His Holiness Patriarch

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The Orthodox Christian News Service

Published by the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, December 2003

His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Russia Makes an Appeal to Metropolitan Laurus and the Bishops' Council of the Russian Church Outside Russia

His Holiness Patriarch Alexy of Moscow and All Russia sent a letter to Metropolitan Laurus, Chairman of the Bishops' Synod of the Russian Church Outside Russia, and to the Bishops' Council of the Russian Church Outside Russia to open on December 13, 2003. Below is the text of the letter.

Your Eminence, Metropolitan Laurus,

The Most Reverend Archpastors of the Russian Church Outside Russia:

On the eve of the Bishops' Council of the Russian Church Outside Russia, we again make a brotherly appeal to you to combine efforts so that with God's help we may overcome the division still existing in the Holy Russian Church.

This division was generated by the tragic consequences of the 1917 Revolution and the bloody civil war. The Orthodox people suffered incalculable sufferings in their homeland. The godless power mounted severe prosecution against the Church of Christ, entering into struggle with all those who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ (Rev. 12:17). And Russian refugees who found themselves in foreign lands also suffered in their exile. Our Lord knows their works, and tribulation, and poverty (Rev. 2:9).

Reflecting on the causes of the collapse of old Russia, we realise that the entire Russian Church bears the burden of responsibility for what happened to our beloved country and our people who proved to have had insufficient immunity against the pernicious false teachings of the godless. The events of the 20^th century are a severe lesson for us all. The Holy Church is called to cherish the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free (Gal. 5:1); even under the hardest circumstances the Church has no right to withdraw from the spiritual assessment of the developments around her, for the consequences of such withdrawal may be disastrous for whole nations.

In the spirit of repentance, the Russian Church is called by the Lord to heal the wounds and divisions inflicted on her people and to bear witness to the healing which is found in the radiance of the Sun of righteousness (Mal. 4:2).

We should admit however that the words and actions of church representatives both inside and outside the homeland did not always answer to this lofty calling. Many words and deeds of members and hierarchs of the Church were conditioned in many ways by the external circumstances of church life and sometimes by the direct pressure from non-church forces. Living in a world divided by an 'iron curtain', we, on either side of it, were, each in our own way, subject to opposing self-interested political systems. And neither system was Christian or Orthodox, neither was concerned for the reunification of our people or allocated a proper place to the Church in the people's life. The confrontation penetrated also into the awareness of church people, prompting church suspensions and strong mutual reproaches.

At the same time, pastoral work, the preaching of the word of God and celebration of the Holy Sacraments continued in the Church both inside and outside Russia. The Lord has safeguarded His Church from a deviation into heresy and preserved the dogmatic unity and apostolic succession of the ordinations. It was the external robe of the Church that was torn apart, while the Body of Christ preserved its inherent unity. Coming to the cup of the Holy Eucharist, the people of God inside and outside Russia have partaken of one source of life-giving grace.

Affirming this common foundation of ours, we can examine anew, freely and jointly, and overcome the remaining difference in understanding particular aspects of the Church's relations with the external world, including her relations with state and society. It is our profound conviction that already at present the Russian Orthodox Church in Russia and the Russian Church Outside Russia share and advocate before their whole world essentially the same perception of spiritual and moral values embodied in our common Holy Tradition.

We have been entrusted with a common message to be given to the present-day humanity. This makes us feel ever stronger the need to restore our unity. The continued division becomes increasingly difficult to explain to our people as we overcome other consequences of the 20^th century revolution and civil war. Almost all that used to divide our people has passed into history. Only one wound has remained, giving us an especially severe pain. The priority of its healing is realised both in church and non-church circles. The Church can and must give to reviving Russia an example of unity and ability to overcome differences.

We believe therefore that the visit to our country expected to be made soon by His Eminence Metropolitan Laurus and the recent visit to Russia by a delegation of our fellow bishops and pastors of the Church Outside Russia are very timely. We are grateful to this delegation and consider our meetings in Moscow to have been fruitful. We have seen that there are real premises for developing the dialogue in the special commissions of the Russian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate and the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia. We were very much moved by the repentant words of our brothers in Christ. And through this letter we, too, make our repentance for all the words and deeds which did not contribute to reconciliation.

Strengthened by the prayerful intercession of Russia's holy martyrs and confessors and putting the great cause of the restoration of church unity into the hands of God, we will do everything that depends on us to bring nearer the day when our full communion will become possible at last despite all the obstacles to be invariably encountered on the way.

+ Alexy
Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia