The Sergianist Schism of 1927. Documents

DOCUMENTS OF THE CATACOMB CHURCH

THE SERGIANIST SCHISM OF 1927

Of the three kinds of documents that give reliable information on the Catacomb Church in the USSR (see THE ORTHODOX WORD, May-June,. page 145), the most fundamental comprises those that date from 1927-29, chiefly from leading hierarchs of that time, stating the reasons why the Orthodox Church cannot accept the "Declaration" of Metropolitan Sergius, and breaking off communion with him. The religious and moral authority of these protesting hierarchs was so high, and their arguments so Orthodox and sound, that for the future historian of the Russian Church there can scarcely be any doubt as to the rightness of their position. As for Metropolitan Sergius and his "Synod" (the present "Moscow Patriarchate"), most of these documents characterize them as perpetrators of a neo-renovationist schism in the line of the "Living Church" of the early 1920s – to which schism Metropolitan Sergius had himself belonged. Even before the "Declaration" of 1927 the clairvoyant Elder Nektary of Optina Monastery had said: "Metropolitan Sergius is a Renovationist... He has repented, but the poison is still in him."

As far as is known, all the anti-Sergianist hierarchs of 1927 were either murdered by the Soviets or died in prison or banishment, the sole "crime" of many of them being that they refused to accept Metr. Sergius "Declaration," which was published in the Soviet press and strictly enforced by the Soviet regime and its Political Police. Many of those who today, for various reasons, accept the Moscow Patriarchate as the legitimate Russian Orthodox Church, would like to believe that with the death of these bishops who founded it, the Catacomb Church itself has ceased to exist, and that therefore there is no opposition within the USSR to the Orthodoxy of the Patriarchate. But quite apart from the testimony of the recent Soviet press concerning the uncovering of Catacomb cells of "Tikhonites" or the "True Orthodox Church," the whole history of the Church of Christ has never heard of an apostate body becoming "Orthodox" simply because its Orthodox opposition has been liquidated! Therefore, since the present-day Moscow Patriarchate is the direct continuation and indeed the very creation of the Sergianist policy of 1927, the statements of the truly Orthodox bishops and faithful in 1927-29 remain as true and valid today as ever, and they speak with full force to the present Moscow hierarchy. Indeed, the one thing that shines forth from these documents of some four decades ago is the unchanging TRUTH for which their authors died, and which neither the tyranny and lie of the Communist yoke, nor all its seemingly brilliant successes abroad, can ever blot out. (Texts from the 1964 ST. VLADIMIR RUSSIAN NATIONAL CALENDAR, Jordanville, N.Y.)

1. THE SEPARATION OF HIEROTHEUS, BISHOP OF NIKOLSK
Document of January 12, 1928

TO ALL MY CO-WORKERS in the Lord's Name on the spiritual field, to the clergy and laymen of the Diocese of Ustiug: In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

And grant us with one mouth and one heart to glorify Thy most honorable and majestic Name.

Dear pastors and faithful children of the Orthodox Church: You know that without unity there is no salvation. The organism of the Church is one: Christ is the Head of the Church; the mouth, eyes, hands, and feet are pastors and teachers, the organs of the Church; and the body of the Church is all who believe in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The whole body moves with one spirit and is animated by one heart. A part of the body which is not nourished by the heart's blood falls away and perishes. Thus before our own eyes did the Renovationists fall away from the Church; they did not wish to be in communion with the primary person in the Church, the Most Holy Patriarch, and now they are gradually rotting away, like some useless hand or foot that has been cut off and thrown on the ground.

After the Renovationists of the "Living Church" it was the "Autocephalists" the followers of Archbishop Gregory of Ekaterinburg (Gregorians), who did not acknowledge the Locum Tenens Metropolitan Peter who renounced the unity of the Church. And now the unity of the Church has been broken by Metropolitan Sergius, the Substitute of Metropolitan Peter. As long as he was a faithful guardian of the Patriarchal See which was entrusted to him, the entire Church considered him its guide; but when he has undertaken arbitrary enterprises approved neither by the people of the Church nor by a Council of Bishops, and without the blessing of Metropolitan Peter then no one is obliged to follow the path of his errors.

At the time of the Renovationism of the Living Church all true children of the Church separated themselves from the Renovationist Council of 1923 and from the Living Church Synod, and gradually they united themselves around the Most Holy Patriarch and the bishops who were in ecclesiastical communion with him In the same way now Metropolitans Peter and Cyril, Metropolitans Joseph of Leningrad, Arsenius of Novgorod, and Agathangel of Yaroslavl, Bishop Arsenius Vicar of Moscow (formerly of Serpukhov, now retired), Archbishop Seraphim of Uglich, Archbishop Athanasius of Kiev, Bishops Dmitry of Gdov, Victor of Votkinsk, Seraphim formerly of Dmitriev (Zvezdinsky, retired), Irinarch of Great Ustiug, the Bishops in banishment, and many others, and likewise a group of the clergy of the capital and delegations authorized by communities of believers – all in various forms have declared to Metropolitan Sergius their disagreement with him and their separation from him.

Some of them declare that Sergius has stretched out his hands toward the Patriarchal Throne, striving to overturn it, inasmuch as in his Synod there are persons whom the Church does not trust. Others say that Sergius has introduced a political tendency into Church life (see his Declaration in Izvestia, Aug. 19, 1927). Still others indicate that Metropolitan Sergius has chosen a crooked path of diplomatic doubletalk, agreements, and compromises – as if for the salvation of the Church – and has left the straight but sorrowful path of the Cross, i.e., of patience and firmness.

