"We beg you to listen!" Open letter to Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Russia (18.2.1993)

Your Holiness, Concern for the good of the Fatherland and the well-being of the Church, for the preservation of church peace, the inviolability of canonical laws and the integrity™ of the apostolic doctrine compels us to address you with this letter. In the present cruel time of turmoil, we will be able to jointly resist satanic attempts to destroy Holy Russia, only by uniting around our primordial shrines, kindling in our souls holy zeal "for God." To linger in indifferent waiting is immoral and criminal) "God is betrayed by silence," says the wisdom of the Holy Fathers. Let it not be so! May we, through our lack of faith and faint-heartedness, not find ourselves among the traitors to our Lord and Saviour!

Your Holiness, we ask you to clarify our perplexities and save us from the temptations that arise among the Orthodox people because of the oddities of the internal and inter-confessional policy pursued on your behalf. Unfortunately, events give rise to the assumption that certain forces seek to use your name in their own interests, which by no means always coincide with the interests of Russia and the Russian Church. Here are just a few examples from the recent past.

During your official visit to the United States, the program of your events included a meeting with representatives of the Jewish community in America. At this meeting with the rabbis, you gave a speech, the text of which was then given to Rabbi Arthur Schneider, a representative of the Jewish side. This speech was widely commented on in the foreign press, and when published in Russia by the "Jewish Newspaper" and "Moscow News", it caused a real shock among the Orthodox...

This speech caused terrible damage to the authority of the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia. Within the Church, a whole stream of "non-commemorating" priests and priests was formed, who formally remained in the jurisdiction of the Moscow Patriarchate, but who ceased to commemorate your name during divine services. In fact, the Church was put on the brink of schism, and only the mercy of God and the boundless patience and spiritual intelligence of our people made it possible to avoid a deepening of the crisis...

How consistent are the assertions that "the fullness of Christianity embraces Judaism," the appeals to the rabbis to help the Russian Orthodox Church fight against "ethnic chauvinism," the invitations to "the unity of Judaism with Christianity... on the real ground of spiritual and natural kinship and positive spiritual interests"?

..."If you respect everything Jewish, then what do you have in common with us?" asked John Chrysostom more than a millennium and a half ago. This greatest saint, a teacher of the Church, now reverently revered by the entire Orthodox world, unequivocally warned: "When you learn that someone is Judaizing, stop him, announce him, so that you yourself will not be condemned together with him." As they say, there is nothing to add.

The story of the speech to the rabbis has been the most scandalous in recent times, but it is far from the only case when attempts were made to use your name for very dubious purposes.

And here is a very recent example. It concerns the ecclesiastical and publicistic activities of Metropolitan John of St. Petersburg and Ladoga. His firm confessor, patriotic position, active work to defend the fullness of Orthodoxy from exclusion and distortion received wide support both among the laity and clergy of the Russian Church. In his person, the Church, after a long period of forced silence, spoke in a strong and honest style, answering topical questions that concern millions of people, in an accessible, simple and understandable way. It would seem that we should rejoice...

Вместо этого 25 января 1993 года под номером 175 появляется в свет подписанный Вами документ, конфиденциально запрещающий митрополиту Питириму, председателю Издательского отдела Московского Патриархата публиковать в церковной печати статьи владыки Иоанна! "Выступления владыки Иоанна, – говорится в этом распоряжении, – не могут публиковаться в официальном церковном органе Московского патриархата", ибо "вызвали неоднозначную реакцию среди общественного мнения"...

Почему "официальный церковный орган Московского Патриархата" может публиковать экуменические материалы, являющиеся, конечно, "личными оценками" авторов и, поверьте, вызывающие в церковном народе ох какую "неоднозначную" реакцию, но в то же время должен закрывать свои страницы для авторитетнейшего русского архиерея? Может быть, в сочинениях митрополита есть что-либо несовместимое с церковным вероучением, нарушающее каноны и церковные правила? Нет, ни единого слова нет. Тогда в чем же истинная причина запрета?

Ваше Святейшество, поверьте, сейчас не то время, когда можно столь безоглядно полагаться на информацию, которую Вам доставляют, Практика показывает, что она частенько грешит очевидными перекосами и искажениями. Результат – падение авторитета церковной власти. Но нам далеко не безразлично, как выглядит а глазах общественного мнения первосвятитель Русской Православной Церкви. Поэтому молим Вас – прислушайтесь к голосу народа церковного! Простите, если мы огорчили Вас своим письмом.

Советская Россия. 18.2.1993