QUO VADIS, RUE DARU? by Alexandra de Moffarts

3 Comments November 9, 2019 The Editors

For the background to the present essay see the articles listed under Archdiocese of Russian Orthodox Churches in Western Europe (AROCWE) in our Archives, as well as Antoine Arjakovsky’s A Way Out of the Orthodox Church’s Present Crisis and Victor Alexandrov’s The Choice Facing the Archdiocese of Russian Churches in Western Europe.

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Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and Archbishop John (Renneteau) of Dubna

On November 2 and 3, the Russian news and many church media showed what they have called the reunification ceremony of the Archdiocese of Russian Churches in Western Europe with the Patriarchate of Moscow. Patriarch Kirill has called it “irreversible” and “the closing of a long parenthesis.” Much splendor and pomp were displayed, speeches made, and honors given. Archbishop John (Renneteau) of Dubna (formerly of Charioupolis) spoke of “joy” and “return.” For some, it seemed a triumph; for others, humiliating. I won’t make a secret of the fact that I belong to the latter group.

A chapter seems to be over, the chapter of the politically independent, poor but free, multi-ethnic, conciliarly organized Archdiocese of rue Daru. The path which lead our former archbishop and those who followed him to this “return” is strewn with dissimulation, confusion, manipulation, fear, and mediocrity. I will try to outline it here. It will be from a subjective angle, but I shall try to be as impartial as possible where the facts are concerned. Read More

HOLY COMMUNION FOR WHOEVER WANTS IT by Giacomo Sanfilippo

2 Comments November 2, 2019 The Editors

Image result for joe biden Whatever arguments a person may marshal for “an ‘inclusive’ Church” which welcomes everyone unconditionally, and for Holy Communion offered unconditionally to “whoever wants it,” historical and canonical precedent isn’t one of them. It’s sheer fantasy to imagine that such a church and such a practice ever existed from New Testament times to the present.

I write as one who was subjected to an unjust and uncanonically protracted suspension from priestly ministry from 1995 to 2002, a complete farce of a spiritual trial in 2001, an unjust and still largely unexplained deposal from holy orders in 2002 (all of the foregoing in the OCA), and—in a fit of hysteria on the part of two priests and their bishop—an unjust excommunication from the local ROCOR parish in Toronto and the diocese to which it belongs in 2016 after they had read the title and a few lines from A Bed Undefiled. Read More

A LOVE LETTER TO SERGEI by Pavel Florensky

1 Comment November 2, 2019 The Editors

Sergei Semionovich Troitsky

August 8, 1881 ~ November 2, 1910

Memory Eternal ~ Вѣчная Память

Friend and Intended Life-Companion (Спутник Жизни, “Husband”) of Pavel Alexandrovich Florensky

My meek one, my radiant one! Our vaulted room greeted me with coldness, sadness, and loneliness when I opened its door for the first time after my trip. But, alas, I entered it alone, without you. But you are not with me, and the whole world seems deserted. I am alone, absolutely alone in the whole world.

Мой кроткïй, мой ясный! Холодомъ, грустью и одиночествомъ дохнула на меня наша сводчатая комната, когда я въ первый разъ послѣ поѣздки открылъ дверь въ нее. Теперь,—увы!—, я вошелъ въ нее уже одинъ, безъ тебя. Но нѣтъ тебя со мною, и весь мïръ кажется запустѣлымъ. Я одинокъ, абсолютно одинокъ въ цѣломъ свѣтѣ. Read More