NEW ZION IN BABYLON

NEW ZION IN BABYLON
The Orthodox Church in the Twentieth Century
PART 2. REAPING THE WHIRLWIND (1917-1925) Vladimir Moss © Copyright: Vladimir Moss, 2013. All Rights Reserved.
CONTENTS THE NEW RUSSIAN SYNOD 3
TWO CRETANS: (1) ELEUTHERIOS VENIZELOS 9
TWO CRETANS: (2) MELETIOS METAXAKIS 12
THE MOSCOW COUNCIL OF 1917-18 15
THE MURDER OF THE TSAR 36
THE CHURCH IN GEORGIA 42
THE CHURCH IN BESSARABIA 46
THE CHURCH IN THE UKRAINE 49
THE RUSSIAN CIVIL WAR 55
THE SECOND GREEK REVOLUTION 66
THE RUSSIAN CHURCH IN EXILE 74
ÉMIGR? COUNCILS 81
THE ASIA MINOR CATASTROPHE 84
METAXAKIS AS PATRIARCH 89
SECRET AGENTS IN CASSOCKS 98
THE REQUISITIONING OF CHURCH VALUABLES 102
THE RENOVATIONIST COUP 107
METROPOLITAN BENJAMIN OF PETROGRAD 119
THE RENOVATIONIST COUNCIL OF 1923 123
THE GREEK CHURCHES AND THE NEW CALENDAR 127
THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE CALENDAR CHANGE 138
THE RELEASE OF PATRIARCH TIKHON 143
THE RUSSIAN CHURCH AND THE NEW CALENDAR 149
THE ROMANIAN CHURCH AND THE NEW CALENDAR 156
THE FALL OF RENOVATIONISM 162 THE NEW RUSSIAN SYNOD
After the Tsar's abdication, writes Bishop Gregory Grabbe, "everything
happened amazingly quickly. The Synod could meet only when everything was
already over, and almost immediately its membership was changed, while V.N.
Lvov, a not completely normal fantasist, was appointed over-procurator.
There were few who understood the whole significance of what had happened
at that moment. Events were evaluated in society only from a political
point of view and proceeded from a condemnation of everything that was old.
The religio-moral side of what had happened could not be presented in a
single organ of the press. Unlimited freedom was presented only for the
criticism and condemnation of everything connected with the Church. There
were few who understood at that moment that, in accepting this coup, the
Russian people had committed the sin of oath-breaking, had rejected the
Tsar, the Anointed of God, and had gone along the path of the prodigal son
of the Gospel parable, subjecting themselves to the same destructive
consequences as he experienced on abandoning his father."[1] The Holy Synod was soon to learn what that new government really
represented. Instead of the separation between Church and State that the
government promised and so many Church leaders longed for, Lvov immediately
began to act like a new dictator worse than any of the over-procurators of
the Tsarist period. During his first appearance at the Synod on March 4, he
removed the Royal Throne (it was placed in a museum). Two days later he
secured the forced retirement of the Metropolitan of Petrograd, Pitirim
(Oknov), on the grounds that he had been placed in his see by Rasputin. On March 7 the Holy Synod declared: "On March 7 the over-procurator
explained to us that the Provisional Government considers itself endowed
with all the prerogatives of the Tsar's power in Church matters. It is not
that he, the over-procurator, remains de facto the master and boss, as
under the previous regime: for an indefinite time until the convening of a
Council he also turns out to be the absolute controller of Church matters.
In view of such a radical change in the relations of the State power to the
Church, the signatories do not consider it possible for them to remain in
the Holy Synod, although, of course, they retain a filial obedience to it
and in due submission to the Provisional Government." However, within a few hours the authors of the declaration had changed
their decision about their presence in the Synod. In the following days
they continued to discuss the situation and pointed out to the government
"the uncanonical and unlawful" manner of acting of the new over-procurator.
