Vladyka Agafangel: Christ leaves Ukraine

from Internet Sobor

http://internetsobor.org/index.php/stati/avtorskaya-kolonka/mitropolit-agafangel-khristos-pokidaet-ukrainu

Metropolitan Agafangel:  Christ leaves Ukraine

Автор: Митрополит Агафангел. Дата публикации: 08 сентября 2023. Каå

At one time, ROCOR Hieromonk Seraphim (Rose) wrote: 

“It would be better for us if the Moscow Patriarchate excluded us, and all of world Orthodoxy would separate from us; then some of our people would fall into apostasy, but the rest would become stronger." 

(letter to Alexander Kalomiros, dated April 29, 1975)

Fr.. Seraphim, wished for the complete separation of the ROCOR from the Moscow Patriarchate and the entire “world Orthodoxy,” as carriers of numerous heresies and untruths, so that the remaining Orthodox Christians would become stronger in their faith.

The truth of God is more valuable than crowds and wealth.  Retreat is happening everywhere, inexorably and inevitably, this is one of the providential patterns — the process established by God of separating the wheat from the chaff, to remove all that is fallen and sinful from the Holy Kingdom of Heaven.   We can only observe the inevitable pace of this retreat — the triumphant procession of vice and death in the midst of a collapsing and dying world.

* * *

Another such disastrous step is the establishment at the state level in Ukraine of dates for church holidays according to the new style.  It seems to many that there is nothing dangerous in this — just a change in the dates of some holidays.  But, in reality, this is another stage of moving away from Christ towards Hell.

Christ suffered for people and desires salvation for everyone, but, unfortunately, not everyone desires this salvation — not enough to change their personal life for the sake of it and live the opposite of what “everyone lives.”

Ukraine, which had been an Orthodox state since the 10th century and in all subsequent centuries, decided to finally reject Christ and finally become a secular state.  The first renunciation of Christ by our people was the falling away from the Christian, Orthodox Empire — participating, directly or indirectly, in the overthrow of the Orthodox Tsar.  Ukraine's second renunciation of Christ was the overthrow of the power of the Orthodox Hetman Pavlo Skoropatsky.  (гетмана: chief of Cossack army)  And now the third renunciation is the falling away from the Holy Tradition of the Ukrainian state as a whole, with the lukewarmness and indifference of the bulk of the people.

* * *

Why is the adoption of a new style at the state level a rejection of Christ for Ukraine?  Because this is a falling away from the Orthodox Tradition — bequeathed to us by the Holy Fathers of the Church.  By violating this Tradition, we break the continuity from the early, primal Church of Christ, and thereby break the Covenant with Christ Himself.  After all, this change concerns not only holidays — it concerns the entire church life, which must “shift” by 13 days from the life that the Church of Christ originally lived.  By accepting the Gregorian calendar (new style), first adopted by the papist heretics in 1582 (or the so-called New Julian calendar, which is essentially the same thing), the followers of the new calendar fall away from the inner sacred life of Christians faithful to Christ and Tradition, and become one with the world that has rejected God and lies in sin.

The Decree of the Holy Fathers of the First Ecumenical Council (also the 7th Apostolic Canon, 1st Canon of the Antioch Council) orders all Christians to celebrate Easter (of course, this also applies to other significant holidays) on one day.  Later, the 7th rule of the Second Ecumenical Council and the 95th rule of the Trullo Council directly called those who did not comply with this rule heretics.  That is, those who reject the calendar accepted by the Church, according to the resolutions of the Ecumenical Councils, are heretics.

Catholics who fell away from the Church of Christ in 1054 continue to this day to accept many innovations that move them further and further from the Church of the Holy Fathers.  One of these heretical innovations was the “correction of the calendar” in 1582.

The new calendar adopted by the papists in the very year of its appearance was rejected by the Ecumenical Patriarch, and then condemned by three Pan-Orthodox Councils (1583, 1587, 1593) “as a pernicious papal innovation.” These Orthodox conciliar decrees to this day directly excommunicate all “New Calendarists” from the Church.

* * *

Of course, Orthodox people in Ukraine will continue to live in the united spirit of the Church’s Patristic calendar.  But people of little faith now find themselves faced with a huge temptation - to make a mistake in choosing the path to their salvation, since outside the Church there is no saving grace of God.  Therefore, it is our duty to warn that any break with the Church, including in the form of the adoption of a new calendar, destroys a single mystical prayer life, and a community that has moved away from Her inner sacred life falls away from Christ.

Saint Ignatius Brianchaninov wrote back in the 19th century: “The retreat is allowed by God: do not try to stop it with your weak hand.  Stay away, protect yourself from it: and that’s enough for you.  Get acquainted with the spirit of the time, study it, in order to avoid its influence if possible.” .

The Russian philosopher and representative of True Orthodox Christians, Alexei Losev, wrote: “Whoever has seen little evil fusses, fusses, fidgets, is horrified and killed.  But whoever knows that the whole world lies in evil is calm.”  Therefore, Christians should not be particularly worried about the fact that the world is approaching the end - this is natural and predicted in the Gospel.  We should isolate ourselves from the deadly breath of this world, and strive in Christ for the salvation of our souls.

* * *

Let us return to the words of Hieromonk Seraphim (Rose): “It would be better for us if the Moscow Patriarchate “excluded” us, and all of “world Orthodoxy” would separate from us; then some of our people would fall into apostasy, but the rest would stronger" - let us separate ourselves from the untruth of this world, and become stronger in our faith in Christ, our only Savior. Nowadays, one should trust as little as possible external information contained in all kinds of sources of secular information, which, almost all, is aimed at deception, indoctrination and corruption of a person.

Nowadays, with special diligence, we should soberly listen and trust as much as possible to the teaching of the Church, which is the only thing that serves our salvation.

† Metropolitan Agafangel

August 26 / September 8, 2023

Comment

Agafangel 07/06/2021  Comment under a post of Fr. Seraphim's 4/29/75 letter to Dr. Kalomiros

http://internetsobor.org/index.php/istoriya/rptsz/arkhiv-rptsz/1975

     Representatives of the MP now present Fr.. Seraphim as a “liberal” and a “conciliator,” and not an opponent of the MP.  But many of his statements, like these words: “It would be better if the Moscow Patriarchate excluded us, and all of world Orthodoxy separated from us; then some of our people would fall into apostasy, but the rest would become stronger “ — puts him in the ranks of the most extreme opponents of the MP, and at the same time, an extreme opponet of “world Orthodoxy.”  And thank God!