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Present and Future of the Church

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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 perse- cutions 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 impor- tant 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.
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