Since I have known Metropolitan Jonah, I can state with confidence that his orientation was neither defiant nor liberal. He was an advocate for a more traditional, native transformation of the OCA, and that is precisely what will turn the tide in North America. The missteps he made in a very personal “neo Traditionalism” are not at all what I am addressing nor indicating here, but his calls for liturgical observance, Eucharistic witness, monasticism, spirituality, canonical mission and unity, rapprochement with warring factions, Orthodox education and formation, OCA-Slavic-Antiochian unity were all visionary and the cure to the disease.

As far as St. Vladimir’s and the rest of your criticism of some of the OCA machinery, that is another topic to consider. I will simply say that the OCA is the body blessed by the mother church to missionize North America, the body canonically appointed to be the local church. That is what matters, for it has the canonical authority to do so. How this sorts itself out in this period of restructuring and post catastrophe is still very much in flux.

Rest assured, we will fill our vacant sees and get our house in order. The “liberal East Coast” is not what is growing in the OCA, but, rather the quite “conservative” South and more “traditional” elements in the West, not to mention the “New Russian” diasporan influx which sees the social problems of our times as “degenerate craziness”. Things are a bit different from your perception.

I thank you for your time and consideration.

You must understand Rostislav, that I agree with you as well regarding missionizing this country. There is no essential quarrel. However this will not happen –indeed, cannot happen–with the phronema inherent in the OCA today. The least of which is a defiant spirit of unrepentence in the matter of Jonah.

And I mean no offence but the vacancy of five sees is indicative of a more serious problem. Trust me, evangelism came to a hard halt two years ago and dried up completely one year ago today.

The picture otherwise is not rosy in other areas as well. But for Fr Chad Hatfield, SVS is totally on board with East Coast liberal ecumenism. What can we expect from future priests? We know that HC is intellectually vapid so we can expect nothing from that quarter but would putting out intellectually brilliant but Tradition-skeptic priests from SVS be any better?

That common current and yearning certainly exists. I think it drives a lot of the discussion, even debate, about Church and culture that from my perspective is often quite good and has gotten more penetrating and elevated over the years. I agree with your comment that fault lines that developed include differentiating ourselves from the zeitgeist/dominant culture and nominal Orthodoxy.

Thank you, Father, ideas I have daily. Just a matter of resources and the right moment.

The positive impression I get from this blog and other net and personal resources is that we now have a common undercurrent, a yearning amongst serious Orthodox to differentiate themselves from the zeitgeist and the culture and other Christians (and more nominal Orthodox) in North America.

I believe that that could be the beginning of a possible cascade of mission which will culminate in North American Orthodox unity.

You second paragraph is very encouraging Rostislav. It is time to start planning it.

Whether or not the OCA has 5 vacant sees or 50, it is the North American mission blessed by the Mother Church to missionize North America. I conceded the fact that we have no small amount of egg on our faces, but we have reached rock bottom, and the only way from here is up. So I am not talking about “jurisdictional Orthodoxy” at all, but I would be the last to say that the various diasporan missions will be going anywhere anytime soon. I am talking about the local, North American church.

500,000 in North America, probably an accurate number, but with a potential of missionizing 20-30% of the continent. Our vocation is mission. Without pious, faithful and traditional, active witness, that number will decline to 50,000. Nominalism and secularism are the problem. Lukewarm faith, poor formation, disorganization have caused this decline. But our emphasis is on renewal and on growth. Whoever missionizes North America will claim it. That is the “jurisdictional reality”. As the Church grows the 4,500,000 lost will return to a certain degree as well. There will be a native, pious and traditional North American Orthodoxy. But you are right-it may sadly be built upon the ashes of the old ethnic enclaves and exarchates.

I wrote what I wrote about the Russian church to not cast aspersions, but to give a fair assessment of the situation and a better prescription for the future of the world’s primary Orthodox Church. I wrote what I wrote to make recommendations which could make the Russian church stronger, while clearly elucidating the pitfalls of the current circus of Rolexes and paid tickets for Paschal services going on today. I can assure you that there is no real “Orthodox evangelicalism” yet in place in Russia and the Successor states.

