Towards Acquiring a Clear Concept of the Church

."Lord, grant us a clear concept of the Church."

     Many of our modern Church Fathers came from old Jordanville, old ROCOR.  Along with the New Martyrs and Optina elders, they are the "fruits" by which we are known, by which ROCOR is recognized as a true Church.  How quickly Jordanville lost it's grasp on the old ROCOR Fathers since it united with world Orthodoxy!  

A teaching from old ROCOR, St. Philaret of New York:

     “One must keep in mind that the Church is a theanthropic organism, whose Head is the Lord Jesus Christ and whose life is directed by the Holy Spirit.  Thus, the Church is in no need of human reforms, be they in the realm of her dogmatic teaching, in the amending of apostolic traditions, or the alteration of canon laws and liturgical practices hallowed by centuries of use.  Those who wish to reform the Church do not understand that they themselves must turn as quickly as possible to the grace-bearing life of the Church which, as the Apostle says, is the pillar and ground of truth.  Those who wish to renovate the Church, alas, do not desire their own personal renovation within her, according to the image of the new man who has put off the old man with his passions and lusts.  It is not for us to bring the Church to perfection, but we ourselves who must be perfected within her through the grace of the Holy Spirit."

— from an Epistle of the Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad to the Russian People (1978)    

ST. PHILARET OF NEW YORK His Collected Works, p. 581, 

©2024, ISBN: 979-833-571-5430, orthodoxtraditionalists.com  

     As we can see, the metropolitan Sergius Stragorodsky had it totally backwards.  So did metropolitan Laurus and all those folks who went into the ROCOR-MP union.  And then they who fell away quickly became hardened in their "passions and lusts" (aka: unthinking, pride, emotions) and blocked their ears to the calls for repentance that continue to this day. 
     It would be good to look up the rest of the Epistle, which was published in Orthodox Life magazine 1978 (6).  The Epistle goes on to explain how the striving for reforms is because of the ancient enemy trying to seize the Church internally — which is exactly what MP accomplished and is still accomplishing.  
     Our modern Fathers saw this coming.  Archbishop Averky spoke of this takeover, and would quote a Church Father of the generation before his, St. Theophan the Recluse, who warned us: 

"AN EVIL FAITH AND A FALSE CHURCH IS ARISING"  

     The takeover continues; the False Church is growing.  In 2007 the Sister Churches were four Churches.  Today we are three.  I wish I had the details, but we have lost our Old Calendar Sister Church in Romania.  One-by-one, country-by-country, first "official" Orthodoxy takes over the majority, then next what is left of true Orthodoxy disappears entirely.