Dear Father Alexis,<\/p>\n
Evlogeite!<\/p>\n
Thank you for the copies of the various letters. They help to clarify the picture somewhat.<\/p>\n
Andrew\u2019s letter has one great virtue: it is straightforward and honest; he says what he thinks. With such a one one may argue or even fight, perhaps, without coming to disaster; and one has the impression that he will listen if one speaks to him from the heart. You fault him for rising up against the clergy\u2014but really, that\u2019s not the basic problem here; he\u2019s afraid that \u201cthe fanatics are taking over,\u201d and whether real or imaginary, that\u2019s the fear that should be handled and calmed. I don\u2019t know if it’ helps to show him \u201clogically\u201d that the ones he fears as somehow \u201cfanatics\u201d are really models of Orthodox correctness. We don\u2019t know any of these people, but we do know many converts who grasp at \u201ccorrectness\u201d like a baby\u2019s bottle, and I think they could save their souls better by being a little \u201cincorrect,\u201d but humbler.<\/p>\n
This is not an \u201cargument\u201d\u2014just a few reflections to share with you.<\/p>\n
As for you: yes, you plugged all the loopholes, except one: the one in your heart. Keep it open, and one day…<\/p>\n
Father Herman instructs me to tell you: Orthodoxy is a mystery of God\u2019s love which cannot be defined; fear to lose it. If ever you should be in trouble, we will give you refuge.<\/p>\n
With love and sympathy in Christ our Saviour,
\nSeraphim, monk<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dear Father Alexis, Evlogeite! Thank you for the copies of the various letters. They help to clarify the picture somewhat. Andrew\u2019s letter has one great virtue: it is straightforward and honest; he says what he thinks. With such a one one may argue or even fight, perhaps, without coming to disaster; and one has the … Read more<\/a><\/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-7918","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/orthodoxaustralia.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7918","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=7918"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/orthodoxaustralia.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7918\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/orthodoxaustralia.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/orthodoxaustralia.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7918"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/orthodoxaustralia.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}