Since I am Russian Orthodox and have been so from the cradle, my perspective is of one who cares about his family.

Thank you for your kinds words and critical consideration. I will take what you have written to heart.

Rostislav,

A lot what you say here is probably true and we wise to heed your words –up to a point. You see the glass as half-full. I have never been to Russia but know many people who have, both Russian and non-Russian. From them as well as from RT, Novosti, Mospat.ru, etc., one gets a decidedly different picture, one in which the Church there is very vibrant and evangelical.

Even if for the sake of argument your picture is closer to the mark, I would still exercise caution when speaking about the glories of Orthodoxy in America. Simply put, jurisdictional Orthodoxy is well on its way to extinction. I’m sorry, but I just can’t get all worked up about singing the praises of the various jurisdictions, who all told, have at most 500,000 people between them. Not in a country of 310 million people. Our numbers are pathetic, our witness non-existent for all practical purposes.

As for the other Christian confessions things aren’t much better. Mainline Protestantism has completely caved to the spirit of the times and the Roman Catholic Church is fighting a rear-guard action trying to re-catechize a population that is completely desacralized. (That’s one reason that the RCC and Evangelicals are pushing for Amnesty: they’re both hoping that 30 million meso-Americans will swell their dying churches.) As for the black church, it has done a horrible job instilling morality in its people by virtue of the appalling pathology one sees there.

Our national government is in the midst of an imperialist enterprise trying to “liberate” women by legalizing abortion, dressing down foreign leaders because they don’t allow gay “marriage” and so on.

This is Christian?

It would be a cruel joke indeed for your or I to wax eloquent about the wonderfulness of the OCA which presently has five vacant sees. Is this not scandalous to you? This is in violation of the plain verbiage as found in the OCA Statutes by the way. If the present trends continue will be the first of the three major jurisdictions will probably be the first that closes the lights.

This is a political statement and an attempt to present a Potemkin village and then go on to say, “Everything is great”.

Everything is not great in the Russian church.

Things are probably more on the verge of collapse today then they were in 1917.

The Russian church today is an unofficial state church, acting often in foreign lands and abroad as a Russian embassy with all the accompanying sundries that go with that. True, it was in such a position prior to the Revolution, but the government then was at least nominally Orthodox while the Church was an established and supported state institution. That made for a stronger infrastructure in its scope, influence and its role in society, albeit under Pobedonostsev’s fist.

The church today however promotes people who are politically savvy and yes men, but not necessarily spiritual leaders with evangelical intent. These people live in largesse. They are removed from the general citizenry, which they many times hold in contempt. They are not so concerned with the “rechurching” of Russia, being more than happy to allow secular and political news organs to promote adulterated, “modern sensibilities” and theological and ecclesiological inaccuracies in the name of Orthodoxy. They do build churches and restore some, especially in Moscow, but in the Siberian hinterlands and in the provinces, not so much, where Protestant sectarians bribe local officials so that they then allow them to proselytize nominal Orthodox Christians and convert them with care packets, containing the necessities of life like tooth paste and toilet paper. Sundries the majority of the populace see as luxuries.

While ranking MP hierarchs ride around in limousines and sell tickets to the “events” which mark their celebration of church services, the common people are left to pornography, vodka and clutching for “European” McCulture, where affording a Big Mac is more of a concern than going to Communion. A generation since the fall of Communism has come of age, and it stands for secularism, godless atheism, sensualism, escapism, nihilism. Yes, there are grandiose cathedrals and splendid ritual and celebration, wonderful, heartfelt prayer…for a fee. Russian Orthodoxy as is now administered within the patriarchate is very often “pay to play”. While the money doesn’t reach the lower clergy or the church administration as much as it funds “celebrities” like Metropolitan Alfeev and promotes the motif of person at the expense of faith. Indeed, instead of converting souls, he tries his best to imitate Bach and write concert pieces for the pope.

