MEMORY ETERNAL

     METROPOLITAN'S REPOSE

On Sunday 16 March Metropolitan Lavr (the anglicised form Laurus is often used in English language texts) reposed in the Lord at Holy Trinity Monastery, Jordanville, New York. He had been the First Hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia since 2001 and had only recently returned from a visit to Russia.

His Holiness Patriarch Alexey said, "His image lives before us. Vladika just visited Moscow. It would have been difficult to believe that we were with him for the last time, that it was his farewell visit". He continued, "In the days that follow we will prayerfully remember him and thank him for enabling the reunification of the Church Outside Russia with the Mother Church. I think that he has inscribed his name in the history of the Russian Orthodox Church. May his memory live from generation to generation. Eternal memory to him, and our memory of gratitude".

Though we are sad at losing him, it is indeed fitting that Vladika Lavr should have his heavenly birthday on the Sunday of the Triumph of Orthodoxy. He was indeed a Champion of Orthodoxy in his tireless efforts to bring about the rapprochement of the two parts of the Russian Orthodox Church, which was finally achieved on Ascension Day last year.

     BIOGRAPHY

Vasily Skurla was born in Ladomirovo, Czechoslovakia, on 1 Jan 1928. Despite being a mostly Roman Catholic area, the Orthodox St Job of Pochaev Brotherhood had a monastery in Ladomirovo. Having received a monastic education from the age of eleven, Vasily was tonsured as a monk in 1948 at the early age of twenty, being given the monastic name Lavr (Laurus).

The St Job Brotherhhod migrated to America in 1946 and settled at Jordanville in upstate New York where they founded Holy Trinity Monastery and Seminary. In 1950 the monk Lavr was ordained deacon and was ordained to the priesthood four years later. In 1966 he was elevated  to the status of archimandrite and on 13 August 1967 was consecrated at Bishop of Manhattan and appointed Secretary to the ROCOR Synod of Bishops in New York.

Following the repose of Archbishop Averky, of pious memory, in 1976, Bishop Lavr was elected by the brotherhood as Abbot of Jordanville. He therefore succeeded Vladika Averky as Bishop of Syracuse and Troitsky. In 1981, the Synod raised him to the status of archbishop.

In October 2001, following the retirement  of Metropolitan Vitaly, Archbishop Lavr was elected as Metropolitan and First Hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia, whilst retaining his position as Abbot of Jordanville. By the Grace of God, with the election of Metropolitan Lavr, a new era dawned in the life of the Russian Orthodox Church. The low-key conversations between ROCOR and the Moscow Patriarchate gained a new momentum culminating in the historic and God-pleasing rapprochement on Ascension Day 2007.

     WORDS OF WISDOM

In a speech in Moscow's City Hall on 19 February this year, Vladika Metropolitan said:

The main Orthodox Christian dogma of the Holy Trinity, that God is one, but of three Faces, is not a dry tenet having no meaning for us. This dogma tells us that God is Love. What unifies and binds the three Faces of the Holy Trinity? Love. Nikolai Gogol, trying to understand and explain this unfathomable mystery, wrote that God the Father loves, God the Son is the Beloved, and the Holy Spirit is the Love that binds and connects the Father and the Son. And so, dear brothers and sisters, if we wish to draw nearer to God, we must live by the law of love and unity, in which the Triune God lives eternally. This dogma also tells us that we must find salvation within society; that we must save our souls in love for one another and in unity. This demands colossal labour, patience and understanding. Let us actively strive to these good works, to develop and strengthen the unity and ecclesiastical peace we have achieved with God's help, that the divisions that afflicted the Russian Orthodox Church and the peoples of our homeland in the tragic 20^th Century will not be repeated. Let each of us tend to his inner peace, to peace with his conscience, that is, personal peace and accord in life with God. Striving for this peace and obtaining it, we will thereby also strive to broaden peace and unity in social life. Without that, no matter how we try, divisions and conflicts will continue to exist.

