REPOSE OF AN ORTHODOX CONFESSOR

 

ONE of our parishioners, Borislav Popov, phoned us to tell us, and another, Yordanka Kalnakova, sent us the following message on the feastday of Sts Constantine & Helen, Tuesday 21st May / 3rd June:  “Archimandrite Sergii, one of the pillars of the old calendar Orthodox church in Bulgaria, has has died this morning at the age of 85.  For many years Fr Sergii was the spiritual father and serving priest of the old calendar Convent (Pokrov Presviatoi Bogoroditzi - Protection of the the Most Holy Mother of God) in Sofia.  He was one of the very learned priests in Bulgaria, was made a deacon and became a monk at a very early age and dedicated all his life to God.  He was one of the priests who were not allowed to serve after 1968 as he did not accept the new calendar, but he continued behind the closed gates of the convent church.  The convent itself was officially shut for visitors and pilgrims until 1989.  In more recent years Fr Sergii was one of the most fierce opponents of the ecumenism and was a co-author of a rather heavy book on the same subject.  After the fall of the communists in Bulgaria, he gave talks about the Orthodox Faith to young people, gathering them once a week in his tiny abode.  He awoke the spiritual flame in many people (including myself) who were feeling lost in the early 90s  - years of turbulent political changes and unstable values.  We, his spiritual children, loved him dearly and have very fond memories of him.  Apparently, he had been to London once in the 60s and served in the Russian Cathedral in London.” (Slight corrections made to typing errors in original).   May the Lord, to Whom he was faithful throughout his long life grant Archimandrite Sergii Memory Eternal and rest with the Saints!  

 

 

 

MOSCOW  PATRIARCHATE REJECTS

RAVENNA STATEMENT

 

THE MOSCOW PATRIARCHATE has, according to a CWNews report issued on 20th May, ‘officially rejected a doctrinal statement approved by a joint Catholic-Orthodox theological commission at a meeting in Ravenna, Italy last October.  The Ravenna meeting reached agreement that the Bishop of Rome traditionally enjoyed primacy among all the world’s bishops, of both the Eastern and Western churches. While Vatican officials hailed the agreement as an important ecumenical landmark, they cautioned that the Catholic and Orthodox churches have a different understanding of primacy. Indeed the Ravenna document noted “differences of understanding with regard to the manner in which it is to be exercised, and also with regard to its scriptural and theological foundations.”  The Russian Orthodox rejection of the Ravenna statement is not a surprise, since representatives of the Moscow patriarchate were critical of the document when it first appeared. Russian prelates said that the Ravenna agreement implied that the Patriarch of Constantinople was the leader of the Orthodox world, just as the Pope is the leader of the Catholic Church. The Moscow patriarchate, which has often contested Constantinople’s leadership, rejected that idea.  In January, Patriarch Alexei of Moscow charged that the Ravenna meeting had been “deliberately orchestrated to exclude the Moscow patriarchate.” In fact, Russian Orthodox representatives walked out of the meeting before discussions began, protesting the seating of a delegation from the Estonian Orthodox Church, which Moscow does not recognize.’  This rejection is naturally to be welcomed, although it appears to fall somewhat short of an Orthodox confession of Faith.

 

 

 

KGB IN BELARUS PRESSURE ORTHODOX

NOT TO VENERATE SOVIET-ERA MARTYRS

 

FORUM 18 News Service posted a report by Geraldine Fagan on Monday 12th May: “A generation after the Soviet Union’s demise, Belarusian state representatives continue to discourage commemoration of Orthodox Christians killed for their faith by the Soviet regime.…  The KGB secret police have sought to have icons of the New Martyrs, as they are known by the Orthodox Church, removed from at least one cathedral. Belarusian Orthodox Church representatives appear to be nervous about publicly acknowledging New Martyrs believed to be among the many victims of the Stalin-era secret police at the mass killing grounds of Kuropaty (Kurapaty) on the northern edge of the capital Minsk.… In the western city of Grodno [Hrodna], however, the KGB have advised local Orthodox clergy to remove New Martyr icons depicting Red Army executioners with rifles from the city’s cathedral.… Bishop Artemi (Kishchenko) of Grodno and  Volkovysk refused to take them down. He told the KGB that he couldn’t rewrite history.  … The Belarusian KGB - which has not changed its name since Soviet times - has made no attempt to distance itself from its Soviet past. It proudly traces its history back to the first Soviet secret police, the Cheka, which was founded by Felix Dzerzhinsky. … KGB officers also often monitor visitors to Kuropaty, a wooded area on the northern outskirts of Minsk, a local Orthodox source told Forum 18 on 5 May.  Possibly 100,000 victims of Stalin’s purges are thought to have been shot and buried at Kuropaty in 1937-41, but no archaeological research has been conducted at the site since the 1990s.  The act of going there - even to light candles - is ‘fraught with tension’ with the current regime, according to the source. … The influence of Soviet-style militant atheism also remains strong among state officials in Belarus (see F18News 18 November 2003 <http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=186>).  Although President Lukashenko publicly stresses the role of Orthodoxy, Forum 18 has found little evidence of state support for the Belarusian Orthodox Church.”

 

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