The MP has failed, and the current “evangelical” administration of Patriarch Kirill, Metropolitan Hilarion and Fr. Vsevolod Chaplin has proven to be far worse and more incompetent than stemming this tide than the more sober and spiritually minded era of Patriarch Alexis II, where some slight cultural gains where made and fidelity to Orthodoxy was not under assault.

Thus, the situation today is a mess in the Russian church.

Depending on which survey one follows, less than 5% of Russian Orthodox believers attend church every sunday, less than 1% regularly fast, less than 10% attend Nativity and Paschal services. The MP promotes the idea that “apostasy from Orthodoxy is not inherently wrong as other Christians worship CHRIST as well while other non Christians worship the same GOD…” Everything from candles to Confessions are a business for a clergy and church organism which is becoming a sort of spiritual, service industry, sometimes very much parasitic. Systems of “Treby”, stole fees, are often the replacement of pastorship which will only merit one the epithet of “mladostarchestvo”, “young eldership”, if a cleric goes too far in spiritually loving and forming believers. All this while people like Metropolitan Alfeev promote union with Rome, renovationism, every manner of novelty and “cutting corners”, using the backdrop of widespread ignorance of Orthodox teaching and orthopraxia to not so quietly promote an agenda at odds with the Tradition of the Orthodox Church and the historical posture of Russian Orthodoxy. Ever so intrepid in doing so while the common Russian believer is schooled in secular, unreligious schools in a post Christian culture where it is so much easier to spiritually tune out, enjoy the simple fare of potatoes and bacon with a bottle of vodka and enjoy the sensual delights of sex, violence and the hope of McDonald’s for all.

When I reflect on the Martyrdom of Fr. Daniel Sysoev and how certain elements in the administration (and even in ROCOR) were “lukewarm in their mourning” with a “serves him right for trying to convert Moslems and others” attitude, I allow the bitterness and anti-evangelicalism this groupthink is now promoting to clearly characterize the current state of affairs in the Moscow Patriarchate. This attitude is a travesty and a miscarriage and an affront to the heritage of Russian Orthodoxy. Unfortunately, it so epitomizes the administration of today, which scoffs at elders, interferes with missionaries, is more concerned with promoting white collars among the lower clergy than pure souls which love the People of GOD.

Disgraceful decadence would not be a harsh characterization of the current administration and what they have made of the post Communist church.

Although the institution of the Oberprocurator was an abysmal mistake and imposition upon the Russian church, the quiet vestiges of it are still not erased where with a nudge and a nod (and a bank transaction) or even a harshly worded memo, the current state does interfere in the life of the Russian church. It imposes upon clearly incompetent men pursuing their agendas at Orthodoxy’s expense regularly. A return to the Apostolic system of administration would be ideal, but after fifteen centuries of symphonia or a Protestant/secular atheist parody of it, the Orthodox Church lacks both the leadership and the spirituality to make that transition.

There is a model of symphonia which could work today to aid in the transition, however. In the special case of the Ruthenian church in the fifteenth to seventeenth centuries, lay brotherhoods emerged, made up of all classes and sectors of society, which educated the populace and formed zealous Orthodox believers who emerged to act as a check against the apostasy of Unia, supporting the Ruthenian church of that era in overseeing its livelihood, administration, and acting hand in hand in propagation of zealous Faith. The Cossack Ruthenian state was a much more involved Orthodox land as a result than even Muscovite Russia. Ideally, in our contemporary world, that is the type of symphonia and oversight which must emerge to prevent the very decadence that today’s Patriarchal administration so epitomizes. These ideas were in process of formulation at the All Russian Sobor of 1917 – 1918, but were waylaid by both Soviet persecution along with being coopted by “Living Church” and separatist “Nationalist” politicized cadres.

