Present and Future of the Church

FROM THE ARCHIVES Present and Future of the Church

Mother Maria (Skobtsova) Translated by Vera Winn

No matter what kinds of hardships and of evil, the devil himself, who will fight A presentation given in torments the Church endures through- her until the end of the world. And sec- March 1936 at a mo- nastic meeting in Paris out her history, for Orthodox Christians ondly, it is hampered by the fact that chaired by Metropolitan the fundamental promise of the Church the Church, being not only a divine but Evlogy (Georgiyevsky) stays unchanged—the Gates of Hell also a human institution, accommo- will not overcome her. We can question dates—along with her members—all the survival of our homeland, we can human predispositions, weaknesses, even believe that no country, no society, sins, and vices. These always affect no way of life is marked for eternity. the life of the Church and prevent her The only unquestionable thing is that from shining gloriously and triumph- the Gates of Hell will not overcome the ing over the world. eternal life of the Church. In the days of the Second Coming and the Last Judg- Over the two thousand years of the ment, it will be the same Church that Church’s existence, human interven- was founded on the feast of Pentecost. tion has been distorting it in two ways. Unfortunately, this fundamental hope The Church has either been under of the Orthodox Christian does not persecution, or under the patronage eradicate all the difficulties and doubts of the state. Now the age of persecu- related to the historical existence of our tion has come again. For twenty years, Church. our Church has been enduring persecutions in Russia. It is difficult to tell The Church is eternal, but that does which is harder for the Church and not guarantee that the power behind what distorts her image more—the the Gates of Hell would not call for the persecutions or the state’s patronage? persecution of the Church, distort her Persecutions first claim the most avid historical essence, and force her again and devoted children of the Church and again to hide in the catacombs. Nor for death and martyrdom. They cor- does it mean that her truth victoriously rupt the weak who begin to denounce, and eternally reigns over the world. betray, or break away from the faith. We believe in the ultimate victory of They destroy the opportunity for the Church, but, alas, we also know preaching and teaching, they suppress that throughout the entire history of freedom of speech, and thus deprive the Church, this victory has never been entire generations of the truth of the achieved and will not be fully achieved Gospel. In the time of persecutions, until the end of the world. past and present, the Church has had to hide in catacombs so her voice was The worldwide victory of the Church is no longer heard among all, and the ex- prevented, first of all, by the presence ternal signs of the Church’s life ceased

The Wheel 3 | Fall 2015 37 to be seen. Such are some of the tribula- perhaps continue distorting it to the tions of the ongoing persecution of the very Day of Judgment. Church. Yet persecutions also manifest the holiness of the Church, they unite We have to assess the present situation her true disciples, they purify her life of the Church from this perspective. In from tepidness, banality, indifference, today’s Russia, the Church is endur- and superficiality. Persecutions unite ing persecutions that alternately inten- our “little flock” and exact a selection sify and subside. We can even say that that is like a test before that judgment lately they rather tend to subside. But that faces us in the last days. this is not important. What is important is that in essence, the government State patronage slowly implants un- views the Church as part of the national сhurchly concepts into the Church’s organism, and an undesirable part at life. It falsifies the image of Christ, it that. However, even if the government shifts the planes. The Church is grad- would view her as a desirable part of the ually transformed into a social insti- whole, the picture would basically be tution. She becomes a bureaucratic the same. The government feels entitled organization corrupted by the non to enforce an obligatory attitude toward -Christian ideals imposed by the state. the Church. The government has posi- Such adulteration of the Church’s tioned itself above the Church. Today, body goes so far that even the Church it confiscates the Church’s treasures, hierarchs declare the validity of capital sends believers to concentration camps, punishment from a Christian perspec- executes the hierarchs. Tomorrow it will tive, and plead for the inseparability announce pardons and perhaps, out of the Church and Monarchy. Church of its “benevolence,” will issue some membership becomes mandatory “awards.” In response to persecutions, so that the Church automatically in- the Russian Church generates more cludes all the subjects of the state. This and more confessors and martyrs. Our brings weakness and infidelity into the Church is washed with blood; it is pro- Church’s body accompanied by the ducing multitudes of saints, more than de-spiritualization and formalization it has generated during the first centu- of the Church’s life. The truth of Christ ries of pagan persecutions. However, is substituted with innumerable rules, this is not the complete picture of the canons, traditions, and superficial rites. situation within our Church, otherwise External growth and seeming splendor we could talk about it by comparing to- flourish at the expense of the internal day’s persecutions with those of the first life and ascetic feat. The Church’s body centuries A.D. before it was officially stiffens. Such are the dangers of state recognized. Today we are dealing with patronage. a phenomenon that seems to us a pure miracle because of how unique and un- Of course, state patronage of the precedented it is historically. We have a Church also has positive aspects—a small fragment of the Church that has certain freedom (albeit within state never before been seen anywhere in the boundaries), external well-being, the world. This fragment, this group exists continued might of the Church as an in perfect freedom—freedom from both institution, etc. And yet, both perse- persecutions and state patronage. I am cutions and patronage are curses that talking about our emigrant Church. over two millennia have distorted the Scattered through numerous countries, true way of the Church’s life and will not organically tied to the governments

