"To those who attack the Church of Christ by teaching that Christ's Church is divided into so-called "branches" which differ in doctrine and way of life, or that the Church does not exist visibly, but will be formed in the future when all "branches" or sects or denominations, and even religions will be united into one body; and who do not distinguish the Priesthood and Mysteries of the Church from those of the heretics, but say that the baptism and Eucharist of heretics is effectual for salvation; therefore, to those who knowingly have communion with these aforementioned heretics or who advocate, disseminate, or defend their heresy of ecumenism under the pretext of brotherly love or the supposed unification of separated Christians, Anathema!"
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ROCOR 1983
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This is the official website and authoritative voice of the RUSSIAN ORTHODOX AUTONOMOUS CHURCH OF AMERICA (ROAC). No other English language based website (other than the sites linked herein) claiming to speak for His Eminence, Metropolitan Theodore of Suzdal and Vladimir, or any of the individual Hierarchs of the Holy Synod of the RUSSIAN ORTHODOX AUTONOMOUS CHURCH (ROAC), should be considered as genuine or valid.
CONCERNING REMARKS OF MET. SERGEY FOMIN (ROC-MP)
Metropolitan Sergey said in his television interviews that it is right that the relics of Sts. Euphrosynia and Euphemios should be given to the grace-filled church, and that it is about time that they be taken away from the schismatics of the ROAC. He doesn’t see why this can’t be done without reproaching each other. Why it can’t be done in love.
Was it with love that the local authorities, at the behest of the MP, took away every last church from the ROAC in the Vladimir oblast, after our people poured in hundreds of thousands of dollars over the last 20 years, leaving our priests with no place to perform services, and our people with no place to attend services? Our parishioners and clergy are also citizens of Suzdal, the Vladimir region, and of Russia. Why do their God-given rights not matter to the government officials who are supposed to uphold the rule of law for all its citizens with neutrality and impartiality? Is it really necessary for the MP to have possession of ALL churches in Suzdal; every last one of them? Is it really not possible for the ROAC to have ONE of the churches that we spent so much time and effort on?
Is Met. Sergey so sure that the ROAC is without grace? How would he know? Does he not belong to the MP, which 5 years ago joined the ROCOR, which anathematized ecumenism in 1983? Does not his church recognize the presence of grace in the Roman Catholic Church, the Anglican Church, the Lutheran Church, and others that also belong to the World Council of Churches, with all of their blasphemous heresies and sacrilegious services? How is it that he sees grace in these faiths, but not in the faith of his fellow citizens, who profess nothing other that what the Orthodox Church has historically professed over the past 2,000 years? Could it be that he does not really recognize where grace is present, and where it is not? And why would that be? Maybe because he is foreign to the action of grace altogether in his church, which from its inception 1943, when Stalin founded it, is based on lies, heresies, and apostasy, and from which grace has long ago been withdrawn?
St. Euphrosynia and St. Euphemios are exactly where they were for many centuries before the revolution–with the ORTHODOX believers of their city, who love them for who they are, and not because of some practical consideration that they might derive from having possession their relics, like the members of the MP, who want them so that they can derive financial benefit from the relics, selling tickets to tourists who come to gawk at them out of curiosity. So, all of the amateur theologians whose opinion was asked of them as they walked on the streets of Suzdal can rest assured that, just as they expressed, the relics of these Saints are back where they belong. Now, it’s time for them to join their beloved Saints in the TRUE Church, and leave behind the godless hierarchs of the false church that they belong to. Then they will be together with their Saints not only for the duration of their lives on the earth, but all for eternity.
BISHOP ANDREW OF PAVLOVSKOYE
OCTOBER, 2012
FORT WAYNE, IN