The Russian church today needs an emphasis on whole life and holistic evangelization of Russian society, where the resources of the culture along with charity, education, hospitals, the entire make up of Russian society are devoted toward the reChristianization of Orthodox Russia. It needs to be able to do this with a clear purpose which activizes atavized and nominal “patriotic religiousity” and brings to the Russian populace the preaching of CHRIST CRUCIFIED and RESURRECTED IN THEM for the benefit of their lives, painting a picture of a holistic Orthodox life and society which emerges from life centered around prayer, church, community, upkeep, infrastructure, the Eucharist, in full knowledge of the Gospel and the Fathers reflecting the Patristic Mind and life. “Obryad” as it was called in Older Russian, but with a general cultural ontology and affirmation. To be plain, the Russian church does not need a new aristocracy which will live in largesse while the majority of the nation lives in squalor: it needs the Orthodox life.

The Russian church needs to be more manageable and not administered by a removed center, where more autonomies and, yes, autocephalies emerge to locally attend to the need of the belivers and the mission in Eurasia. The Ukrainian church should become an autocephalous body to reChristianize the Ruthenian and Russian peoples who live on that territory and combat Uniate apostasy and sectarian proselytization. Similar localization is required in Byelorussia, the Baltics, Central Asia, Siberia, Karelia, Southern Russia, the Caucasus, Abroad.

Yes, vernacular either used in conjunction with or independently of Church Slavonic is long overdue. Church Slavonic can be preserved and given a more hallowed reverence by allowing people to understand in their own thoughts and hearts what is being prayed and celebrated in the vernacular so that in monasteries, in cathedrals, in certain large churches and centers, Church Slavonic maintains a presence, but in the Eurasian mission becomes a project for “further study” where vernacular services are most needed.

The Russian church is called to missionize Eurasia.

Finally, the Russian church needs the government’s support as a recognized independent state church (or federation [Patriarchal College] of Russian/local churches), funded with a system of support, not unlike Germany’s, for the upkeep and propagation of churches, charitable institutions, schools, monasteries, hospitals, orphanages, employment centers and work houses, lay brotherhoods, relief agencies, etc. which will allow the Russian church to missionize society.

Paying off the upper echelons with opulence while neglecting the renewal of the Russian church has been a decadent bargain for the secular state which has cost the Russian Orthodox church. This state, as heir to the brutal Bolshevik regime, owes the Russian church both structural advantage and legislative and monetary reparations.

Someone does have to keep the church administration honest. That is why the lay brotherhoods should be reformed, funded and allowed to freely act hand-in-hand with the Patriarchal administration to provide oversight to prevent the mistakes and decadence of the current administration from continuing to happen.

The Russian church needs CHRIST in HIS BODY and BLOOD in Patristic evangelization and socially just administration which reaches out to all sectors of society with love, formative love and discipline, and material love and charity. Sell the Rolexes and the Maybachs and allow the resources of the Church to serve the Church – the assembly of believers united in the Eucharist.

I am at an advantage in the OCA, while I understand that many would cast aspersions on the North American church, in that I can express loyalty and fidelity to the Patriarchate and the Mother Church as a matter of heritage, appealing to its better history, esteeming offices and not persons, because my church administration is independent of this travesty. While we do have travesties of our own which have transpired, some still not extinguished, Providence has provided us a measure of self correction (albeit with cataclysmic implosion, but at this depth we can only look up). We are free and open and have the full capability to develop our local church.

The Mother Church, on the other hand, is at a crossroads today where demographic trends of secularization, islamization, and political structure do not favor its mission and survival. In the last ten years, trusting one of the more reliable surveys, the amount of “nominal Orthodox” has declined from 70% to 64% of the population. Things as they now are with the current administration in power can only get worse. We in the OCA waited over twenty years to recognizes a systemic mistake which resulted in corrupt administration impoverishing our local church and plundering our resources to missionize the future. We have suffered and been guilty, at least in microcosm, of the same ills that are assaulting the Mother Church today. So we can look at these things independently and say the course and administration now in charge are a mistake and that immediate and systemic action is necessary to renew its administration and polity.