38 that have provided it with refuge, left attempts to foster in the free countries to itself, presenting no concern to any where it dwells the mentality of the per- authorities, the emigrant Church is free secuted, of the underground, of some- to live by her own rules. This freedom times hysterical ecstasy. It accepts the brings great historical and even provi- whole specter of the limitations of free- dential significance to our existence, at dom that were inevitable under the au- first sight unbearable and abnormal. thority of the power of persecutors but From the spiritual perspective, this con- are incomprehensible and almost crim- dition may be is the only normal situa- inal in places where those persecutors tion that has ever occurred in the entire are now powerless. This group agreed history of the Church. We are free, and to deny the very fact of persecutions of therefore we ourselves are responsible the Church in Russia because in Russia 1 A group that be- for all our failures and even our inertia. it is prohibited to state otherwise. came officially known We cannot blame the authorities or the as Russian Orthodox environment for anything—they do not These two churches are equally en- Church Outside of persecute us and they do not corrupt Russia, originally the slaved to the adherence to the state Karlovatski Synod, us with their patronage. If anything is and equally do not understand the formed by exiled wrong with us it is because we, our- great providential meaning of the free- Russian hierarchs selves, are wrong. dom that is given to them. Of course, it at the meeting in would be a mistake to attribute these the Serbian town of Karlovac on It is curious that even now, when we characteristics to all the people who September 13, 1922. can exercise our freedom in our own belong to these groups. There are peo- The group declared Orthodox domain, we are not free ple in both churches who are free. Sim- itself independent completely from an ecclesiastical men- ilarly, in our “Evlogian”4 Church that of the governance of the Church in Russia tality that is rooted in the relationship represents the mainstream of church suffering in Bolshevik between Church and state. This men- life in exile and is connected to the captivity and auton- tality manifests itself in two tendencies throne of the Ecumenical Patriarch, we omous of any other that are particularly evident when we too have people who are dedicated pri- external ecclesiastical look at the two separate Church groups authority, repre- marily to traditions, rituals, and mem- senting “all Russian that have broken away from the main- ories of the past. But in general, such Orthodox outside of stream Church in exile. are the tendencies, the historical fate Russia.” – Ed.

and essence of these groups. 2 1 The period in the One is the “Karlovac” group which still history of the Russian has not overcome the ecclesiastic psy- For us the conclusions are clear. Our Church between the chology which is in some way tied to Church in exile bears an immense re- abolition of the patri- the state. It mourns its widowhood with sponsibility because it is necessary for archate by Peter the Great in 1700, his for- a mentality that is extremely conserva- us to fulfill ourselves in a free world. mation in 1721 of the tive and highly caesaropapist. It keeps We need not only to preserve those Holy and Governing the traditions of the synodal period,2 spiritual values that were given to us Synod founded on denounces “heresies” and any noncon- and that the authorities in today’s Rus- Protestant ecclesiastical principles rather formity, and dreams of restoration of sia are crushing by all available means, than Orthodox canon the old order of life when the state was but also to restore the values that were law and serving at punishing people for the crime against eliminated by the earlier benevolent au- the pleasure of the the Church, and the Church in turn was thority. Perhaps we should create new tsar, and the election required to condemn crimes against the values—the values of spiritual freedom, in 1917 of Patriarch Tikhon as the Patri- state. values of openness to the world and ad- arch of Moscow and dressing spiritual issues that are tearing All Rus’. – Ed. The other group is assembled around it apart, values of openness to culture, the so-called “Patriarchal Church.”3 It science, and art, to new ways of life.

