Enlarged plenary session of the Synodal Theological Commission of the Russian Orthodox Church
5.03.2001 · English, Архив 2001
ENLARGED PLENARY SESSION OF THE SYNODAL THEOLOGICAL COMMISSION OF THE RUSSIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH
The Synodal Theological Commission met for an enlarged plenary session on February 10-20 at the Moscow Theological Academy in St.Sergius Monastery of the Trinity. It was chaired by the Patriarchal Exarch for All Belarus, Metropolitan Filaret of Minsk and Slutsk. The commission adopted a final document, the text of which is given below.
7th Plenary Session
of the Synodal Theological Commission
Russian Orthodox Church
February 19 – 20, 2001
Moscow Theological Academy
FINAL DOCUMENT
With the blessing of His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Russia, the Synodal Theological Commission met for an enlarged plenary session on February 19-20, 2001, at the Moscow Theological Academy in St. Sergius Monastery of the Trinity to consider the discussion going on in church and public circles on the introduction of taxpayer identification numbers (INN). The session was held with the participation of hierarchs representing the Orthodox Churches in the four countries – Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, and Moldova, abbots and spiritual fathers of stauropegial monasteries, representatives of public authorities, as well as consultants and experts.
The Commission worked in a mutually respectful and fruitful dialogue between representatives of the church and public authorities including the State Duma and the Ministry for Taxes and Duties. In this dialogue, the participants clarified questions concerning the procedure involved in taxpayer accounting.
The plenary session considered the following problems provoking concern and confusion among some of the church people and questions posed in numerous appeals of believers and mass media publications:
1. Is the apocalyptic number 666 present in INN and identity cards?
2. Is INN a seal of the Antichrist?
3. Does a Christian lose his or her name when accepting INN?
4. Is there any spiritual threat in the globalizations processes?
5. How lawful are the actions of some clergymen with regard to the INN problem?
After a comprehensive discussion on these themes, the plenary session came to the following conclusion:
1. According to the opinion of experts, INN is a sequence of 12 Arabic figures, with the first two figures representing the code of a region, the next two – the number of a local tax inspection, the next six – the taxpayer registration number, and the last two – the so-called “key figures” for the verification of the record. The presence of three sixes in this set of figures can be only accidental. There is no reason to speak about the inevitable presence of 666 in INN.
Some publications argued that the number 666 is present as code in electronic documents using magnetic reading and recording. According the expert opinion received by the commission, this argument is groundless.
The supposition about the hidden presence of 666 can be partly valid only in case where information is coded through a bar-code executed in the EAN-13/UPC standard which is used to mark commodities (it should be noted at this point that as a matter of fact the computer does not take the three pairs of elongated dividing lines as six. However, their graphic outline is similar to that of number six in the same coding standard). In case of recording in other known systems different from EAN-13/UPC (commodity bar-codes), such as magnetic bars present in electronic documents, the experts have not found the figure 666 in this type of recording information.
2. The idea popular among some Orthodox Christians that “the Antichrist has not yet come, but the seals are already there” or that there is a “pre-seal” contradicts the church teaching on the appearance of the Antichrist in “later times” of human history. As was already stated in the Holy Synod Statement of March 7, 2000, entitled “Respecting the feelings of the faithful. Preserving Christian discretion”, “We remind those who try to link the identification numbers with ‘the seal of the Antichrist’ that in the patristic tradition this seal was understood as a sign establishing a conscious renunciation of Christ… Despite this tradition it is sometimes alleged that a technological action can in itself bring about a turnabout in the secret depth of the human soul, making it to forget Christ. Such superstition diverges from the Orthodox interpretation of the Revelation of St. John the Theologian, according to which the ‘seal of the beast’ is placed on those who consciously come to believe in him “solely because of his false miracles” (St. John Chrysostom). No kind of outward sign can damage the spiritual health of a person if it is not a consequence of his conscious betrayal of Christ and profanation of the faith”.
A similar statement was made earlier by the Holy Synod of the Church of Greece in its Circular Letter No. 2641 of February 9, 1998: “‘The seal, be it the name of the Antichrist or the number of his name, when the moment of its putting comes, will involve the renunciation of Christ and marriage with the Antichrist only when it is accepted by a person voluntarily. The voluntary acceptance of the ‘seal’, which is identified with the apparent renunciation of Christ, deprives one of the divine grace, since the person himself by his own will stops to contribute to this grace and seeks to reject it without any repentance”.
3. We can answer the question whether a Christian loses his name when accepting INN with the words of Archimandrite Ioann Krestyankin: “My dear ones, how can we panic about losing our Christian name when it is replaced it by a number? But can this happen in the eyes of God? Can anyone standing at the Cup of Life forget oneself and one’s heavenly patron given during one’s Baptism? And shan’t we remember all those clergymen and lay Christians who were forced to forget their names replaced by numbers, and many of them simply had to go to eternity named by number. And God took them into His paternal arms as holy martyrs and martyrs, and their triumphant white robes covered their prisoner’s jackets. They had no names, but God was on their side, and His guidance led the imprisoned believer through the shadow of death every day. The Lord has no notion of man as number; number is needed only for today’s computers, while the Lord has nothing dearer than the living human soul for the sake of which He sent His Only-begotten Son, Christ the Saviour. And the Saviour entered the world with a population census”.
At the same time, considering the confusion among the church people about the assignment of INN, the Holy Authorities of the Russian Orthodox Church, on the proposal by the spiritual father of St. Sergius’ Monastery of the Trinity, Archimandrite Kirill Pavlov, entered into dialogue with the leaders of the Ministry for Taxes and Duties. In the course of this dialogue, the ministry stated its willingness to submit a legislative proposal to the State Duma for making amendments to the Tax Code on the introduction of the Personal Account of a Taxpayer – a Natural Person document and the notion of “the personal account number of a taxpayer – a natural person”. If this proposal is accepted and implemented, the fears of some people that “their Christian names will be replaced by numbers” will become groundless (since in this case a number will be given not to a person, but to a document).