Finally, he has made use of deceit, calling his Synod Orthodox and Patriarchal, while in reality its organization is a trampling down of the Church's canons: Metropolitan Peter, the Locum Tenens, did not give his approval for such a thing, it having failed to obtain the blessing of the Most Holy Patriarch himself in 1924. What the Renovationists and the Gregoriar.s could not succeed in doing – that Metropolitan Sergius very cunningly did: bound the Church to the civil authority, expressing spiritual submission to it.

The Decree on the Separation of the Church from the Government does not exist for Sergius and his followers. Therefore, for the realization of his plans Metropolitan Sergius, violating the 9th Canon of the Council of Chalcedon, even makes use of the non-ecclesiastical power.

As for me, acknowledging my responsibility before God for the flock entrusted to me, I have declared on January 10/23 of this year to Bishop Sophronius, who has been assigned to the See of Great Ustiug by (Sergius') Synod, that my flock and clergy of Nikolsk – except for the cathedral clergy, who have been rejected by the people – cannot accept him because we have separated from Sergius and from his Synod. And on the other hand I have informed Metropolitan Joseph (of Leningrad) that I canonically join to him the clergy and laity of the Diocese of Great Ustiug, in accordance with the blessing of Vladika Irinarch, whose lawful Substitute I am at the present time for the whole Diocese of Great Ustiug.

I have had to suffer much in the way of every kind of slander and offense for my archpastoral labors for the good of the Church. If the Apostolic Canons say that clergy may do nothing without the will of their bishop, then my will expressed in the present epistle, is thereby all the more worthy of every acceptance.

Nevertheless, wishing to hear from you, dear children, that you are one in soul and one in thought with me, and likewise respecting your freedom of self-determination, I propose that my epistle be read and considered at assemblies of the faithful, so that all might know the way the matter stands and freely enter into unity with me, remaining faithful to the Locum Tenens of the Patriarchal See, Metropolitan Peter, and to the entire Orthodox Russian Church; concerning which I request you to send me a written statement.

Only the clergy of the Cathedral of the Lord's Meeting in Nikolsk, the priest from the Renovationists Sergius Aranovich (in Kudrilo), and Archpriest John Golubev (in Shango) have openly come out against me, spreading every kind of evil report, slander, and absurdity. They have written unfounded complaints against me to the Synod, and Archpriest Michael Krasov (of Vokhma) personally took these to Moscow; for which they have been prohibited from serving and are in a state of excommunication from me until they shall show sincere repentance in the form established for Renovationists, or until a complete council of bishops shall judge the case of Metr. Sergius and those who are with him (10th Canon of the Holy Apostles).

I place before you these hirelings, who see the wolf approach and flee; do not follow them, my brethren and children, but let us have before us a different example: the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep. Amen.

On January 12/25, 1928, I have received the reply of Metropolitan Joseph: "Govern yourselves independently. Our justification: faithfulness to Metropolitan Peter. Joseph."

Hierotheus, Bishop of Nikolsk


2. THE SEPARATION OF ARCHPRIEST VALENTIN SVENTITSKY
Document of December, 1927

To Metropolitan Sergius.

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

REALIZING ALL MY responsibility before the Lord for my own soul and for the salvation of the souls of the flock entrusted to me, and R with the blessing of Dimitry, Bishop of Gdov, I am breaking off canonical and prayerful communion with You and the council of bishops that has been organized under You, which has illegally appropriated to itself the title of "Patriarchal Synod," as well as with everyone who is in canonical communion with You; and I no longer consider You the Substitute of the Locum Tenens of the Patriarchal Throne, for the following reasons:

Your Declaration of July 16/29, as well as everything that is generally known of Your governance of the Church from the time of the publication of the Declaration, without any doubt establishes that You are placing the Church in that same dependence on the government in which the first two "Renovations" wished to place it, in defiance of the holy canons of the Church and the decrees of the civil authority itself.

Both the "Living Church," which seized the authority of the Patriarch, and "Gregorianism," which seized the authority of the Locum Tenens, and now You, who have abused the latter's trust – are all doing the same general anti-ecclesiastical, renovationist work; but You are the founder of the most dangerous of its forms, because while renouncing ecclesiastical freedom, at the same time You preserve the fiction of canonicity and Orthodoxy. This is worse than the violation of separate canons.

I am not creating a new schism, and I do not break the unity of the Church; I go away from and I lead my flock out of a subtle renovationist trap-lest imperceptibly and little by little we lose the freedom which our Lord Jesus Christ, the Liberator of all men, has given us as a free gift by His Own blood (8th Canon of the Third Ecumenical Council).

Remaining a faithful and obedient son of the One Holy Orthodox Church, I recognize as Locum Tenens of the Patriarchal Throne Metropolitan Peter; I recognize also those bishops who, not arbitrarily appropriating to themselves general ecclesiastical authority, have already broken canonical ties with You, following their testimony: "until the judgement of a complete Local council," i.e., a council with the participation of all Orthodox bishops, or until the open and full repentance before the Holy Church of the Metropolitan himself.

Archpriest Valentin Sventitsky

—This document is one of many coming from the Petrograd area. Future issues will present, among others, the protests of Vicar Bp. Dimitry of Gdov and the first real head of the Catacomb Church, Metr. Joseph of Petrograd.