There have always been two ways for grace to be passed on in the Church: the apostolic succession, and another one far less understood: “the golden chain of sanctity” as Fr Herman of Platina of blessed memory (and others before him) used to call it.

Often, when one looks at the apostolic succession matter of grace they ignore the second, and although it may seem that technically someone may have lost the apostolic succession (by not commemorating a bishop or commemorating a heretical one) in reality the same one may still very much be part of the golden chain of sanctity. That’s how the Church will “invisibly” survive and operate yet again (I say again because it did so in the past), if not already is, especially during these times we live in. It’s all about the otherworldliness Fr Herman and Fr Seraphim talked about …

Today it is inevitable that someone needs to know what jurisdiction you belong to in order to determine if you are in or out of grace. Like grace is now somehow bound up with the idea of jurisdiction. Personally i stopped paying attention to this aspect of faith quite some time ago. I am not concerned about jurisdictions to be honest. It is not relevant to one’s obedience to his/her spiritual father or mother (which obedience is eternal), nor is it beneficial to one’s spiritual state or his/her work of salvation. I’ll explain why.

Firstly no jurisdictional affiliation can interfere with the obedience you pay to your spiritual father/mother, now, in the future, or even even after his/her departure (unless him/her is more concerned with Church politics than your personal salvation). Obedience does not dissipate with the death of your spiritual father either, obedience is eternal. Obedience to your spiritual elder is your connection with holiness, connects you to the “golden chain of sanctity” where grace is only transmitted from elder to spiritual child, something that transcends jurisdictions and any political barriers. It is an otherworldly concept – the kingdom of heaven does not have jurisdictions.

That was how grace and Orthodoxy have worked for a long time, grace being passed on from spiritual father to spiritual child, with the condition that the spiritual child continues in the legacy and teachings which were handed over to him. The jurisdictional discussion came about in more recent times steeming out of political influence in matters of faith – the need to assert authority and demand obedience above the relationship we described here.

In an elder-spiritual child relationship the only authority that exists works from the elder to spiritual child. That’s it. It’s always been called obedience. Overtime some perverted the idea of obedience towards serving an institution, state or jurisdiction. That’s why a long time ago I stopped paying attention to this jurisdictional aspect of faith. You can absolutely have grace given to you through obedience to your spiritual father and nothing more. Grace, it must be understood, it’s not a jurisdictional attribute. Never was. As fr Herman and fr Seraphim used to say, Orthodoxy is otherworldliness.

The golden chain of sanctity is how grace also works today, and especially today it helps preserve grace in the Church in a way that is less obvious and below the radar of the impious spiritual authorities of a world that is increasingly growing graceless at jurisdictional level. There were many saints that were not even priests but whose disciples were grace filled.

In some of its most difficult times in history the Orthodox Church survived exclusivelly based on grace being passed on through the “golden chain of sanctity”, bypassing completley the corrupt Church hierarchy. Take the example of St Mark of Ephesus and his disciple George Scholarios – a secular prince:

John Eugenikos tells us this: “Long before his death he gave instructions and like a father gave commands to those present concerning the correction of the Church and our piety and open preservation of the true dogmas of the Church, and concerning turning away from innovation; and adding his final words: ‘Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, into Thy hands I commit my spirit,’ he thus departed to God.” [31] Before the end, on the very day of his death, St Mark gave over to his former student and spiritual son the leadership of the Orthodox Church, although George Scholarios was at that time still a secular prince.

http://orthodoxinfo.com/ecumenism/stmark.aspx

To understand what happened here, one will have to detach from the jurustictional aspect of Orthodoxy and search for the otherwordly aspect of it, the one where things that are not “visible” in a “legalistic” way, become visible in a spiritual sense.

In the case of the golden chain of sanctity the grace moves around not in a top-down manner but through a completely different mechanism which is often overlooked: through the obedience of a disciple to a God-bearing elder. That’s how the Church survived during St Mark’s (of Ephesus) times, that’s how it will always survive in times of turmoil and betrayal, all happening away from the worldly wisdom, which BTW always tries to steer people “the jurisdictional way”.

From the life of St Mark of Ephesus we can see that the Church passed through a period when George Scholarios had no obedience to any bishop since St Mark had already died and all other ones betrayed. It is said “St Mark gave over to his former student and spiritual son the leadership of the Orthodox Church”. Wow. Did the Church lose grace then because no bishop was in charge? No! George Scholarios worked assiduously to try to convince the bishops to repent and some indeed did so. Although that apostolic succession grace seemed to had been lost for a while at the hierarchical level, it was later restored through the grace preserved through the golden chain of sanctity. The grace in the Church altogether was not lost at any point in time.

This BTW highlights the priority in which grace operates in the Church: the grace that operates through the golden chain of sanctity can restore the legitimacy of apostolic succession. Can the opposite be true? No! The papists themselves claim apostolic succession, as all their bishops can trace their ordination to the Holy Apostle Peter, but do they have grace? Of course not …

What was the result of St George Scholarios’ efforts? A new council gathered years later, although smaller than that of Florence, denounced the betrayal and restored the Truth.

“Not long before the Fall of Constantinople a Council was convoked at which the Union and its promoters were triumphantly condemned and the Union itself overthrown, and the memory of St. Mark honored by all. This Council was more nominal than actual, and was composed of a quite small number of participants; historically it did not present itself as much, but as an expression of the Orthodox Church it has a great significance as the triumphant conclusion of the battle that St. Mark waged, as a Council of the Orthodox Church, however small she may have been at that time.”

Are we not living today in similar times when a council of betrayal already occured trying to force through again a new union with the Catholics … adopting their social theology as “Church’s new mission”? …

We are yet again hoping for a true council to be held to restore the Truth, but where is George Scholarios today? He’s every one of us who call our hierarchs to repentance. There will be a new council that comes to restore the truth, a council that may be even smaller … much smaller than the one that restored the truth once before. And we may even witness the New Constantinople fall again as well!

It may as well happen that some links in the golden chain of sanctity get tested from time to time, and for a period of time, to see if the chain holds … don’t be alarmed, it’s all part of the plan of salvation!