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ROCOR-Chicago) - Dear in Christ Clergy, Brothers and Sisters of our God-loving Diocese of Mid-America,
I greet you all with the great feast of Pentecost — the Descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles and establishment of the Holy New-Testament Church of Christ.
Since the day of Her foundation, the Holy Church always defended and cared for the oppressed, widows, orphans, and homeless. (Acts: III, 45; IV, 34-35; VI, 1-3) Besides, all charity was of free will and non-compulsory. (Acts: V, 4) And so it was throughout the ages.
State social services appeared rather recently.
The Holy Church was always against any kind of revolutions or forceful overturning of power. Instead, She supported civil evolution. For example, being persecuted, She peacefully, without any riots, changed the course of the pagan Roman Empire, having completely regenerated it.
The same was done by Orthodox Christian missionaries, who spread the Holy Gospel among different nations. Look at the history of Holy Russia and compare by what means the Bolsheviks planted “equality”.
Now we are experiencing great turmoil in our United States. Attempts are made to destroy all foundations of law and order. In the name of “justice” we see looting, destruction, and mayhem.
The Holy Church was always against such actions, and Orthodox Christians cannot participate or support them.
Apostle Paul writes that we should pray for the land we live in and its authorities. If there is peace in the land, so will the Church and Her children live in peace and prosperity.
Therefore, we should enforce our prayers for our American land and its peace and tranquility.
“O Lord Jesus Christ our God, do Thou calm the agitation and discord in our American land, banish from us slander and conflict, murder and drunkenness, bitter disputes and scandals, and burn out of our hearts every impurity, conflict and evil, that again we all may love one another and abide, as one, in Thee, O Lord, our God, as Thou has commanded and directed us. Grant peace to Thy Church and to Her children, that with one heart and one mouth we may glorify Thee, our Lord and Savior, unto the ages of ages. Amen.”
Peter, Archbishop of Chicago & Mid-America
The good Bishop is absolutely correct to admonish the lawless by the example of the piety of the church. I gather he refers to the recent street violence and not the official violence perpetrated by those who purport to uphold civil (and financial) order yet abuse their power to the people’s harm, and whose violence instigates the people’s. In nearly every case of ‘riot’ erupting from among a peaceable protest, it has been the police who rioted against those expressing their opinion according to the 1st Amendment. The police rioted to rout the peaceable protestors in Lafayette Park prior to the impeached president making his way to the church where he awkwardly held up a Bible recently. This man does not uphold law and order and is by any standard a gross violator of the public trust.
ReplyDeleteThe stance of anti-left church authorities is that government so-called and ostensible officers of the peace are above reproach (if they are of the right party in the case of civil servants) but the public loudly expressing their anger are always wrong and their outcry is ungodly, no matter how bad the abuse. This defines ROCOR membership to a ‘t’. I dare say any clergy or layman whose political opinion differs greatly from what amounts to a party line would not be welcome in ROCOR.
Well Aunt Bee, this whole time I thought it was the slackers/criminals/anarchists who were pillaging, looting, and burning, but you come along and inform us that it has been the police the whole time! Learn something everyday...
DeleteWhich is worse act of lawlessness, to topple a statue or to topple a living man?
DeleteAbsolutely not true. One lady who has been Orthodox for over 20 years is both a Democrat and a Socialist. She is a former parish council president. Few share her views, but it isn't like she has been denied communion for political beliefs.
ReplyDeleteI think that my bishop's statement is meant more as a condemnation of the looting that marred the recent protests than a blanket condemnation of all protests, which would be absurd. The current mass marches in Montenegro, however justified, are after all mass marches. Many of Abp. Peter's statements here obviously cannot be meant literally. To say that the Church is always against revolution ignores the Greek Revolution, the rising of St. Dmitri Donskoi against the Mongols, and many other incidents. To say that the Church is against state welfare ignores the 'bread and circuses' policy of most (Christian as well as pagan) Roman emperors. To say that the Church 'completely transformed' the Roman Empire without violence or rioting is wishful thinking, and raises the question of why Constantine was camping out at the Milvian Bridge to begin with. The real point of Vladyka's message, in my opinion, is the excellent prayer in the last paragraph. It is not, I think, that we must submit to every injunction of the state authorities automatically and without thinking, although there does seem to be a tendency towards that opinion in some Orthodox circles, manifest in the reaction to the COVID-19 epidemic.
ReplyDeleteDionysius Redington
Lubbock, Texas
He's really showing the reactionary, friendly with fascist roots of ROCOR. As if the destruction of "all foundations of law and order" are what is going on. As if "looting, destruction, and mayhem" is primarily what has been happening in the protests against police brutality. If all he wanted to do was condemn those elements of "looting, destruction, and mayhem", he could have done that. He didn't. He also didn't mention the brutality, destruction, and mayhem being done in the name of "justice" by the police, before and since the murder of George Floyd. He should be ashamed of himself for making such a tone deaf statement public.
ReplyDeleteLOL. Show me the support for secular, pluralistic democracy in the Tradition. What about Imperial use-of-force protocols?
DeleteMost of the Orthodox "political tradition" is about the protection of minorities, mainly because most Orthodox for most of its history have been the minority discriminated against by the non-Orthodox, non-Christian law. Most Orthodox throughout history were never under the Empire. Otherwise, language like this simply proves Orthodoxy is the state-sponsored religion of a state and culture that no longer exists.
Delete123, yours might be the most revisionist and/or naive take on Orthodox history I have ever read...
DeleteI mean, he is right in that most of Orthodox history has taken place under Islam... treating Byzantium as some kind of norm or ideal is crippling.
DeleteI'd say it's equally crippling to treat existence as a religious minority under a hostile, alien Islamic empire as a norm or ideal.
DeleteOutside the Ottoman Imperial and Islamic Ba'athist models, OOrthodoxy seems most congruent with nation-state monarchies, like Catholicism.
This letter would have benefited from another paragraph condemning racism.
ReplyDeleteOh please. The Ecumenical Patriarchate carves out ethno-nationalist exarchies all over the world so they don't have to invite their neighbors to church and so the Greeks don't have to ordain non-Greeks, but we're all supposed to be flagellating ourselves over racism.
DeleteFrom a PR standpoint, he wouldn't have to actually *be* anti-racist, it's enough to give anti-racism lip service. "Racism is bad, but so are riots" sounds better than this letter, which could have been written by any Southern Baptist church in 1968.
DeleteAnti-Gnostic: Democracy and other forms of pseudo-egalitarian forms of government are notf of the Church and do not fit with the Church. Those forms are secular in origin and purpose.
ReplyDelete