The Shepherd, January 2010
NEW WESTERN RITE PRESENCE IN U.K.
AS, PERHAPS, was to be expected, after the rapprochement of May 2007 between the Moscow Patriarchate and the Synod of the late Metropolitan Lavr, now headed by Metropolitan Hilarion, in the publications of the latter we see two clear tendencies. The first only surprised us by the speed of its accomplishment, and that was a wholesale acceptance of what formerly the ROCA spokespeople referred to as “World Orthodoxy,” with its consequent estrangement from the ascetic tradition of the Church, endorsement of ecumenism, liturgical minimalism, and concern for the things of this age. The second was an ever greater emphasis on “Russianness,” as if this holds some primacy in the Gospel message. This has strayed far beyond the bounds of a proper reverence and gratitude for the tradition of the Russian Saints, into an almost sycophantic approval of everything that pertains to the present Russian state and its leaders. One unionist website, even greeted Mr Putin as “our beloved Prime Minister” on his birthday, even though the website appears to be edited in Australia, where, as far as we know, Mr Putin is not yet the Prime Minister!
In Britain, the trend seems to have been markedly different, and the greatest evidence of activity and growth appears to be among the convert clergy, although the scheduled (Jan. 2007) regular English Liturgies in London have not materialised. In fact, of ROCA-MP’s ten clergymen here, only one is Russian, recently come to this country. So, perhaps it is unsurprising that the growth is such as it is. The parish in Birkenhead, which worshipped in a house chapel, has now found a permanent church. The parish at Felixstowe, which a few years ago seemed to have fewer than two dozen people, has relocated to Colchester and now has an immense church, served by two priests; some of its people have also formed a misson at Mettingham, near Bungay, and built their own church. And now, to crown these advances, in the last few weeks, following the visit of Metropolitan Hilarion, a Western Rite presence has been started, centred in Bournemouth, but also using the crypt chapel in the London Church on Harvard Road. It might be that, now it is an integral part of the Moscow Patriarchate, ROCA-MP in this country is consciously placing itself as the “British faction.” There is still an evident, and often expressed, wish among its people here to distance themselves from Moscow. However, if this is the intention, it is not altogether realistic as, despite the preponderance of non-Russians among their clergy, by far the greater number of ROCA-MP lay people in this country must surely still be of Russian extraction and relatively recent immigrants.
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