Yes, Wow!
Of course a lot of the
over-all picture of those dreadful times and events, - of the bloody
godless Bolshevik takeover of old Russia and what happened to the
Russian Church and its pious faithful clergy and
laity, during and after Patriarch Tikhon, I already was in general,
aware of, ( but as you know, how FEW today, seem to know ANY! of that
accurate history- most seem to believe the communist's
propaganda version only: "Stalin saved the nation and Pat. Sergius saved
the church", etc.) ...yet
these recorded factual specifics
..have greatly helped to fill out this turbulent and sad history for me.
Professor Ivan M. Andreyev and others quoted here, were personal
WITNESSES of that terrible history, and too, of the inspiring holy
confessors and new martyrs, produced in all of that
chaos...."Of whom the world was not worthy!".
And
what is perhaps the most valuable in this book, is the careful....
defining in precise words, .... of what exactly, spiritually, was and is
the central main problem
with the Bolshevik/godless counterfeit and enslaved version of their
front-religious-organization, their institution of (their) 'Moscow
Patriarchy', their pretend pseudo 'Russian Church'....which keeps all
of the outward external forms of Orthodoxy, but
which is, not of God, etc.
Professor Andreyev, and those others quoted, speaks so clearly and directly and pointedly about THE CENTRAL SPIRITUAL ESSENCE of what was and remains
today so very very wrong
about the soviet/Stalin founded, apostate and utterly uncanonical
'Moscow Patriarchy', the pseudo pretend false, 'Russian Church'.
And I especially found
some valuable [new to me], information in its pages, about my first and
former Orthodox jurisdiction,- including about my former Prince-Bp.
Ioann Shahovskoy...Yes a real European high
class refined gentleman, [French seemed to be his first
language of choice] who truly was very unbalanced and compromised &
confused in his blurred dilatant-compromised-ecumenist
version of Orthodoxy...as also was Alexander Schmemann,
-who died at age 62 from cancer produced from his life-long heavy smoking,
[ and as a further proof of which, was the fact that Ioann
Shahovskoy, as with virtually all Metropolia bishops, and archpriests
and lay leaders,....
except retired Alaskan Bp. Amvrossy who fled to ROCOR, to retire to and to die at Holy Transfiguration Monastery in Boston, .... willingly & even happily, submitted to the MP in 1970, not just a small quiet scheme in the dark, organized and conducted
in secret, over an approximate ten year period, by ONLY Alexander Schmemann in collusion with the infamous Nikodim Rotov,
...when the schismatic
from ROCOR, the North American Russian Metropolia, [the Platon
Rosdyesvensky Schism] - renamed, the "OCA" on April 10, 1970 when it
foolishly and ignorantly recognized as legitimate, [ which was
the main victory of the Kremlin- to further split and weaken the Russian
anti-communist diaspora] the communist bogus MP-Moscow
Patriarchy-Russian Church and then accepted its
'autocephaly'/independence
from it....'blessings'...from...the devil? If one accepts blessings from
Satan, then one BELONGS to him! So, what sort of 'independence' is
that?...perhaps it is actually, independence from God?.....i.e.
APOSTASY!
Back
then, the great proud church-politician and worldly power broker,
RENOVATOR, corruptor of genuine Orthodoxy, and teacher of heresy,
Parisian/Evlogian Archpriest
Alexander
Schmemann went all over America to most larger Metropolia parishes and
spoke and reassured them, in both English and Russian: "We have gained
a great benefit from Moscow, [i.e. our 'independence' ]- we have fooled
them!...and they have gotten NOTHING IN RETURN!" ...which then often
provoked approving clapping and happy laughter in some parish meetings
here. Schmemann was a cleaver gifted speaker,
who often used humor to get his point across, or to mock his opponents,
....in his endearing quaint French-Russian accented English.
My question: BUT WHO WAS THE 'FOOL'?...and WHO GOT "NOTHING IN RETURN"?...as it certainly was not the Kremlin.
Since
that time, the American based OCA, has become a de-facto political
tool/ a modern sort of 'fifth column' mouthpiece of the communists, of
the Kremlin's political outreach.
It, just like ROCOR/MP virtually never criticizes any acts or
decisions of the, now Putin controlled Kremlin, but only those of our
American government [ about which the PERPETUAL Kremlin party line has
always been: "America is trying to destroy the
Orthodox Church!"] or of anyone who criticizes the Kremlin! Both the OCA
and also the ROCOR/MP are tacit propaganda mouthpieces of the Kremlin.
The evidence for this is overwhelming. It is skillful mass mind
control- using the Orthodox religion in the service
of the devil....what Sergianism is all about.
THAT
was and is today, what Moscow got in return for their great 'blessing'
of granting their (bogus) 'autocephaly/, 'independence' to the old North
American Russian-Metropolia,
and later to much of our also then-free, ROCOR too....now under their
man, Hilarion-Kapral and his followers.