Abba Dorotheus once used a circle as an illustration. In the middle of the circle was God. Along the radius of the circle are we humans. How do we draw near to each other? We must move closer to the centre, towards God. The closer we are to God, the closer we are to each other. That is how I see the path to spiritual unity for the peoples of our homeland. Travelling along this path, we will truly participate in the great task of unifying all. Amen.

     INFORMATIVE ARTICLE

Andrei Zolotov, Editor in Chief of Russia Profile wrote a three (A4) page appreciation of Vladika Metropolitan - Teaching Through Humility, On the Death of Metropolitan Laurus. The full text can be obtained in printed form from Orthodox News or you can read it on the Synod's website www.rusianorthodoxchurch.ws

     FUNERAL

The funeral of the Metropolitan took place on Friday 21 March at Holy Trinity Monastery, Jordanville. Metropolitan Lavr had spent most of his adult life at Jordanville and it is fitting that he was laid to rest in the place he loved and among so many of his departed monastic brethren. As a measure of the esteem in which he was held, it is noted that fellow hierarchs, clergy and laypeople alike travelled from all over the world to bid farewell to our beloved First Hierarch.

Metropolitan Lavr - Memory Eternal

NEW METROPOLITAN ELECTED

     ELECTION

The bishops of the Church Outside Russia assembled at Synod headquarters in New York on 12 May 2008 and there they elected Archbishop Hilarion of Sydney, Australia and New Zealand as First Hierarch of ROCOR. This was presented to the Patriarch for confirmation. The Patriarch gave his blessing for Metropolitan Hilarion to take us his duties as Metropolitan of New York and Eastern America. The enthronement took place on 18 May.

The new Metropolitan was born in 1948 in Alberta, Canada, to Alexey and Evfrosinia Kapral, who had emigrated from Western Ukraine in 1929. Baptised Igor, he was the youngest of seven children. At the age of 19, Igor Kapral enrolled at Holy Trinity Seminary, Jordanville. When he graduated five years later, he entered the monastery as a novice. In 1974, he was tonsured as a rassophor monk and given the monastic name of Hilarion. His name saint is St Hilarion, Metropolitan of Kiev. He was ordained deacon in 1975 and priest in 1976.

In 1984, at the very young age of 36, Fr Hilarion was consecrated as a bishop by Metropolitan Philaret and was given the title Bishop of Manhattan. He also served as deputy secretary to the Synod of Bishops. In June 1996 he was appointed to head the Diocese of Sydney which covers the whole of Australia and New Zealand. At this time he was elevated to the rank of archbishop. His undoubted gifts and apostolic fervour has now been justly recognised in his election as metropolitan.

Vladika Metropolitan has embarked a series of pastoral visits to the numerous Russian Orthodox communities is America. In addition he has had fraternal meetings with other Orthodox Church leaders including the Greek Archbishop Demetrios of North and South America and Metropolitan Philip of the Antiochian Archdiocese (Patriarchate of Antioch).

Metropolitan Hilarion - MANY YEARS
 

CHRIST IS RISEN!!

PASCHAL MESSAGE
OF HIS HOLINESS
PATRIARCH ALEXEY II
OF
MOSCOW & ALL RUSSIA
 

Come, O people, let us hymn the Saviour's Resurrection on the third day, through which we have been released from the indestructible bonds of Hades and all received incorruption and life, crying aloud: O thou who wast crucified, buried and rose again, save us through Thy Resurrection, O Thou alone Who lovest mankind!

- Stanza for Lord I have cried...from Vespers of Bright Tuesday

Beloved in the Risen Christ - Your Graces the arch pastors, God-loving presbyters, deacons, honourable monks and nuns, pious Orthodox laymen and women, faithful children of the Church!

