The London Conference and the Future of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia
Introduction
The twenty hierarchs gathering in London for the first ever Conference of all Russian Orthodox bishops with dioceses outside the canonical territory of the Russian Orthodox Church will doubtless have much to discuss on many and varied issues. However, the mere fact that this historic Conference, and it is historic, is taking place at all has produced various reactions.
The Autocephalists
First of all, there is the view of the ‘Autocephalists’, who are headquartered in the USA (about 30,000) and France (about 5,000). These are generally rather Russophobic; hostility is directed against all things ‘Russian’. One of them just recently called the Russian Church ‘not a mother, but a cynical stepmother’(!). He also claimed that there are over 700 parishes in his Church of three retired Metropolitans – meaning that each ‘parish’ has on average fewer than 50 individuals. These individuals are generally Western phyletists, that is, those who put their Western nationalism above Orthodoxy. Most of these are laypeople with little understanding of how the Church works.
They are nervous of this Conference, which is dominated by the bishops of the self-governing Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia (ROCOR). They feel that Russian Orthodox churches outside Russia are now dominated by Orthodox of all nationalities who hold the Tradition dear, which is not what they, the renovationists, want. Imaginatively living in the ‘comfort’ of their Cold War past, they do not want multinational and multilingual Russian Orthodox reality to dominate the Church. If only, they say, the Soviet Union and the then paralysed Church Centre were still here, we could carry on with our liturgical and ideological fantasies, secularising and protestantising the Orthodox Tradition at our whim.
The Steam Rollerists
At the other extreme there are those who are equally phyletistic, only in another sense. These are the ‘Russianists’. They are those of the Soviet ‘steamroller school’, also living in the ‘comfort’ of their Cold War past. Their view of the Church is similar to that of a Red Army tank brigade dashing for Berlin. These are the imperialists and centralisers. Most of these are also laypeople with little understanding of how the Church works. They too are nervous of this Conference, which is dominated by the bishops of the self-governing Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia (ROCOR).
They feel that Russian Orthodox churches outside Russia are now dominated by Orthodox of all nationalities who hold the Tradition dear, which is not what they, the nationalists, want. Imaginatively living in the ‘comfort’ of their Cold War past, they do not want multinational and multilingual Russian Orthodox reality to dominate the Church. If only, they say, the Soviet Union were still here, we could carry on with our imperialistic, ideological fantasies, nationalising the Orthodox Tradition.
Realities
Strangely, or perhaps not strangely, enough, both the above groups, under threat, want ROCOR to be ‘absorbed’ or ‘taken over’ by the Patriarchate in Moscow. This is laughable. It is not going to happen. What is far more likely is that the part of the Russian Orthodox Russia, ROCOR, which by the Patriarchal decree of St Tikhon was made responsible for all Russian Orthodox outside the Russian Lands 92 years ago, will absorb and take over the parishes of the Russian Orthodox Church which are still directly dependent on Moscow. The present situation is after all an abnormal one. Clearly, ROCOR has no parishes in the Russian Lands, why then are not all Russian Orthodox parishes on its ROCOR territory in its jurisdiction? The fact of their existence is an historical aberration, a hangover from the past.
ROCOR exists because of the faithful confession of the Faith by generations of Russian émigrés who fled the Soviet Union. It is only right that their faithfulness should be recognised by all churches of the Russian Orthodox Church outside Russian Orthodox canonical territory by coming home, under one roof, to ROCOR. There is no humiliation here for anyone, only a recognition of reality. You cannot be Russian Orthodox outside Russia and not belong to ROCOR. It makes no practical or canonical sense. This was indeed the suggestion of President Putin on his visit to the ROCOR Synod in New York in 2003. If such an event happened, it could also mean that ROCOR will be restructured, with at least three Metropolias (Western Europe, Australasia and the Americas), in a return to its pre-1945 structure of Metropolitan Districts.
Conclusion
It may be that God has intentions for us other than the above. It may be that all this is to happen, only many years in the future. Nobody knows what will happen at the London Conference of Russian Orthodox hierarchs. This is normal for any Church meeting, for we wait to be moved by the Holy Spirit, not by the imaginations of men. There is only one thing that we are hoping and praying for at this Conference – that God’s will may be done.
Archpriest Andrew Phillips
London
Holy Martyr Charitina
The Holy Hierarchs of Moscow
5/18 October 2012
