodox jurisdictions. But now even they express their dismay at our apostasy. They know better than we, that this “dialogue” is only the preparation to reveal what has already been agreed upon. What are we waiting for?

We’ve spoken out, we’ve written, we’ve complained bitterly about surreptitious activities with regard to the “agenda”, but all to no avail. There is no clarity, none of the explanations or persuasions smack of the truth. If one persists in questioning, then what follows are veiled threats. But as Hitler himself had said, if you repeat a lie loud and long, people will believe it. I am shocked to find myself thinking that the idea of Sergius being a saint could actually be plausible. What have we come to – soon we’ll all be brainwashed. But we’ve been promised that the gates of hell would not prevail over the church. Some clergy ask, but who will lead us? Enough of posing this question rhetorically – it’s time to lead what remains of the church – the embodiment of truth, out of the new Egyptian bondage and cross that “Red” Sea to safe haven. But before making that step, one must finally resolve and decide to follow that course with whatever limited energy we have left. To continue on in the church abroad is to come to utter exhaustion, when there will be no energy left to resist its plan, and all those of like mind will have been dealt with in one way or another. This proposal is not extreme, simply long overdue. How can we continue to utter those commemorations in litanies and at the Great Entrance with a clear conscience, and then approach the holy mysteries which have been blasphemed by the compromise. It is better to mentally attend the church triumphant than to continue to watch evildoers defile the truth in the church militant. Strangely enough, that was the choice the new Russian martyrs made and now history is being repeated. But at the time, God mercifully permitted there to be a church abroad to carry His message and provide a sacramental life for the flock. Will this be repeated in a new form, to enable the faithful, who want only the truth, to continue to worship? Just as the church abroad cannot possibly “save” the MP; likewise the element of truth within the church abroad cannot change the course or mind of the agenda. The fat lady has already sung.

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