Archbishop Hilarion of Volokolamsk

Hilarion and Chrysostomos meet on Cyprus issues

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The Russian Orthodox influence in the Mediterranean grows. Source: Moscow Patriarchate.

On 22 October 2009, the Chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate Department Archbishop Hilarion of Volokolamsk met with His Beatitude Archbishop Chrysostomos II of Nea Justiniana and All Cyprus. Taking part in the meeting that took place in Paphos, Cyprus, was Metropolitan Isaiah (Kykkotis) of Tamassos.

They discussed a wide range of the problems of mutual interest in the atmosphere of fraternal understanding.

Archbishops Chrysostomos (left) and Hilarion
Archbishop Hilarion of Volokolamsk thanked the Primate of the Church of Cyprus for his care for the Russian-speaking flock living in Cyprus. Having noted that the need in spiritual care for the Russian-speaking population is increasing, he suggested that, following the established practice, the future clergymen of the Church of Cyprus should be sent to the theological schools of the Russian Orthodox Church to learn the Russian language and the traditions of the Russian Orthodoxy.

The DECR MP Chairman informed the Primate of the Church of Cyprus that the Russian Orthodox Education Centre in Larnaka was willing to give icons of the Russian saints to the churches and monasteries in Cyprus as a gift. His Beatitude Chrysostomos thanked him for the initiative and noted that veneration of the Russian saints is widely spread among the Cypriots.

They also discussed prospects of the opening of the metochion of the Orthodox Church of Cyprus at the Moscow Patriarchate and the metochion of the Moscow Patriarchate in Cyprus.

The necessity was underscored of cooperation between the two Churches on the level of their representations to the European institutions, especially while discussing human rights.

Opinions were exchanged on the problems on the agenda of the Interorthodox Pre-Council Commission to take place in Chambesy, Switzerland, on 10-17 December 2009.

Archbishop Hilarion presented the Primate of the Orthodox Church of Cyprus a panagia made in the workshops of the Moscow Patriarchate.

Catholic-Orthodox Dialogue off to rocky start on Cyprus

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Orthodox or Catholic ecclesiology?

.From the Sunday Mail (Cyprus):

Members of Orthodox Christian unions along with clerics and monks yesterday disrupted a Paphos conference between Orthodox and Catholic Christians. The unions, monks from Stavrovouni monastery and Larnaca clerics were protesting against the conference and demanding that Archbichop Chrysostomos II cancel it.

It was day one of the conference of the Joint Commission for the Theological Dialogue between the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church. The protesters claimed the dialogue between the two churches aimed in the submission of the Orthodox Church to the Pope.

AsiaNews, picking up on an interview Metropolitan John of Pergamon held with a Cypriot journalist, said the metropolitan wanted to send a message to “certain areas” of the Orthodox Church that are suffering from “a traditionalist narcissism bordering on infallibility.”

… Zizoulas immediately clarifies that “the decision to participate in dialogue with the Catholic Church was ‘unanimously’ made by all Orthodox churches. Therefore inveighing against dialogue, the Ecumenical Patriarchate and my person is unfair. All Orthodox churches were in agreement on the importance of dialogue and the fact that it must continue”.

“The Ecumenical Patriarchate – he continues – as in all other Orthodox matters, has only a coordinating role and we, like the other members of the Commission, are the engaged executors, according to our own conscience, of the mandate that was assigned to us. We are open to criticism because we are not infallible, just as our critics are not infallible. Those who do not want dialogue, are opposed to the common will of all Orthodox Churches. ”

Regarding the positions of the monks of Mount Athos – staunchly opposed to dialogue – the Metropolitan of Pergamon is explicit: “I respect their opinion and their feelings on matters of faith. But why should they have the monopoly of truth on matters of faith? Are the other leaders of the churches perhaps lacking this sensitivity? All the faithful of the Church have the right to express their thoughts. But all opinions should be subject to scrutiny of the synods. If the great Father of the Church St. Basil put his opinion to the judgement of synods, we can do no less!”.

In April, the “Convention of Orthodox Clergymen and Monks” in Greece published a “Confession of Faith Against Ecumenism” which characterized the papacy as “the womb of heresies and fallacies.”

Church of Greece hierarchs have weighed in. Here are their first two points (emphasis theirs):

1. The need for a more detailed updating of the Holy Synod of the Hierarchy on these very significant issues was made evident. It was also declared that from now on, the Hierarchy is to be informed of all the phases of the Dialogues, otherwise no “document” will be considered binding to the Church. After all, this is defined in the Synodic Polity of the Church.

2. The Dialogue must continue, but within the Orthodox ecclesiological and canonical framework, and always following an understanding with the Ecumenical Patriarchate, as has been pan-Orthodoxically decided.

The focus of this particular International Joint Commission for Orthodox-Catholic Theological Dialogue is the “the role of Bishop of Rome in the communion of the Church in the 1st millennium.” The Russian Church delegation is headed by Archbishop Hilarion of Volokolamsk. Interfax reports that the commission “held its previous session in October 2007 in Ravenna. Then, the Moscow Patriarchate delegation left the session as its members didn’t agree to participation of the so-called ‘Estonian Apostolic Church’ established by the Constantinople Patriarchate on the Russian Church canonical territory in 1996. In the absence of the Russian Church representatives, the participants adopted a final document defining their joint view on the nature of rule in the Ecumenical Church.”