But this was the end of the conflict between the Holy Synod and the
Provisional Government. And although on March 10 at a session of the
government Lvov suggested that it was desirable to renew the composition of
the members of the Synod, it was decided to accomplish the changes
gradually...[2] The next hierarch to go was the highly-respected Metropolitan of
Moscow, Macarius, Apostle of the Altai. But it required a personal visit to
Moscow by Lvov to stir up opposition to the metropolitan among his priests
and laity. He was retired by the Synod see on March 20, together with
Metropolitan Pitirim, Archbishop Barnabas of Tobolsk and Archbishop Ambrose
of Sarapul.[3] The government went still further. On April 7, it ordered the house
arrest of Metropolitan Macarius in the Holy Trinity - St. Sergius
monastery. He prepared for publication an appeal to the hierarchs
requesting that they recognize his retirement as invalid and again restore
him to the see of Moscow. On the eve of Pascha he went from the Holy
Trinity - St. Sergius monastery to Moscow with a letter to be handed in to
one of the secretaries of the Moscow Consistory. In his letter he declared
that in view of the cessation of the commemoration of his name by the
majority of the clergy of the Moscow diocese, he was declaring all those
clergy to be banned from serving from April 10 (Russkoe Slovo [The Russian
Word], April 8/21, 1917)... Soon Metropolitan Macarius was removed beyond the bounds of the Moscow
diocese to the Nikolo-Ugreshsky monastery. But instead of this he turned up
in the Holy Trinity - St. Sergius monastery.[4] Metropolitan Macarius was never reconciled with his forced and
uncanonical retirement. As he later wrote: "They [the government] corrupted
the army with their speeches. They opened the prisons. They released onto
the peaceful population convicts, thieves and robbers. They abolished the
police and administration, placing the life and property of citizens at the
disposal of every armed rogue... They destroyed trade and industry,
imposing taxes that swallowed up the profits of enterprises... They
squandered the resources of the exchequer in a crazy manner. They radically
undermined all the sources of life in the country. They established
elections to the Constituent Assembly on bases that are incomprehensible to
Russia. They defiled the Russian language, distorting it for the amusement
of half-illiterates and sluggards. They did not even guard their own
honour, violating the promise they had given to the abdicated Tsar to allow
him and his family free departure, by which they prepared for him
inevitable death... "Who started the persecution on the Orthodox Church and handed her
head over to crucifixion? Who demanded the execution of the Patriarch? Was
it those whom the Duma decried as 'servants of the dark forces', labelled
as enemies of the freedom of the Church?... No, it was not those, but he
whom the Duma opposed to them as a true defender of the Church, whom it
intended for, and promoted to, the rank of over-procurator of the Most Holy
Synod - a member of the Provisional Government, now servant of the
Sovnarkom - Vladimir Lvov."[5] Already on March 7, with the support of the liberal Archbishop Sergius
(Stragorodsky) of Finland, Lvov had transferred the Synod's official organ,
Tserkovno-Obschestvennij Vestnik (Church and Society Messenger), into the
hands of the "All-Russian Union of Democratic Orthodox Clergy and Laity", a
left-wing grouping founded in Petrograd on the same day of March 7 and led
by Titlinov, a professor at the Petrograd Academy of which Sergius was the
rector.[6] Archbishop (later Patriarch) Tikhon protested against this
transfer, and the small number of signatures for the transfer made it
illegal. However, in his zeal to hand this important Church organ into the
hands of the liberals, Lvov completely ignored the illegality of the act
and handed the press over to Titlinov, who promptly began to use it to
preach his Gospel of "Socialist Christianity", declaring that "Christianity
is on the side of labour, not on the side of violence and exploitation".[7]
On April 14, a stormy meeting took place between Lvov and the Synod
during which Lvov's actions were recognised to be "uncanonical and
illegal". At this session Archbishop Sergius apparently changed course and
agreed with the other bishops in condemning the unlawful transfer. However,
Lvov understood that this was only a tactical protest. So he did not
include Sergius among the bishops whom he planned to purge from the Synod.
He thought - rightly - that Sergius would continue to be his tool in the
revolution that he was introducing in the Church. The next day Lvov marched into the Synod at the head of a detachment
of soldiers and read an order for the cessation of the winter session of
the Synod and the retirement of all its members with the single exception
of Archbishop Sergius (Stragorodsky) of Finland.[8] The Synodal members
removed were: Metropolitan Vladimir (Bogoyavlensky) of Kiev, Archbishops
Tikhon (Belavin) of Lithuania, Arsenius (Stadnitsky) of Novgorod, Michael
(Ermakov) of Grodno, Joachim (Levitsky) of Nizhni-Novgorod and Basil
(Bogoyavlensky) of Chernigov, and Protopresbyters Alexander Dernov and
George Shavelsky. In their place for the summer session were appointed
Archbishop Platon (Rozhdestvensky), exarch of Georgia, Archbishop
Agathangelus (Preobrazhensky) of Yaroslavl, Bishop Andrew (Ukhtomsky) of
Ufa, Bishop Michael (Bogdanov) of Samara, Protopresbyter Nicholas Liubimov,
rector of the Dormition cathedral of the Moscow