The Wheel 3 | Fall 2015 39 Pondering the condition of our emi- Over the last year, two coherent polit- grant Church, we can compare it to a ical processes have finally confirmed complicated process that takes place in what was already sensed before. Len- a human body when it has some main’s friends and associates, important jor circulatory arteries cut. The blood is figures of the October Revolution have still pressing forward and without the been either executed, demoted, or opportunity to stream along wider ar- voluntarily retired. There was a coup teries, it finds its way to the capillary that we should compare not to the vessels. We, the emigrant Church, feel Thermidor, but to the Brumer. Rev- ourselves like such a capillary vessel olution is over. Its results are being that should exert itself to the limit so stabilized. The power represented by 3 A group of the that the life of the Church, the blood Stalin strives to transform itself from Russian Church in of the Church’s life could push forth. the revolutionary party power into the exile that eventually Therefore any form of inertia, any spir- power based on national recognition. became known as the itual laziness, any passive existence in For Stalin, the great scale of his bloody Western European Exarchate of the the atmosphere of the Church’s grace and monstrous reprisals against his ac- Moscow Patriarchate, is unforgivable. We should stay alert. complices necessitates wide national maintaining canon- Moreover, we must consciously and re- acceptance. Such is the logic of affairs. ical ties with the sponsibly accept our ecclesiastical des- The time is coming—and it has partly hierarchy in Moscow. This group split again tiny as a quest, as a cross that God has come already—when the authorities in 1931, with the ma- laid on our shoulders. We are respon- will begin to buy people’s acceptance jority of the parishes sible for the free religious creativity of with the help of various handouts and transferring under the jurisdiction of the Russian Orthodoxy, for the Orthodox concessions. The Church might also re- Ecumenical Patriarch- culture, for the preservation and aug- ceive such handouts. In a small way, it ate of Constantinople mentation of our inheritance. has already been done. We know that (see later reference to recently the authorities allowed church “Evlogian” Church.) – Ed. What is the destiny, what is the future bells to ring, and that last Christmas of our Church in exile? Will new tra- the previously banned Christmas trees 4 The majority of ditions will emerge in the climate of became almost mandatory. Of course, the parishes of the unique, unprecedented freedom? How the issue is not exhausted by Christ- Western European will it face the Church community in mas trees and church bells. One can Exarchate under Russia and the Russian people in gen- surmise that some degree of tolerance the omophorion of Metropolitan Evlogy eral? It is a difficult responsibility to will become an official line of Stalin’s (Georgievsky), after talk about the future. However, some religious policy. It will be quite easy 1931 in the jurisdic- aspects of it can be either assumed or to do. They have only to declare that tion of the Ecumeni- logically deduced based on the present Church people connected to the hated cal Patriarchate. – Ed. state of affairs. Tsarist regime have already been anni- hilated, that the new corps of believers Religious persecutions that have been are loyal Soviet citizens, and therefore carried out in Russia for twenty years their Church does not pose any danger have already lost their internal rigor. to the Soviet state. And if that is the Atheists are complaining that their case, then it should be allowed to ex- agents do not have enough enthusiasm ist. Of course, we don’t know for sure, to fight the Church. New processes but the logic of affairs suggests that it is that we can guess about rather than the case. Furthermore, one can assume see from the outside are taking place in that religious excitement will rapidly today’s Russia. However, the logic of increase and wide circles of Russian these processes is so convincing that it youth who now cannot get acceptable confirms such guessing. answers to fundamental metaphys-

