Fraternal message from Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Russia and the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church to the Bishops’ Council of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad

FRATERNAL MESSAGE FROM PATRIARCH ALEXY II OF MOSCOW AND ALL RUSSIA AND THE HOLY SYNOD OF THE RUSSIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH TO THE BISHOPS’ COUNCIL OF THE RUSSIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH ABROAD

Honourable archpastors and pastors – participants in the Council, grace be to you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ (Eph. 1:2).

On the eve of a Bishops’ Council of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad, the Holy Synod, clergy and Plenitude of the Russian Orthodox Church with special ardour lift up prayers to our Lord and Saviour that He may abolish the bitter division between the faithful of the Mother Church who live in diaspora and their same-faith brothers in Russia.

The tragic 20th century in which Russia and her Holy Church tasted grave temptations is over. The people’s heart was tempted by the grave sin of apostasy. In a spiritual obfuscation, churches were destroyed, shrines were defiled, God-given human freedom was trampled down, the Church’s robe was torn apart by both internal and external enemies. The Russian Church mounted her golgotha, and the Saviour’s prophecy that brother shall deliver up brother to death, and the father the child, and the children shall rise up against their parents, and cause them to be put to death (Mt. 10:21) was fulfilled in an theomachistic temptation. But God is faithful to His promises, and rising to the cross, the Orthodox Russia believed in her resurrection. Indeed, according to the apostle, neither death, nor life, not angels, nor principalities, nor powers, not things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Rom. 8:38-39). The blood of hundreds of thousands of martyrs and confessors washed the face of the Russian land and our country recovered through suffering from her grave disease. Through the intercession of new men of God, the yoke of militant godlessness fell at last.

Having entered a new millennium today, we can joyfully testify that the gates of hell (Mt. 16:18) has not prevailed over the Church in Russia. Dear brothers in Christ, the events which have taken place in the life of our Holy Church and our state in recent years clearly point to the fact that the historical reasons which conditioned our division are now removed. The Church in the homeland is free to carry out her salvific ministry. Despite the terrible years of persecution, she has recovered the opportunity to preach aloud the truth of Holy Orthodoxy. The Jubilee Bishops’ Council that took place last August became another vivid manifestation of the Church’s re-birth. The Basic Social Concept of the Russian Orthodox Church it adopted has given the necessary clarity to mutual relations between Church and state. In the situation of freedom, our Church and the much-suffering Orthodox people have fulfilled their long-standing desire to include in the community of saints a multitude of Russia’s New Martyrs and Confessors, among them the Imperial Passion-Bearers. By God’s blessing, their canonisation in the restored Church of Christ the Saviour with the participation of representatives of all Local Orthodox Churches became a truly pan-Orthodox celebration.

However, our joy will become full only if the wound of a disastrous schism in the body of the Russian Church is healed. Our hearts are filled with sadness because we, brethren who confess one faith in the Orthodox way, cannot partake of one Cup and continue to be captives of a historically outdated division. Many sensitive souls, especially those Russian people who live outside our homeland, are depressed by this situation, seeking to find ways to overcome it. And in the midst of the Church Abroad, there is a growing desire to remove the dividing wall. Many church members in Russia were delighted with the decision made by the Bishops’ Council of the Russian Church Abroad last year to set up a Commission on the Unity of the Russian Church. We reaffirm our readiness to establish a similar commission, so that we could settle in fraternal dialogue the perplexities which still stand on our way to unity.

The Holy New Martyrs went through innumerable sufferings for the Russian Church in their desire to see her free and unified. In the new millennium, which began with disturbing events, the Lord has placed on us both the responsibility for the future of the Russian Church. Brethren, the hour has struck for us to abandon all the disputes about the human truth, which should give way to the truth of God. Offering mutual repentance, we are called to come to meet each other and to overcome old suspicion and strife. It is time that we should all realise that our division points today only to human obduracy and sinfulness. Let us follow the commandment of St. Tikhon the Patriarch of All Russia, who wrote in one of his messages eighty years ago: “Power is in unity, harmonious action and brotherly love”. May we be strengthened in our coming together by the words of the First-Priestly Prayer of our Lord and Saviour that they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me (Jn. 17:21). Members of the Holy Synod The Day of the Glorification of St. Innocent, Metropolitan of Moscow September 23, October 6, 2001

Alexy, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia,
Members of the Holy Synod

The Day of the Glorification of St. Innocent, Metropolitan of Moscow
September 23, October 6, 2001

See also:

Meeting of the Holy Synod