New York and Paris, March 24, 2022
Metropolitan Hilarion (Kapral), the First Hierarch of ROCOR (second from left), with several ROCOR hierarchs. Photo: eadiocese.org
The hierarchs and clergy of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia continue to commemorate His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia in the Divine services, despite a fake report from an infamous blog to the contrary.
On Tuesday, March 22, Orthodoxy in Dialogue (OiD), known for pushing a number of anti-Orthodox positions, especially as concerns sexuality and the sanctity of marriage, ran an article entitled, “ROCOR allows parishes to stop commemorating Patriarch Kirill.”
The article claims that OiD learned from “an internal source with first-hand knowledge of the matter” that the Synod made the relevant decision on Monday, March 21. The blog even takes some of the credit for the supposed decision because it ran articles about ROCOR’s response to the war in Ukraine.
However, the Synod never met on March 21, and no such decision was made.
The ROCOR Diocese of Chicago and Mid-America quickly responded with a statement from Archpriest Gregory Joyce, the Diocesan Secretary:
Recently there has appeared on the internet the false rumor that the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia is allowing its parishes to leave off commemoration of Patriarch Kyrill. We clarify here that this is in fact NOT true in our Mid-American diocese and, to the best of the knowledge of Archbishop Peter, who is a member of the Synod of Bishops, this is not true in any diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia.
OrthoChristian also spoke with other ROCOR hierarchs who affirmed that the Synod hadn’t even met, and that the OiD report is simply another case of its scandalmongering.
On the other hand, His Eminence Metropolitan John of Dubna did issue a circular on March 17, blessing his priests to choose for themselves whether or not to commemorate the Patriarch.
Met. John heads the Paris-based Archdiocese of Orthodox Churches of Russian Tradition in Western Europe, which recently reunited with the Russian Church in November 2019.
Met. John writes:
Also I propose to each priest to choose according to the feelings of the parishioners whom he knows, and to preserve peace and unity, whether or not to commemorate Patriarch Kirill in the litanies and at the Great Entrance. I remind you that this commemoration is a tradition of the Russian Church, which does not impose itself from the canonical and ecclesiological points of view: the Bishop commemorates the Patriarch, thus ensuring the canonical bond, and the priest commemorates the bishop. However, we must all commemorate him at the Proskomedia.
The authenticity of this letter was confirmed to OrthoChristian by the diocesan administration and priests of the Archdiocese, who assured that Met. John himself continues to commemorate the Patriarch.
The Metropolitan’s blessing follows after his open letter to Pat. Kirill, published on March 9, which, as Met. John writes in his new circular, “gave rise to various and contrasting reactions!”
“The troubles and disorder caused throughout the world by this violent attack” also threaten the unity of diaspora churches, which unite “faithful of all origins.”
“Our faithful expect their pastors to bring the voice of the Church and an evangelical message of peace,” His Eminence wrote, adding a call to Pat. Kirill to “raise [his] voice as Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church against this monstrous and senseless war and to intercede with the authorities of the Russian Federation so that this murderous conflict ceases as soon as possible, which until recently seemed unthinkable between two peoples and two nations united by centuries of history and their common faith in Christ.”
Finally, Met. John writes with “infinite pain” that he cannot agree with the Patriarch’s interpretation of the Gospel in the context of the fratricidal war in Ukraine, referring to the Russian primate’s statements on March 6 about a “metaphysical battle.”
“I must bring to your attention that I cannot subscribe to such a reading of the Gospel. Nothing can ever justify that the ‘good shepherds’ that we must be should cease to be ‘artisans of peace,’ whatever the circumstances,” Met. John writes.
As far as OrthoChristian is aware, Met. John is the first diaspora bishop of the Moscow Patriarchate to bless his priests to cease commemorating the Patriarch, though a number of hierarchs within Ukraine have given this blessing, and some have stopped commemorating him themselves.
Some Ukrainian dioceses have even raised the question of autocephaly for the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church, though other hierarchs, including His Eminence Metropolitan Anthony of Boryspil and Brovary, the Chancellor of the UOC, call on the hierarchs to consider such important ecclesiastical issues “not under the roar of explosions, but in the peace of Christ and prayer.”
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