Later, commenting on the adopted document Walter Kasper, the president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, spoke about “real breakthrough” in the dialogue between Orthodox and Catholics. However, the Russian Church didn’t share his optimism and reproached the Holy See for its attempts to impose Catholic model of administration with the Pope ruling on Orthodox world.

The Moscow Patriarchate has an update today

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The Primacy Problem (Catholic and Orthodox)

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In an interview with the National Catholic Register’s Edward Pentin, Archbishop Hilarion of Volokolamsk talks about his first official visit to Rome in September as chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Affairs. He offers a caution about any Catholic-Orthodox union, something that media reports and at least one Catholic bishop said was imminent. In pointing out that the Roman Catholic understanding of the primacy of the bishop of Rome was a chief sticking point, Archbishop Hilarion also observed that the Orthodox have primacy issues, too. At least from the Russian perspective.

NCR: Archbishop Paolo Pezzi of Moscow was recently very optimistic about Catholic-Orthodox unity, saying it could possibly happen in a matter of months. What is your reaction to Archbishop Pezzi’s words, and what is your analysis of the current progress towards reunification?

Pope Benedict and Archbishop Hilarion

Archbishop Hilarion: I would be more cautious with regard to progress towards unity between the two Churches. Yes, I agree that the Russian Orthodox and the Roman Catholic Churches have a common understanding on issues concerning social and economic ethics, personal morality, family, bioethics and other topical issues facing the modern society.

This agreement enables our Churches already now to bear common witness to Christian ideals in the face of the secular world. A perfect unity between Churches however presupposes first of all harmony in faith, and here the situation appears to me to be more complicated.

The Joint Commission for Orthodox-Catholic Theological Dialogue now begins discussing the most important issue — though not the only one that divides the Catholics and the Orthodox — concerning the primacy of the bishop of Rome in the universal Church.

Unlike Archbishop Pezzi, I do not think we can reach a perfect agreement on this point in a matter of a few months. I have already had to point out that the problem of primacy within the universal Church has not been settled even within the world Orthodoxy. Continue reading →

Stalin, Russianness and Orthodoxy

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AsiaNews, the Roman Catholic news service, looks at how some elements in Russian society are working to rehabilitate Stalin’s reputation and sees the Russian Orthodox Church “co-opted” into this process.

The makeover of Stalin’s image and the Soviet Era go together with an attempt by Russian rulers to restore the country’s cultural identity, an impossible mission without the cooptation of Russian Orthodoxy. The Moscow Patriarchate, in spite of itself, is much involved in this issue, and has often been accused of playing right into the Kremlin’s hands in order to gain cultural supremacy in Russian society.

Aleksandr Cipko, a philosopher and editorial writer, from the pages of Nezavisimaja Gazeta on 15 September slammed the operation to revive the myth of Russia’s supremacy over the West. For him, there is a danger that Stalin will be seen as the embodiment of the original Russian project rather than Communism. The philosopher is angered by self-styled “true patriots” who “not only associate, but identify Russianness, orthodoxy and Stalinism as one, and exclude freedom, dignity, personhood, material well-being, from so-called ‘fundamental Russian values’.”

Apparently, whoever wrote this story (which did not carry a byline) had not seen Archbishop Hilarion’s statement that Stalin was a “monster.”

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Archbishop Hilarion: Be like Christ

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From an interview in the Russian publication Argumenty I Fakty, republished on the site of the Moscow Patriarchate. Worth reading in its entirety. Excerpts:

Should the Church do something to attract young people? Should it seek a special approach to them?

I believe that the search for real freedom is a worthy thing not only for young people but also for all those who are seeking the true life. The Church appreciates the aspiration of the young to freedom and independence, as Christians have never been the adherents of the submissiveness to the reality in which they live and which bears the apparent traces of sin.

At the same time, the search for freedom, unfortunately, do not always bring people to their cherished goals. Young people often take permissiveness and nihilism for freedom. As a result, after a natural dependence of their parents up to a certain age they become slaves of consumers’ worldview and brute instincts that the slavery exploits. Therefore the Church offers its experience of the search for freedom to the youth with the words of the Saviour: “And you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” (Jn 8:32). While helping young people to seek real freedom, the Church is willing to speak with them in the language that they understand.

Young people who go to church are often ‘grounded’ in the history and life of the Church, but are lacking Christian spirit and Christian attitude to the neighbour. What advice would you give to these people? How can the Church solve this problem?

The belonging to the Church of not only a young person, but of any Orthodox believer, should find its expression not in the knowledge of the life of the Church, which is important, but first of all in the irreplaceable aspiration to the main thing, which the Church offers — the new life in Christ. The experience of the real communion with God that a believer receives in the church sacraments and prayer gives him strength to change, to transform himself and finally to become a true man. A true man in the Orthodox understanding is a person of full value who clearly comprehends the meaning of life and wishes to realize himself in the love of the neighbour and in creative work. Continue reading →

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