4. The globalization processes generated by the increasing interdependence of states and nations may be used by an ill will to enslave people and human communities. Thus, it is impossible to deny the threat that various technologies can be used to establish a system of total control, to violate privacy and to exert pressure on a person’s choice of religion and worldview.
An opinion was voiced that it was desirable to set up a church-public council for studying, in cooperation with governmental bodies, the above-mentioned processes and tendencies. The council could also analyze the development of respective international law standard, as well as legislative initiatives and the executive power actions presenting a threat to individual freedom and the cultural and religious identity of nations linked historically with Orthodoxy. In this connection, it would be desirable to send an appropriate letter to the President and the Federal Assembly on behalf of His Holiness the Patriarch and the Holy Synod.
Many countries have mechanism for legal protection against attempts to introduce a unified personal identifier or create a unified interdepartmental data base.
Special attention should be given to the introduction of identity cards and other modern methods of identification which will be used for accounting and providing social and medical aid.
Considering the fact that the technology for producing and using such identifiers cannot be regarded as reprehensible, it is necessary to press for the guarantees against violation of privacy and for all the information gathered about a person to be open to him and inaccessible to any other than mandated state bodies acting on the basis of respective laws.
Recognizing the objective and at the same time ambiguous nature of the globalization processes, the participants in the plenary session believe it their duty to remind that it is God who is the Creator and Provider of the world. For her two-millennia-long history, the Church of Christ has survived many state systems which set as their task to destroy the Church and enslave the Christian nations spiritually, but they all crashed against the stone of Christ’s promise: “I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Mt. 16:18).
5. The Basic Social Concept of the Russian Orthodox Church states in its Section 3 that if the state forces its citizens into sin, the Church may call them to civil disobedience. These words from the Actions of the 2000 Jubilee Bishops’ Council, however, speak of the Church, not individual clergymen or lay people who dare speak arbitrarily on behalf of the Church.
Of special concern is the fact that many clerics dare act without the blessing of the Holy Authorities and sometimes have acted in direct contradiction to the position which has been openly and unambiguously expressed by ruling bishops and such supreme church authorities as the Bishops’ Council, the Holy Synod and His Holiness the Patriarch. It is absolutely unacceptable that some clerics and monastics made appeals to the mass media and governmental bodies – the actions which sometimes have the nature of barefaced pressure on the Holy Authorities. To these people we remind Canon 11 of the Council of Sardica: “If any bishop, or presbyter, or any one whatever of the canon shall presume to betake himself to the Emperor without the consent and letters of the bishop of the province, and particularly of the bishop of the metropolis, such a one shall be publicly deposed and cast out, not only from communion, but also from the rank which he happens to have… But, if necessary business shall require any one to go to the Emperor, let him do it with the advice and consent of the metropolitan and other bishops in the province, and let him undertake his journey with letters from them”.
It is necessary to remind today’s “zealots beyond reason” that the Lord has entrusted bishops with a special mission to be builders of the Mysteries of Christ and guardians of the intact doctrinal Tradition. Deviation from the legitimate Holy Authorities is deviation from the Holy Spirit, from Christ Himself. As the holy martyr Ignatius the God-bearer said, “See that ye all follow the bishop, even as Jesus Christ does the Father, and the presbytery as ye would the apostles; and reverence the deacons, as being the institution of God. Let no man do anything connected with the Church without the bishop…Wherever the bishop shall appear, there let the people also be; even as, wherever Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic Church. (St. Ignatius of Antioch, Smyrn. 8). The Orthodox Church confesses that “without the bishop neither the Church nor the Christian can be called such or even exist. For the bishop as successor of the apostles through the laying on of the hands and by the call of the Holy Spirit has received in succession the God-given power to judge and bind” (Letter of the Eastern Patriarchs).
Conclusions:
1. Acceptance or non-acceptance of individual numbers in no measure is a matter of the confession of faith or a sinful deed. It is a matter of personal choice and it has no religious significance.
2. The confusion that has arisen in church circles in the course of the discussion about INN indicates the need for strengthening the teaching ministry of the church hierarchy and correcting the shortcomings that exist in spiritual care.
In this connection, we respectfully ask His Holiness the Patriarch to address a pastoral letter to the plenitude of the Russian Orthodox Church.
3. Without reproaching people who refuse to accept INN, it is necessary to express concern over the spiritual condition of those among them who exalt themselves for their refusal and condemn those who do not follow their example.
4. It is absolutely inadmissible for pastors to impose church penalties for either accepting or not accepting tax numbers.
5. Unfortunately, it has to be stated that believers who refuse INN often have faced discrimination on the part of employers. According to official statements of the leadership of the Russian Federation’s Ministry for Taxes and Duties, such actions are illegal. In such cases it is necessary to appeal to higher tax instances.
6. The plenary session came to the conclusion that the Russian Orthodox Church needs to improve considerable her publishing and informational-analytical work to study and interpret ecclesiastical and social problems.
7. The Church has her own means of resisting the increasing sin in the world: these are not demonstrations and leaflets, but the observance of God’s commandments, prayer and repentance. Resistance to the evil multiplying in the world becomes a genuinely Christian task not only when Christians stir up one another with baseless fears, but also when we live by concrete works to strengthen our faith and help our neighbors. “Let your light so shine before them that they may see your good deeds and glorify your heavenly Father” (Mt 5:16).
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