SERBIAN BISHOP’S APPEAL

 

ON THE FEAST of the Holy Prophet Elias the Thesbite this year,  His Grace, Bishop Artemije of Ras-Prizren and Kosovo-Metohija issued the following sobering appeal to his flock, who are living in the appalling destruction brought upon them by the Western powers’ bombardment of the former Yugoslavia and the consequent separation of the Serbian Orthodox peoples there (in the spiritual heartland of their nation) from their fellow Serbs:  “In distant times God heard the prayer of the Prophet Elias to punish his people for their idolatry.  Today God still hears the prayers of His faithful servants and often brings punishment to our people.  He does so not because He does not love us, nor because He wants to destroy us, or consume us, but because He wants us to return to His presence. The whole Serbian people, brothers and sisters, had gone astray and swerved from the real devotion.  For more than fifty years, our people had been wandering about the desert of this world disregarding the practice of their Orthodox Faith and the celebration of their Slava (a feast day) and gradually losing their previous honorability and heroism.  Thus, God wanted to bring us back to His presence.  For the last ten years or so we have experienced sufferings wherever we lived, primarily in Kosovo and Metohija.  God did not make us suffer because He does not love us, but because He loves us very much and awaits our correction.  Our Father wants us to follow the Holy Prophet Elias in his strong faith and fervour, and be true sons of St. Sava and the Holy Prince Lazar.  It is that kind of life that leads to Heavenly Kingdom, our heavenly homeland.  It is important for us to understand the purpose of our generation’s suffering, so as to direct our ways to God.  As once Elias’s people corrected their ways and God sent them rain from the sky, thus God can send us His mercy if we direct our ways to Him.  He is willing to hear our prayers.  For our Father knows what things we have need of before we ask Him.  Yet, it is necessary that we should display our faith in God since Christ during His earth life-time did many miracles and healed all sorts of sicknesses and diseases among people, but He would always ask people: ‘Believest thou that I am able to do this?’ (Mt 9:28).  Not until they confessed their faith did the miracles occur.  God is asking us today, ‘Do you believe you may be set free in Kosovo and Metohija?  Do you believe that Kosovo and Metohija will remain to be what it has been for centuries?’  Our answer should be, ‘Yes, Lord, we do.’  But not mere tongue confession, rather life, faith and deed confession.  At that very moment we will hear the Lord saying, ‘According to your faith be it to you’ (Mt 9:29).  As miracles occurred in the past they may reoccur today.  Just have faith and trust in God and you will witness His miracles.”

 

 

 

ST ELIZABETH THE GRAND DUCHESS’ RELICS

 

AT THE BEGINNING of August, Portal-Credo.ru published an Open Letter to “the ROCOR(MP) Hierarch Metropolitan Hilarion,” purporting to be from a priest of that jurisdiction in the Holy Land.  The anonymous writer claimed to have been the witness of sad events at the Gethsemane Convent in the Holy Land when portions of relics of St Elizabeth the New Martyr were unceremoniously taken to be transferred to the “Marfo-Mariinsky Convent” in Moscow.  A delegation from Moscow was alleged to have arrived at Gethsemane, accompanied by Bishop Michael of Geneva, and demanded the surrender of these relics.  It was alleged that attempts to contact Archbishop Mark, who is responsible for the ROCA-MP holdings in Israel, were unsuccessful because “‘unknown forces’ disconnected his cell phone.”  The impression given was that the relics were, to all intents and purposes, snatched without proper ceremony or proper procedure.  The Head of the ROCA Mission in Jerusalem, Archimandrite Ioasaph, has since written a letter explaining that the ROCA-MP Synod had given a blessing for this gift, that the relics were properly separated when Archbishop Mark was in Jerusalem for the Ascension (15th / 28th May) and placed in temporary reliquaries, and were taken to Russia before the hundredth anniversary of the founding of the Marfo-Mariinsky Convent so that permanent reliquaries could be accurately prepared.  He writes; “Everything that happened took place with the explicit blessing of, and at the request of, Archbishop Mark.”  A private letter from one of the sisters of the Convent confirms this version of events in most respects.  On 21st August, the ROCA-MP website published a statement also confirming this; this was headed “from the Nuns of Gethsemane,” but was not attributed to the Abbess and was itself otherwise anonymous.   What remains something of a mystery is where the Portal Credo-ru story originated, and perhaps more pertinently why the ROCA-MP Synodal decision to donate portions of the relics to Moscow was not widely published at the time it was reached, and why no mention of the transfer was made on their official website for three months after the dividing of the relics, especially in view of the widespread concern that the allegations in the anonymous letter had raised among the faithful.  Matters of much less import appear on their website every few days.  People loyal to the Synod of Metropolitan Hilarion, and close to him personally, whom we contacted in attempting (unsuccessfully at the time) to ascertain the veracity of the Open Letter, had no idea that a portion of the relics were to be presented to the Moscow Convent.  One might have thought it would have been bruited abroad as one more evidence of the accord which the rapprochement of 2007 has brought about; instead, oddly, it seems to have been kept secret.