From the depths of my heart I congratulate all of you, my dear ones, on Christ's bright Resurrection, the most joyful feast for Orthodox Christians. Again our churches are replete with Paschal rejoicing. Again and again we relive the great mystery of the Redemption that has liberated those who follow Christ from the dominion of sin and death. As St Peter the Apostle says, our Lord and Saviour Himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness (1 Peter 2:24)

How great is God's love for us! He has not abandoned those who have abandoned Him. By His suffering and death, he has purified those who have deviated from Him in choosing life according to their own desires. He has opened up the way of repentance and spiritual rebirth to those worn down by sin; the way to Life eternal. Let us give thanks to the Lord for His mercy and love for humanity. Let us give thanks as loving children who can take refuge from calamity and danger in the Father's House.

Since ancient times Christians have understood Pascha to be a transition, a Passover. The Passover, the Passover of the Lord! From death unto life, and from earth unto Heaven hath Christ our God brought us over, singing a song of victory ! the Holy Church sings today. According to our faith and our boldness, according to our love towards Christ and each other, we are granted a transition from death to eternal being, from slavery to sin, to the freedom of the fulfilment of God's Will.

Whole nations spiritually sustained by our Holy Church accomplish this saving transition too. From the darkness of unbelief they are approaching the light of Christ in being spiritually reborn and renewed. There are in our homeland and beyond its borders in the great Russian diaspora, more and more people who have in Christ life in abundance (John 10.10) which means genuinely happy people enjoying the truth of the fullness of life.

Yes, we still have to labour much in Christ's vineyard. Yet your spreading of the Word and good deeds, my beloved ones, have brought forth fruit a hundredfold and many of you have worthily heard the Lord's words Well done, good and faithful servant, you have been faithful over a little, I will set you over much; enter into the joy of your master. (Matthew 25:21)

The focal point of our faith, of our witness to the world, of our whole life is the good news of Christ's resurrection. Paschal joy was the sole spiritual condition of our saints. St Seraphim of Sarov greeted all those who approached him with the words: My joy, Christ is Risen! St John of Kronstadt, the 180^th anniversary of whose birth and 100^th anniversary of whose blessed repose we celebrate this current year, was known by the people as the "Paschal Father". He wrote in his diary, I love to gaze upon the image of the Risen Giver of Life holding the cross banner, this symbol of victory over death and the one who has the power of death, the devil. O death, where is thy sting? O hell, where is thy victory? How glorious is the Victor!

Let us then tread yet more firmly the Way of Christ, fulfilling the apostles' commandment, Therefore, brethren, be the more zealous to confirm your calling and election, for if you do this, you will never fall; so there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. (2 Peter 1: 10-11). And no matter how difficult we find it along this path, let us not fall into despondency knowing the He who raised the Lord Jesus will raise up us also with Jesus and bring you into His presence (2 Cor 4:14). This radiant hope will illumine the lives of our families, communities and peoples with a spiritual light, and both peace and happiness will reign in our homes, cities and towns.

Today, as my heart is full with this great joy, I congratulate all of you, my dear ones, on the feast of Holy Pascha, addressing you with the eternal words of the greeting from apostolic times, passed on from generation to generation:

CHRIST IS RISEN!

HE IS RISEN INDEED!

I hasten to share the Paschal rejoicing with all Orthodox peoples of the world, with each person who calls upon the name of Christ in prayer. May our joy touch those who are but seeking saving faith and striving to live with Orthodox Christians in peace and good neighbourliness. May     the risen Christ our Saviour grant to all of us peace, spiritual joy, health, salvation and furtherance in all good things.

+Alexey, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia.

Pascha 2008      

     CALENDARSS

If you have not yet bought a copy of the St Herman Calendar (lectionary) for 2008, do it quickly. We still have a few left in stock at half-price, Ł2.50 each. This gives all the saints commemorated each day, together with the daily Bible readings and details about fast days etc. The theme this year is the life of Archimandrite Sebastian (Dabovich) who was the first Orthodox priest to be ordained in America.