40 ical questions will be enticed into the ters, that Soviet citizen would then open sphere of the Church’s interests. Per- the next issue of Pravda or Izvestia to find haps, even more—there is hope for a out exactly what the party wants him period of flourishing religious life and to know and think. It might turn out thought, and the intense searching for that regarding a certain issue it is nec- spiritual answers. essary to think not the way he thought yesterday but the way it is required to- But there is always one question that day. And since the main premise of his we cannot escape. What kind of peo- worldview is belief in the infallibility ple, with what spiritual upbringing, of the party directives, he painlessly re- will come into the Church? It is not sets his worldview in accordance to the important that atheism was the central new party requirement. I was amazed element of their education. Judging by to read André Gide’s book in which the fragments of information we get he describes how Communists in the from the Soviet Union, we can see that Caucasus region were unclear on how atheism has become quite exhausted to react to the Spanish revolution. Then and does not give anything nourishing Gide realized that the latest issue of to the searching human soul. Pravda with its mandatory viewpoint on this issue had not yet arrived. When There is a quaint Soviet word, reset, it finally came, no doubts remained—it and it is reasonable to predict that re- was required to fully sympathize with set would happen quite widely and the Spanish revolution. Sometimes this painlessly. But there is one terrifying goes even further—after the party’s thing that cannot be reset easily. It has directives change, the person would nothing to do with the modern Soviet publicly and with utmost self-depreca- worldview, but it has everything to tion repent for his views of yesterday as do with the way it is manufactured, if they were crimes. I purposely dwell i.e., with the dictatorship not of power on the details of this distorted, servile, and force, but with the dictatorship of and sick mentality in order to point out ideas—the “general party line” along how deeply belief in the infallibility of with belief in its easily achievable infal- the party and dogmatism are rooted in libility. Basically, this is the major ter- the Soviet psyche. Everything in Soviet ror of modern mentality of the Soviet Russia must be obligatory and autho- person. This person knows that today rized. We would not find a single spark he should think the way Stalin himself of freedom or diversity of attitudes; in and his infallible party orders him to other words, we cannot count on any think. This person knows what to think other kind of mentality but the one I just about atheism, science, economic de- described. velopment, foreign policy, revolution in Spain, private trade, marriage and The conclusions, albeit quite tentative, family, in short, about all large and are as follows. When people who have small issues of social and private life. been brought up by the Soviet regime This person submissively accepts all become part of the allowable and toler- the mandatory attitudes. ated Church, they will carry this very mentality with them. What does this If something in the world would change mean? It means that in the beginning tomorrow, and the party for some rea- they might eagerly study different son would have to modify its views not views, attend services, etc. And then only on minor, but also on cardinal mat- they will decide that they truly belong

The Wheel 3 | Fall 2015 41 to the Church, and at the same time, as mighty and successful, it cannot count people who are completely alien to the on any cadres other than the people antinomian thinking, they would ask: brought up in an uncritical, dogmatic “There are several opinions on such spirit of authority. This means that free- and such issue. Which one of them is dom will be suppressed for many years. correct?”—because for them several This means a new Solovki,5 new prisons different opinions cannot be correct and concentration camps for those who at the same time. And if one of these are seeking the Church’s freedom. This opinions is true, therefore others must means new persecutions, new martyrs, be false and therefore exterminated. and new confessors. The Church for them would be as in- 5 Solovki was a fallible as the Communist party, so first If not for the belief that Christ’s truth common name for of all they would address this ques- is always free, one could despair over Solovetsky Monas- tion to the Church. But soon enough such perspectives. Yet the freedom of tery on the island on they will begin attributing the princi- the Church will not completely fade the White Sea, turned by the Soviets into ple of infallibility to themselves and until Judgment Day; the uniqueness an enormous forced start speaking on behalf of the whole of our Church in exile that exists in labor camp. – Ed. Church. People who even in the area freedom has a providential character. of ponderous and ambiguous Marxism It prepares us for fortitude and hero- were burning with passion of heresy ism. Metaphorically, it trusts us with a mania and eagerness to destroy their great treasure and gives us strength to opponents, in the Orthodox Church preserve it. And, finally, most impor- might become even more aggressive tantly—no matter what happens in the in exterminating “heresies” and in life of the Church—whether cajolery of guarding “true Orthodoxy.” One can the state, persecution by the atheists, or grotesquely imagine them charging distortion of the spirit of Christ’s free- people for the wrong way of cross- dom—there is nothing to be afraid of ing themselves, and sending them to because the Gates of Hell will not over- the Gulag for refusal to go to confes- come her. © 2015 The Wheel. sion. Free thought will be punishable May be distributed for by death. Here one cannot have any Our way, our mission, our quest, and noncommercial use. illusions—if the Church in Russia is our Cross is to carry the free Christ’s www.wheeljournal.com recognized and becomes outwardly Truth through all ordeals.

Maria Skobtsova (St. Maria of Paris, née Elizaveta Pilenko, 1891– 1945) was a Russian poet, philosopher and theologian. She was tonsured a nun by Metropolitan Evlogy (Georgievsky) in Paris and devoted herself to social work among the Russian refugees, theological writings, and icon painting. During World War II she became a member of the French Resistance and together with her associates saved many Jews by providing them with baptismal certificates. In 1945 she was martyred at the Ravensbrück concentration camp. In 2004 she was glorified as a saint by the Ecumeni- cal Patriarchate together with Fr. Dmitry Klepinin, Yuri Skobtsov, and Yuri Fondaminsky.