 

 

A PERTINENT OBSERVATION

 

IN AN ARTICLE on Russia’s post-Soviet history, published in “History Today” (September ‘09), Catherine Merridale, professor of Contemporary History at Queen Mary, University of London, makes the following very pertinent remark about modern Russia’s signal failure to address the horrors of their recent Soviet past:  “It is the Kremlin’s view that Russia needs a coherent story and that the tale should not only encourage romantic patriotism but that it should, in the process, justify the kind of centralised government that Putin and his aides desire.  In return, a significant portion of Russia’s people seem drawn to escapism and epic; swashbuckling, after all, is much more fun than repentance” (emphasis ours).  Professor Merridale has written a book, “Night of Stone: Death and Memory in Russia,” and seems to know her subject well, but whether what she writes of Russia itself is strictly true, we can see that it is certainly manifest in the life of the official Church there.  “Swashbuckling” - glorious liturgical celebrations, meetings, greetings, official exchanges, symposia, receptions, and banquets, are the order of the day, and yet from the hierarchy so very  little has been heard of their repentance for their participation in the Soviet horror.

 BISHOP BASIL TO RETIRE

 

HIS GRACE, Bishop Basil of Amphipolis, who leads the Vicariate in Great Britain & Ireland, of the Archdiocese of Orthodox Parishes of the Russian Tradition in Western Europe (Œcumenical Patriarchate), has announced his intention to retire.  Bishop Basil was consecrated while a clergyman of the Moscow Patriarchate in this country, as a vicar bishop with the title “of Sergievo,” a title formerly held by the late Metropolitan Antony of Sourozh, but, in May 2006, he and many of the clergy of the Sourozh Diocese separated from the Moscow Church and joined the Parish Exarchate.  It was then that he was then granted the title “of Amphipolis.”  In recent months there have been lengthy legal proceedings regarding disputed properties, between the two churches, which ended in ostensible victory for the Moscow Patriarchate.  The surprise announcement of the Bishop’s resignation was made at the Liturgy at the Parish of the Dormition, Holbourn, on Sunday 30th August.

 

 

SAD NEWS FROM ROMANIA

 

WHILE he was visiting England, His Grace, Bishop Ambrose of Methoni heard of the death in a car crash of Father Protopresbyter Vasilie of Falticeni in Moldavia on Saturday, 23rd August / 5th September, the Leaveataking of the Feast of the Dormition.  Fr Vasilie was the priest of the Saints Constantine and Helena Church in Falticeni, which offered the pilgrims from Greece, Ukraine, America and England such warm hospitality during our pilgrimage at the feast of St Glycherie (see last month’s “Shepherd”).   First reports suggested that his Preoteasa Veronica had been killed with Fr Vasilie.  Fortunately that was not the case.  We ask the prayers of all the faithful for the repose of Fr Vasilie, his rest with the Saints, and that he be granted Memory Eternal.  Pray also that his family and parishioners find the comfort of the Lord in their bereavement, and in the loss of such an excellent pastor.  In our days when the Church faces such tribulations and such shortages of clergy, the loss of any pastor is the greatest sadness, but the loss of such an one as Fr Vasilie is the more to be regretted.  However, Bishop Ambrose explained we cannot always comprehend God’s Providence.