CHRIST IS RISEN!<\/p>\n
Dear Brother in Christ, Andrew [Bond],<\/p>\n
Thank you for the copy of your \u201csorrowful epistle\u201d to Vladika Nikodem. What you describe there is indeed but one case of a very widespread problem now in our Church, a diversion from the devil \u201con the right side,\u201d as it were, and it will require much patience and prayer and level-headedness to stay afloat in the stormy sea which it is causing. I will tell you something based on our own experience in America.<\/p>\n
This \u201czeal not according to understanding,\u201d about which Archbishop Averky has warned in his sermons, is by no means limited to baptizing those coming from other Orthodox jurisdictions or (most shocking of all) re-baptizing those who have already been receiving Holy Communion in our Church for months or years\u2014it is a whole mentality which insists on being \u201calways right\u201d and looking disdainfully on all who disagree as \u201cnot really Orthodox.\u201d This attitude is revealed, for example, in the recent totally pointless attacks made by some of our Greek priests in America against Blessed Augustine. It is well known in the Orthodox Church that Bl. Augustine made mistakes, went \u201ctoo far\u201d on some points\u2014but the Church has never called him a heretic or denied him the name of Father, as is quite clear from the evidence of one Ecumenical Council (perhaps two, but I can’t find the second reference yet), St. Photios the Great (who is repeating explicit on this point), St. Mark of Ephesus, St. Nikodemos of the Holy Mountain, and our own Archbishop John Maximovitch. Yet some now seek to prove \u201chow Orthodox I am\u201d by calling him heretic and various other evil names.<\/p>\n
If this mentality were allowed to \u201ctake over\u201d in our Church it would mean not merely isolation for us (about which, in itself, we are not very upset, because it is obvious that \u201cworld Orthodoxy\u201d is crumbling, losing its identity), but also, much more importantly^^ losing of Orthodox tradition itself, losing the contact with those who have handed Orthodoxy down to us, for the sake of an abstract \u201cOrthodoxy\u201d which exists only in the minds of the \u201czealot party.\u201d The over-emphasis on the \u201cWestern captivity\u201d of Orthodox theology in recent centuries is a symptom of the same mentality. Orthodox tradition was transmitted in those centuries, despite certain outward Westernisms, but our new \u201czealots\u201d literally wish to throw out or at least regard with utmost disdain virtually all the great Fathers of those centuries\u2014Metr. Philaret of Moscow, St. Nikodemos of the Holy Mountain, Bp. Theophanes the Recluse, and others. (They haven\u2019t attacked Bp. Ignatius Brianchaninov yet, but only because they can’t read Russian; but St. Macarius of Corinth will obviously have to go with St. Nikodemus, especially if\u2014as I strongly suspect\u2014his book on \u201cContinual Communion\u201d comes from Latin sources. A well-balanced Orthodoxy can easily take any foreign influences that come and straighten them out, make them Orthodox; but a one-sided \u201cparty-line\u201d cuts itself off from the real mainstream of Orthodoxy.)<\/p>\n
We have heard of a few mistaken \u201cre-baptisms\u201d in America and have asked several of our bishops about them. In every case, as it turns out, the diocesan bishop was not informed of the circumstances of the case. Recently some wished to see such a \u201crebaptism\u201d performed in our Western American diocese, but our Archbishop Anthony wisely refused to allow it, in which we gave him our full support\u2014for indeed, it would have been tantamount to an open declaration of the absence of Grace in the Greek Archdiocese. Our bishops, by the way (whether at the 1974 Sobor or later, I don\u2019t know) explicitly refused to make such a declaration when asked to do so by one of the Greek Old Calendar jurisdictions (the Auxentios group, unfortunately, which has recently joined the Mathewites in this opinion, although on less fanatical grounds).<\/p>\n
This \u201czealot\u201d mentality, in America at least (and largely in England too, I suspect), is almost entirely due to the influence of Fr. Panteleimon of Boston. In our personal meetings with Fr. Panteleimon we have not found him to be a \u201cfanatic,\u201d but those under his influence are quite mercilessly so. Sadly, this group is now forming a kind of independent psychological \u201cdiocese\u201d within our Church, and they have no respect whatever for the bishops who disagree with them. This means trouble ahead, and you are certainly right that we are sitting on a volcano.<\/p>\n
However, let me tell you this: we know well a number of bishops and the views of most of the rest\u2014and we don\u2019t know a single one who would approve of \u201cre-baptisms\u201d such as you describe. I very much doubt that Vladika Nikodem would approve either, if he were fully informed, and any problem you may have with him is more likely to be owing to the way your attitude has been presented to him as \u201cinsubordination,\u201d \u201cundermining priestly authority,\u201d etc. In that case it is above all important for you to show yourself as meek and obedient and not insisting on \u201cbeing right\u201d for its own sake (in the new \u201czealot\u201d sense)\u2014without, of course, giving up your basic position\u2014which is certainly in accord with what our bishops and soundest priests believe.<\/p>\n
