July 5, 2014
San
Francisco: Epistle of the Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox
Church Outside of Russia
Beloved brothers and sisters!
We, the hierarchs
of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, having convened a
regular session of the Council of Bishops in the God-preserved city
of San Francisco, hereby mark an important spiritual event in Church
history. It was here, by God’s will, that the oldest cathedra of the
Russian Church Abroad was established, and which is now the last
hierarchal cathedra, according to temporal time, once occupied by
the Holy Hierarch John, Archbishop of Shanghai and then of San
Francisco. We celebrate the 20th anniversary of his glorification
this year. Here also lie the holy relics of St. John; here thousands
and thousands of pilgrims gather. During these days, the
All-Diaspora Russian Orthodox Youth Conference is convening, in
which our hierarchs are also participating.
Marking this
anniversary on Sunday, June16/29, during Divine Liturgy at the
Cathedral of the Mother of God "Joy of All Who Sorrow," the nominee
of the Council of Bishops, Archimandrite Nicholas (Olhovsky), was
consecrated to the episcopate as vicar of the Eastern American
Diocese, with the title of Bishop of Manhattan. The Council of
Bishops congratulates His Grace, Bishop Nicholas, wishes him divine
aid in his Archpastoral service to the Holy Church, and asks the
God-loving flock to remember the new Bishop Nicholas in their
prayers.
St. John, the
marvelous wonderworker and righteous saint of God, was fated to
become the first glorified Russian saint who shone outside of the
borders of Russia, outside the borders of our Fatherland. The Lord
manifested through him miracles of healing, and it was here that the
abundantly-loving and co-suffering heart of St. John prayed for us,
rejecting no one.
A descendant of the
southern Russian noble Maximovitch family, which had already given
Rus’ a holy hierarch ‒ Metropolitan John of Tobolsk ‒ Archbishop
John of Shanghai & San Francisco never forgot his earthly homeland ‒
Kievan Rus’. In his childhood and youth, he more than once visited
the Dormition of the Mother of God Lavra in Svyatogorsk, where in
our days, almost within its very walls, is being spilt the blood of
those who die in internecine war.
In the akathist to
St. John, he is worthily called "a wonderworker of latter days," but
the hierarch was not alone. It is no accident that almost in the
same years of his service in the Diaspora, in the lands of his
fathers, now part of the Ukrainian state, the Venerable Lawrence of
Chernigovsk (who reposed in the Lord in 1950), and Kuksha of Odessa
(the 50th anniversary of whose repose will be commemorated in
December), suffered for their homeland of Ukraine. How do they now
look upon what today, indeed in these very hours and minutes, is
happening in their much-suffering lands?
May the Lord not
allow the 100th anniversary of the onset of World War I, which
initiated terrible catastrophes not only for Russia, but for the
whole world, spark new fatal sufferings and killings in Eastern
Europe.
War always leads to
more war. Barely two decades passed from the start of the First
World War, when in 1934, 80 years ago, the pious monarch, the godson
of Emperor Alexander III, Yugoslavia’s King Alexander, friend of
Orthodox Rus’ and defender of Russian refugees who found asylum in
his Kingdom, was killed. It was from that point forward that World
War II became inevitable.
But 2014 should not
be bound exclusively with dark foreboding, for this year we mark the
700th anniversary of the birth of Venerable Sergius of Radonezh.
This date has a special, Providential meaning for the founding by
the holy man of Holy Trinity-St Sergius Lavra, and for the fate of
historical Russia. In the words of historian Vasily Klyuchevsky, the
name of St. Sergius recalls in the minds of the people their moral
rebirth, which enabled the renascence of the state.
That is why one of
the main challenges of the Russian Orthodox Church, in the
Fatherland and in the Diaspora, is to lead the people of Russia to
church, so that through this process we could return to the piety of
our forefathers of Holy Rus’, which in turn leads to the salvation
of all.
Hoping for the
prayers of the Holy Fathers, the sons of Kievan Rus’, let us humbly
pray for the softening of hardened hearts, and for the end of
internecine strife. May the long-suffering Lord, who does not
"desire… the death of the sinner; but that he should return and
live," keep "the world from falling into the abyss which is prepared
for it," as foretold by St. Kuksha of Odessa.
Let us call to
untiring prayer all of our God-loving flock, for today more than
ever we are in need of unity within Christ Jesus. For this reason,
we appeal to our brothers and sisters in the Fatherland and abroad:
before it is too late, let us set aside all divisions and strife,
remembering the words of our Savior: "By this shall all men know
that ye are My disciples, if ye have love one to another" (John
13:35), and let us seek shelter within the boundaries of the Holy
Local Russian Orthodox Church, our common Mother. We do not know how
much time is given to each of us to come to our senses and to
repent, so let the Lord grant us, with spiritual joy which shall be
shared by us all in the measure given to each of us, to serve toward
the new renascence of Holy Rus’.
+HILARION
Metropolitan of Eastern America and New York
First Hierarch of the Russian
Church Abroad
(Signatures of the members of the Council of Bishops follow.)
Official website of the Synod of Bishops of ROCOR