Also we have a very limited number of the ikon calendars left. The theme this year is the Russian Royal martyrs to commemorate the 90th anniversary of their deaths in Ekaterinburg in 1917. These retailed at Ł10 each but the last few are offered for sale at Ł5
 

     EDITORIAL

WEEP FOR KOSOVO
This was to be the headline in the Winter issue of ON which sadly did not get published. The planned article with the texts of various official statements has rather passed into history. There is nothing positive that can be said about the indecent haste with which the British government recognised the UDI of those European disciples of Osama bin Laden, the Albanians in Kosovo. The government of this country has quite a track record of pursuing policies that are either unchristian or positively anti-Christian, so maybe nothing should surprise us.

Always pray for the suffering Orthodox Christians of Kosovo and Metohija who have been driven from their homes or who live in perilous conditions created by the hatred of the enemies of Christ. Also pray for the repose of the souls of all those Orthodox Christians who have lost their lives as a result of this sad conflict.

Further, at this time, please pray for the 93 year old Patriarch Pavle of Serbia, who is very sick in hospital. He has suffered so much, both physically and emotionally. May God smile upon him and grant him relief from his pain.
 

     BISHOP OF SOUROZH

His Grace, Bishop Elisey (Ganaba), who has been a vicar bishop in London since the end of 2006, has been appointed as the diocesan bishop for this country, with the title Bishop of Sourozh. This decision was taken by the Holy Synod in Moscow under the chairmanship of His Holiness Patriarch Alexey II.
MANY YEARS - Vladika Elisey
 

     TIME TO BUILD

This is a sermon from St John the Wonderworker in 1962. He was referring specifically, at that time, to the construction of the "Joy of All Who Sorrow" Cathedral in San Francisco, yet his words are timeless. It is always a time to build.

Some people are saying: "The time is not come to build the Lord's house". Among them are many who are buying houses for themselves, who live in their own houses in full satisfaction of their material needs, or who are selling their homes to move into better and better dwellings, increasing their assets. It is understandable when such words are heard from unbelievers…. But how can they be repeated by believers who themselves go to church?

A church is a place that is consecrated, holy, in which there always dwells the grace of God. At the consecration of Solomon's temple, the glory of the Lord in the appearance of a cloud filled the house of God. So it was in the Old Testament temple. How much more powerfully does the grace of God act in the temples of the New Testament, where there is offered a true cleansing from sin, where we partake of the true Body and Blood of Christ, where, during the Divine Liturgy, the Holy Spirit continually descends upon the Gifts being consecrated and upon the people present? One can pray anywhere, and God hears prayers from anywhere. But it's much easier to pray in a church where everything is conducive to prayer. From there our prayers ascend to God, and the mercies of God are sent down upon us.

The construction of a church is a sacrifice to God; to allocate a parcel of land for church services is to sacrifice to God part of your personal possessions, but most of all it is a gift of your love, your zeal.

Churches are not needed by God Whose throne is heaven and Whose footstool is the earth; it is we who need them. It is we who benefit from donating towards the building of churches, although the Lord accepts not so much the substance of our alms, as much as He does our zeal; the quality of our effort. Christ approved the widow's mite, saying that she had given more than anybody else, for the rich cast in a great deal from their abundance, but she gave all she had, all her livelihood. Those alms we give in the name of God are received by God Himself. Spiritually, our alms are laid up in the treasuries of heaven, God's treasuries, from which nobody can steal them away. If someone steals any church possession, he steals from God Himself and the Lord God Himself punishes him.

At each Liturgy, those who contributed to the building of the church are commemorated. In building churches here on earth, we create for ourselves eternal habitations in heaven. Decades will pass, our bodies will decay, perhaps our very bones will turn to dust, but our souls will live eternally. Happy will they be who prepare for their souls a dwelling in the heavenly mansions. Even if the churches, which are built, fall into ruins, the names of those who contributed to their construction will be written in God's eternal books, and the prayers that arose from within these churches will be sealed.
 

     CHURCH OF GREECE

Archbishop Christodoulos of Athens and All Greece reposed in the Lord on Monday 28 January after battling with liver cancer. He was 69.