Regarding our Church as a whole, I do not think you need to fear an \u201cextremist takeover.\u201d Our bishops are quite moderate, and I think it is safe to say that their earlier \u201cfascination\u201d (for bishops are also a little subject to \u201cfashions\u201d!) with Fr. Panteleimon (as at the 1971 Sobor) is a thing of the past. In general, Fr. Panteleimon has lost his influence almost everywhere (Greece and Mt. Athos also)\u2014except in one place: over the young people, both converts and Western-born native Orthodox; for he offers them some \u201csimple\u201d answers to complex questions, and that is very attractive to those a little uncertain and shaky in their faith. (These are precisely the ones, by the way, who think they will \u201cput everything right\u201d by getting baptized all over again!) These young people are now the ones who are beginning to fill the places of the departing generation of Russians (in our Church), and this is a source of danger for the future of our Church.<\/p>\n
I do not know what more to say of your specific \u201cincident,\u201d but I do hope you will place it in the perspective of the whole Church situation today. One would like to avoid a direct \u201cbattle\u201d with the \u201cnew-zealot\u201d mentality, if possible, because there are many good people now under this influence who can eventually come back to a sounder Orthodoxy if only they aren\u2019t prematurely forced to \u201cdefend\u201d their mistaken idea of Orthodoxy. Above all for us who have the printed word at our disposal, I think it is important to strive to inculcate respect both for our bishops and older priests, and for the whole theological tradition of recent centuries. In the name of \u201canti-scholasticism\u201d the \u201czealots\u201d are throwing out the whole baby together with the bath water! They virtually boast that they alone are \u201cgreat theologians\u201d who have just now re-discovered a lost theological tradition; but actually their theology is remarkably crude and simplistic, especially when put beside the writings of a truly great theologian in the unbroken Orthodox tradition\u2014our own Father Michael Pomazansky of Jordanville, who is subtle, refined, deep\u2014and totally overlooked by the \u201cbright young theologians.\u201d Of course, the \u201clanguage gap\u201d is also an unfortunate factor here, as it is in the whole situation I have described here. We must strive all the harder to make the influence of the real Orthodoxy more deeply and widely felt\u2014and then the emergence of sudden \u201cknow-it-alls\u201d will be taken more in stride by the Church as a whole.<\/p>\n
By the way, at the Synod you should be in contact first of all with the Secretary, Bishop Laurus (who now is being greatly slandered by the \u201czealots\u201d)\u2014his position is quite moderate and sound, and he is doing superhuman work for the good of the Church in most difficult circumstances.<\/p>\n
To all this I would only add: let us also beware of the temptations on the \u201cleft side.\u201d We do not need to declare fanatically that we are the \u201conly Orthodox left,\u201d but let us also be aware of the process of apostasy that is taking possession of virtually all the Orthodox Churches now, and to which we too can fall if we are not sober and cautious. Our own Sobor of Bishops some years back already \u201cdiscouraged\u201d communion with the Greek Archdiocese, and our own Bishop Nektary of Seattle is for us a model of sound moderation when he warns us that some of our bishops are doing a little too much for the sake of being \u201crecognized by world Orthodoxy.\u201d Perhaps the best description of our Church\u2019s status at the present time is something like \u201cmoderate, sober,\u2014and aloof.\u201d But in practice this is a difficult path to follow.<\/p>\n
We ask your prayers for us.<\/p>\n
With love in Christ,
\nSeraphim, monk<\/p>\n
P.s. We are sending you another parcel of Northern Thebaids. You can give away the damaged ones. We will also begin sending you one copy of The Orthodox Word by airmail, hoping to hear some response from you on the articles we will be printing in the months ahead.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
CHRIST IS RISEN! Dear Brother in Christ, Andrew [Bond], Thank you for the copy of your \u201csorrowful epistle\u201d to Vladika Nikodem. What you describe there is indeed but one case of a very widespread problem now in our Church, a diversion from the devil \u201con the right side,\u201d as it were, and it will require […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/orthodoxaustralia.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1392","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/orthodoxaustralia.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/orthodoxaustralia.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/orthodoxaustralia.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/orthodoxaustralia.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1392"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/orthodoxaustralia.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1392\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/orthodoxaustralia.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/orthodoxaustralia.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/orthodoxaustralia.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}