Patriarch Kirill Gundyaev of Moscow and all the Russias (1946- ), the actual First-Amongst-Equals in the Orthodox world. Over half of the entire oikumene lies under his omofor. Here, he is meeting with officers of the RVSN, the Military Strategic Rocket Directorate.The Patriarch of New Rome was First-Amongst-Equals only because Constantinople was the place where the Christian Emperor resided. Today, the role of the Christian Emperor is not vacant, Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin fills that role. Ask the fathers at the Great Lavra on the Mountain! They came out enthusiastically when he visited the Mountain a few years ago. Who’s the actual First-Amongst-Equals? It’s Kirill Mikhailovich Gundyaev, the Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia. Kirill is a robust and intelligent 300-pound (all muscle) Varengoi warrior wielding a sharpened war-axe; Bart is a skinny 90-pound weakling with water on the brain armed with a flit-gun.
The above photograph and text (all of it) has been copied without any changes from the blog of an American member of the Russian Orthodox Church who has a penchant for belittling converts, the Orthodox Church of America, the Greek patriarch of Constantinople, and anyone else that she doesn't care for. This is not the kind of thing we expect during the season leading up to the feast of the Lord's Nativity, but alas, this is what we have, barbaric yawp instead of brotherly love and the greeting of Christ is born! Glorify Him!
Will this world never cease infiltrating the Church and trying to tempt it to follow the road that Christ refused when satan kept offering it to Him for forty days in the wilderness?
Let's pray and hope that the new liberty of the Russian Church in its homeland does not tempt it to fall for what satan perpetually offers—ועתה אם תשתחוה לפני הכל יהיה לך׃—“If thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine” (Luke 4:7 KJV).
8 comments:
Makes me sad. It was not so long ago this would make me angry. Perhaps it's just being a bit tired, but I don't have the energy for angry.
I confess, this doesn't make me sad or angry, just vigilant. I feel a responsibility to my Christian brethren to make them aware that such things exist, such mistaken attitudes and pathologies exist, claiming to be "of the Church" when in fact they are, as Christ warns us in His letters to the seven churches of Asia, of "the synagogue of satan."
I grew up in a world terrorized by Soviet Russia. I hope your children and my grandchildren will not grow up in a world terrorized by Russian imperialism, even if it claims to be Orthodox.
I used to believe in the Orthodox world state theory, with Christian emperor and so forth, until I realised that it was just another ploy of the evil one, as I alluded to in this post, something offered to the Church by satan, which sometimes parts of the Church have accepted, to the destruction of souls.
Just for the record, I also lampoon patriarch Bartholomew and refer to him tongue-in-cheek as Bart, because I do think he is mistaken in many of his ideas, following the lead of others in world authority who seem to be riding a successful wave. But just as they will fall, so will he, if he continues to ape them. I do not care to call anyone "His All Holiness" and if I were patriarch, I would forego such styles of address, for to me, "One is Holy, One is Lord, Jesus Christ…" and with no apologies to anyone. I do, however, respect the office of bishop, as Christ instituted it in His holy Church, and I hope and wish the best for all Christ-loving hierarchs. I have known some exceptional men in that office. And I have known some scoundrels.
Christ have mercy on us all!
No golden age, no golden king. Just the Bishop and the Church gathered around the Mystical Table. As it always has been and the enemy eternally frustrated.
…let no one think that the Papacy is something which exists only in the West. In recent times it has started to appear among the Orthodox too. A few novel titles are characteristic of this spirit, for example, “Archbishop of all Greece,” “Archbishop of North and South America.” Many times we hear people say of the Patriarch of Constantinople, the “leader of Orthodoxy,” or we hear the Russians speaking of Moscow as the third Rome and its patriarch as holding the reins of the whole of Orthodoxy. In fact, many sharp rivalries have begun. All these are manifestations of the same worldly spirit, the same thirst for worldly power, and belong to the same tendencies which characterize the world today. (from Against False Union, by Dr. Alexander Kalomiros, Seattle, WA: St. Nectarios Press, 1967)
That sounds like some stuff I've read recently about the mis-use of the term "canonical" (specifically the degeneration of the term to meaning solely being in good standing with the EP).
That would certainly have been a problem for Saint Maximos the Confessor. :)
It's amazing what people can think is real Christianity. There are so many imitations, such as nationalist Christianity, prosperity Christianity, feel-good Christianity, legalistic Christianity, and so on. I'd mock those who fall for such imitations, except that I've fallen for such in the past.
Amen, brother Jim. Been there, done that too. Not to mock, but to exhort to vigilance. When you see men running away from Christ looking back over their shoulder, make their way hard, cast obstacles in their path. When you see men running toward Christ looking back over their shoulder, make their way easy, scour their path of obstacles.
Excellent words.
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