Christodoulos Paraskevaides was born in Xanthi, on 17 January 1939. He was ordained deacon in 1961 and priest in 1965 and served for a time as Secretary to the Holy Synod. He was consecrated bishop in 1974. He came to public attention in 1987, when he was invited to argue the Church's case against the Government of Andreas Papandreou over the issue of the Church's extensive land holdings which were threatened with confiscation by the Greek government. He proved to be so eloquent and persuasive that the government abandoned their plans.

He was a dynamic churchman who raised the profile of the Church of Greece. Not all of his battles were successful. He conducted a vigorous campaign with the government on the subject of identity cards. The archbishop opposed the government plan to remove details of religious affiliation from the identity cards but the government stood its ground.

Archbishop Christodoulos was a master communicator and campaigned vigorously against godless secularism. Also he was very popular with the younger generation.

His funeral took place in Athens Cathedral on Thursday 31 January. He is succeeded as Archbishop of Athens by Metropolitan Ieronymos
of Thebes & Levadia. The new archbishop was born in Oinofyta, Boeotia, on 10 March 1938. He was elected on 7 February and enthroned on 17 February.
 

     NOTES & JOTTINGS

 

PATRIARCHAL ANNIVERSARY
On 10 June, His Holiness Patriarch Alexey II of Moscow and All Russia celebrates the 18th anniversary of his enthronement. The anniversary Liturgy was celebrated in the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour which has been rebuilt. The original cathedral was demolished by Stalin in the 1930s. Since 1990 so much in Russia has changed. The Church is free to teach, preach and publish, thousands of churches and hundreds of monasteries have been re-opened or rebuilt, and there are once more chaplains appointed to hospitals and military establishments. Yet, there is no room for complacency, there is still much that needs to done to witness for Orthodoxy both in Russia and throughout the world.

MORAL VALUES
Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin of the Moscow Patriarchate's Department of External Church Relations has been speaking about human rights, a term much used by the Media. So often it is claimed that people have the right to abandon traditional morality, to engage in all sorts of licentious behaviour, to abort babies at will, and basically do whatever they want. But Fr Vsevolod reminds us that not everything people like doing is necessarily good and that morality isn't just a dull invention by outdated people. The very idea that people's human rights are infringed if they are not allowed whatever they like can be deeply a unchristian thing. What makes us human? It is our ability to recognise God that sets us apart from the rest of creation. Thus we really only exercise our human rights when we do what gives glory to God.

RIOTING IN KENYA
In the town of Nakuru, the Orthodox Church of the Holy Virgin was completely destroyed in the political unrest following the General Election in Kenya. Many church members are homeless and in great need. Clearly it will take years for some ethnic wounds to heal. It is always much easier to destroy than to build.

RUSSIAN PILGRIMAGE CENTRE IN JERUSALEM
In January it was announced that a pilgrimage centre will be built on the side of the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem. The Orthodox Palestine Society has endorsed the new development. It will be remembered that before 1917 there were huge numbers of Russians making the pilgrimage to the Holy Land. There is a fascinating book on the subject by the travel writer Stephen Graham, called With the Russian Pilgrims to Jerusalem. These pilgrimages were disrupted by World War 1, the Bolshevik Revolution and the Soviet dictatorship. Now, in happier times, pilgrimages have resumed.

PORTABLE CHURCHES
This conjures up a wonderful image but the term is a little misleading, rather like mobile home. Probably prefabricated would be more accurate. In Russia prefabricated wooden churches are now being used to help solve the crisis caused by insufficient numbers of churches in some areas. The style is traditional and there are two sizes. The smaller one has a floor space of 49 square meters and a height of 12 meters. The website is www.russia-ic.com/news/show/6053/#comment_2862
We wrote to the manufactures to ask if they have a scheme to export these churches but, to date, have received no reply. However, we have been told that there should soon be a website about this scheme. It seemed to us that modestly sized churches, at a reasonable price, could be useful to a number of provincial communities in Britain. So the next question arising is to ask whether such churches could be manufactured in this country at a competitive price. Then all that is needed is a plot of land and planning permission. We are researching into various aspects of the subject, including the possibility of manufacturing the churches in this country, and we will publish anything we discover that could be useful.