And by the way, what not many know,
but which I did read back then, about that pack with the devil agreement {the complete text and TERMS of that deceitful 'Tomos of Autocephaly'}, -in
gratefully! ...accepting that tremendous 'blessing from the mother Russian Church', the North American Metropolia had to GIVE THEM, ...handover,
100%, control of THE JAPANESE ORTHODOX CHURCH!....and...To admit, that ever since they had been 'in schism from the mother MP', ALL OF THOSE YEARS of their EVERY SACRAMENT, ALL
such sacraments had been GRACELESS and INVALID!!.
Most members of the OCA, apparently, have never read that.
My former OCA Archbishop,
Prince Ioann Shahovskoy [a self deluded avant-garde modernist &
clearly anti-traditionalist in his Orthodoxy, renovationist
Parisian devotee of slippery as an eel, renegade from ROCOR, Parisian
Met. Evlogy Grigorievsky, and Evlogy being a mentor of Alexander
Schmemann,...Shahovskoy said back then, [ but about which I only
learned of those words many years later] that: "Anyone who does not
accept autocephaly will
burn eternally in the fires of hell!" (!!!~)
However, I remember
my Archbishop Ioann Shahovskoy [as I had many direct dealings
with him as my bishop] mainly as a very incompetent, impractical and as a
bad diocesan and often physically absent bishop, a fanciful man [an
'effete intellectual snob'] who obviously was
smugly in love with himself and his intellect and his high old-Russian
aristocratic family heritage, etc. That is why he preferred to be in
Europe for much of the year, in ecumenical circles, where they fawned
and adulated over him, -which adulation he did
not receive here in his western US diocese. When he was here, he
normally said 'no', to any requests of his clergy regarding any parish
or diocesan projects. He always put the breaks on any real movement or
progress in his diocese. And too, he was certainly
anti any real or traditional Orthodox monasticism,...as also was his
close friend and associate, Professor Alexander Schmemann, who then, as
its 'Dean', with the rest of the Parisian/Evlogian imports,
had seized full control of the New York St. Vladimir's Seminary.
Most of his clergy in this western diocese, were happier when their
diocesan bishop was absent....which fact he was aware of.
Ironically, [ yes, life is strange!], later
and after I had fled to ROCOR....[after God sent me that also
EYE-OPENING precious book, 'The History of The Russian Orthodox Church
Abroad', put out by the Boston monastery]
when Ioann Shahovskoy had retired [ actually he had been
pushed-forced to retire by returned to the US, Met. Vladimir
Nagosky-formerly of Japan, when he wanted to take over this western US
diocese] and he was
later at his life's end period, dying of cancer,...[I seem to remember, in Arizona?], I...was asked to go and personally be his private nurse and care giver.
It was impossible of course, for many reasons.
Also,
later on, when the then disgraced by scandal [of a homosexual
nature]...when Met. Herman Swaiko had become OCA metropolitan, Vladimir
was forced to quietly 'retire', before
he could realize his long term real aim- of becoming the OCA's white-klobuked, Metropolitan in New York,
Met. Vladimir-former Metropolia Metropolitan of Japan,... Met.
Vladimir/'Bill' Nagosky...originally he from my home town and my first
parish of St. Theodosius of Chernigov Cathedral, in Cleveland,
Ohio,---which parish he, not I, was born and raised
in, (HE!...like a new Judas Iscariot, had personally handed over the
Japanese Orthodox Church
(originally founded by the great Russian Orthodox missionary bishop to Japan, St. Nicholas Kasatkin]
to the communist MP in Moscow on April 10, 1970, because
they demanded it, in RE-PAYMENT for autocephaly, & as was stated
clearly in the Tomos of Autocephaly ), Vladimir Nagosky later was also
himself dying of cancer, I was asked to go and take
care of him as he was dying.(!)
Then too, that was simply not possible for me, all-in-all.
Anyway,
Fr. xxx, what truths are in this text and what valuable wisdom, I fear
that not many today know or even seem to care about.
But
that is why, till I leave this world, as best as God allows me, I shall
continue to try and tell and to share the truth of these
matters, to any who care and will listen.
However, how few these days, care about truth, in any field of human interest?
We live in a time of much deception and lies, lies, and more lies.
BUT,
since GOD IS ALL TRUTH, if we who claim to belong with Him, but if we
lie, or if we accept or believe lies, ....how then do
we indeed belong with God???
GOD CANNOT BE DECEIVED!!!
May God save us!
Tired out and retired 73 year old, Reader Daniel Everiss
P.S. This valuable book, and many other valuable Orthodox books, is available from: Monastery Press, Wildwood, Alberta, Canada
