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Confusion About the Different Jurisdictions

This post relies on my reading of the new book:
Saint Philaret of New York
 His Collected Works
    Letter to Abbess
    Homily Schism I
    Homily Schism II

Many of us in ROCOR and GOC are not 100% clear about the "true" jurisdictions.  How to evaluate them, how to recognize them.

Evaluation is simple:  Any Church (jurisdiction) or church (parish) not in communion with ROCOR & GOC, is schismatic, heretic, or both.

Recognition is not too hard.  Find out: Who is their bishop today?

   World Orthodox parish websites don't usually make it easy to find out who is their bishop. They think the bishop does not matter.  You will hear them say things like, "yes, my parish is on the new calendar, but our priest is traditional, and that's all that matters."
   "True" Church websites seem to be clear about who their bishop is.  RTOC, ROAC, ROCANA are clear even just by their name, calling themselves something other than ROCOR. 
   The ROCOR-MP is a confusing one, because it uses the name ROCOR, and it is very large.   Almost all the so-called "ROCOR" websites on the internet are actually ROCOR-MP.  They accept the Moscow Patriarch as the head of their Church and they commemorate him as their Patriarch.  Unless a group will clearly specify that they are in communion with ROCOR under Metropolitan Agafangel Pashkovsky & with GOC under Metropolitan Demetrius of New York, you can assume they are ROCOR-MP.
   The most confusing for newcomers is the Milan synod.  Milan synod websites will even list ROCOR and GOC among their "Sister Churches."  The deception is intentional.  They want to raise you with the thinking that all the old calendar Churches are spiritually united on an unofficial, unseen, higher level.   This is the jurisdiction of Joseph Suaiden of NFTU.
   In addition there are at least two "vigante" groups on the internet with no bishop, or else they are their own bishop.  Fr. Peter Heers is popular on the internet.  Bp. Gregory in Colorado is a cult, but he publishes a Synaxaristes way superior to any other.

If you want help finding out if a jurisdiction is or isn't in communion with ROCOR & GOC,  then you can email the GOC Monastery of St. John in Cobleskill, New York.  Send the url and ask, is the GOC in communion with this church/website? 

You can also ask me: joannahigginbotham@runbox.com
I might not be able to tell you what they are, but I should be able to tell you what they are not.

   Being schismatic or vigante does not mean everything on the website is poison.  I already mentioned that Bp. Gregory of Colorado's Synaxaristes is worth buying.  I have found many of our genuine unaltered historical documents preserved on the schismatic "true" websites.  But I was baptized in 1996, so I have experience.  A newcomer can have a hard time sorting the good from the bad.  
   Stick to our few trusted websites.  We have more material on our own websites than you can ever master in a lifetime, and we have everything needful.  Most importantly, we have the ONE THING NEEDFUL, which you can expect to grow into as you live your Orthodox Life.

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Recently I read, or rather I re-read from years ago, a letter written by St. Metr. Philaret of New York to Abbess Magdalena of Lesna Convent in France, 1979.  Probably it was first published (in English) in 1998 by HOCNA (Boston), a book, "The Struggle Against Ecumenism." 

In this letter
St. Philaret is thinking mainly of the prevailing schism of his day which was then the Metropolia which became the OCA, orchestrated by a ROCOR traitor-bishop Evlogy, and in Europe associated with the Parisian school which Fr. Seraphim Rose warned about.

Today this letter is remembered by us as being written against world orthodoxy.     The "trues" use it also for that, and to defend their stand against ecumenism, insinuating their alignment with St. Philaret of New York.  But look again!   St. Philaret was not necessarily talking TO them.  He was also talking ABOUT them!

I want everyone to read this letter.  Either again or for the first time.  Read it from the perspective of St. Philaret talking today about the very break-away groups who today mistakenly think St. Philaret would be in agreement with them.  

Then read the two sermons on Schism, and it becomes even more clear.  In the letter, talking about the schismatics, he writes: 
 

"If," says Chrysostom, "they don't teach the way we do, that's the one reason we can't have communion with them.  And if they teach the same as we do, then that's the more reason why you shouldn't have any communion with them, because their schism is a matter of lust for power."

And in the homily he writes the same:

...but if they teach the same as we do — then the reason for staying away from them is greater still, for here is the sin of lust of authority.

What does that sound like to you?  Who fits that description today?  Isn't ROCANA, the most recent R-fragment, the most recent schism from us, isn't it JUST LIKE US in every way?  They still have an original bishop who used to be with us (Andronik).  And why did Bp. Andronik leave us?  Because Vladyka Agafangel would not let him have control (power/authority) over the American parishes.

Bishop Andronik schism looks so much like us, that he went to the Sister Churches trying to get them to accept him and leave Vladyka Agafangel.  He asked the GOC and our Romanian Sister synod, but both said no.  He went away anyway...  without them.  But he took many of our sheep.  The sheep who were not strong enough to stay with a bishop who does not speak English.  So sad, they left a bishop who is truly grace-bearing...  

So now the remnant of  ROCOR in America is down to one parish.  We can find fellowship only with our Sister Greeks.  Many of them are our former fellow-ROCOR members who left for the Greeks because of a previous schism: the ROCOR-MP union in 2007. 

Surely this has been said many ways, many times throughout the centuries: 
Better to be abandoned and alone on earth, than to be separated from our heavenly family of saints.

Reading further into St. Philaret's letter and his homilies.  What happens to a Church (jurisdiction) or a church (parish) after it goes into schism?  In time, maybe a long time, maybe a short time, it becomes heretical.  Even if it does not adopt heresies, just remaining in a stubborn schism becomes a heresy in itself.  

The Metropolia (OCA) at first when it separated from us, looked just like us for a long time.  The priests had been trained by the ROCOR, by Jordanville.  Many of the parishes stayed on the old calendar.  But little-by-little they fell into worse and worse modernism.  The Metropolia/OCA parishes in Alaska, the most remote and isolated from outside influence, were at the tail end of the fall.  They still today look more traditional compared to the rest of the OCA parishes.

NECESSARY BOOKS 
for your Home Library

BOOK #1
St. Philaret of New York – His Collected Works
   The letter to the Abbess is found online for now. 
https://www.monasterypress.com/bishopopinions.html
Scroll down to:
A Letter from Metropolitan Philaret (Voznesensky) to Abbess Magdalena (Countess Grabbe), Superior of the Lesna Convent in France
November 26 / December 9, 1979

   The Homilies are not anywhere online.  
To buy the book try here first:
https://sjmshop.org/products/saint-philaret-of-new-york-his-collected-works?
And try Thrift Books or Abe Books before going to Amazon.
(please let Amazon be your last resort)

BOOK #2  
"The Struggle Against Ecumenism."
St. Philaret's letter to the Abbess is included in this book published in 1998 by HOCNA (Boston)  
https://www.bostonmonks.com/product_info.php?products_id=634

BOOK #3   out-of-print
Ecumenizm — Path to Perdition, by Ludmilla Perepiolkina
A companion book to #2 above   
Book is uploaded to Joanna's Shared Library
download:
https://app.box.com/s/fidluwvb48ffrhzly22uq2zvvzb56byl/file/403332567441

See this sign of how hidden Orthodoxy is becoming.  Impossible to find without a miracle. 

 

 I did a google search and

 see here what AI says:

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.Praise God for He is revealing only to Babes.

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