SYNAXIS OF THE SAINTS OF BRITAIN AND IRELAND
At the session of the Holy Synod, which took place in Moscow on 21 August last year, it was resolved to establish the feast of All Saints of Britain and Ireland on the third Sunday after Pentecost.

SAINT JOHN OF KRONSTADT
The year 2008 marks the centenary of the repose of St John of Kronstadt. To mark this anniversary SGOIS has published a booklet A Month with St John of Kronstadt. Don't forget to order your copy.

ARCHIMANDRITE LAZARUS TAPES
We have heard that recordings of several talks by Fr Lazarus are now available. It appears that these are in audio cassette form rather than as a CD. Check it out - the website is www.orthodoxtapes.org

EMBRYONIC RESEARCH
The proposed new law will allow scientists to produce human/animal hybrid embryos and there has been an averse reaction to this from various religious sources. But should anyone be surprised that the British government is adding just one more thing to an already over-long list of anti- Christian policies?

LENTEN MEALS
It was reported that every day, six or seven different fasting foods are on the menu in the various Kremlin canteens and are popular choices. In the Orthodox Church, Great Lent is observed strictly with a vegan diet. Easter Day, this year, is on 27 April.

NORTH POLE
Archbishop Ignaty of Petropavlovsk and Kamchatka visited the North Pole in early April and celebrated the first Divine Liturgy there in a specially constructed tent. The party of 15 people also included two priests and a deacon from the Kamchatka Diocese. This demonstrated that the witness of Christianity can reach even the remotest places.

METROPOLITAN KALLISTOS (Ware)
Metropolitan Kallistos has been lecturing in the Western coastal states of America. Whilst there, he made a special pilgrimage to venerate the relics of Vladika St John the Wonderworker, who was instrumental in his conversion to Orthodoxy. He was present at the All-Night Vigil in San Francisco's Holy Virgin Cathedral on Saturday 23 February. Later, on Wednesday 5 March, he interrupted his busy schedule to visit St Nicholas Russian Orthodox Cathedral in Seattle. He was greeted by the cathedral's dean, Archpriest Alex Kotar and shown the room in which Vladika St John reposed. The room is now preserved as a chapel.

IKON PUBLISHED
An ikon of St Alkmund, the work of the ikonographer Aidan Hart, has been published by the Russian Orthodox Community of St David in Derby. These are available at 20p each.

ORTHODOX NEWS
Owing to pressure of work, your editor failed to publish the Winter issue after Christmas and the Spring issue after Easter. Symptoms of ill health were put down to tiredness and ignored. The result was a week in hospital with pulmonary embolism; a serious case because it was not just a blood clot but a whole array of them spread throughout both lungs. According to a hospital doctor, many patients do not survive when the condition is so severe. Another doctor said "you are a very lucky man". I did not actually contradict but I thought "luck has nothing to do with it - this is the mercy of God through the prayers of Vladika St John the Wonderworker". I am now, of course, on Anticoagulant Therapy for the foreseeable future, but I am feeling fine with no sign of the breathlessness that has been so debilitating for so many months. Glory to God! In July, SGOIS will publish the text of the Akathist in honour of St John the Wonderworker.
Some of the articles prepared for the Winter and Spring issues of ON now appear rather out of date. Please forgive us.
 

Fr Dcn Andrew

     LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Sir,
Some of you already know that we have been busy over the last year getting ready to open a small Orthodox Press, and we happy to let you know that Anaphora Press now has a fully active website that is open for e-commerce and has made a good beginning about iconography, music and writing, which we hope to expand over time. Our first two publications, a book of poetry by Christopher called "Mysteries of Silence" and a liturgical CD called "Cherubika" which Macrina worked on, are now available and we have learned a lot in this process!

Stop in when you have a chance, and see what we have been up to. May God richly bless you during this season of the Fast.
 

Christopher and Macrina Lewis
www.anaphorapress.com