St Nicholas Russian Orthodox Cathedral, Nice in France
Paris, 15 May 2008 (Interfax):
The head of the so-called Russian Exarchate in Western Europe under the Ecumenical Patriarchate, Archbishop Gabriel of Comnana, barred Lydia Plas from Holy Communion for an indeterminate period. Mme Plas is a parishioner of St Nicholas Cathedral in Nice and the former secretary of the church council of the Russian Orthodox Association of Nice (ACOR). The EP bishop took this step after Mme Plas wrote an article in one of the March issues of the newspaper Russkaya Mysl (Russian Thought) entitled “A Russian Church of Surprising Beauty”. This piece dealt with the contemporary parish life of the cathedral in Nice. In particular, it explored the activities of its present rector, Archpriest Hans Heidt, and it looked at his relations with the parishioners.
In the opinion of Mme Plas, the rector and clergy of the cathedral took a frankly Russophobic stance, they wish to “obliterate Russian traditions and eradicate them”. As a result, in parish life, “anything that is Russian is blocked and restricted”. Furthermore, Fr Hans, who was assigned to St Nicholas Cathedral by Bishop Gabriel himself, undertook to establish a “new order” at the parish from the very first day of his arrival. Mme Plas noted that Fr Hans used “intimidation and threats, and humiliated all who disagreed with him”. The parishioners sent letters to both Bishop Gabriel and the Patriarch Bartholomew of the EP asking for the return of their former rector, Fr Vladimir Jagiello, but, their letters remained unanswered.
“There is no place for us in our native church; it is now filled with those who arrived with the new administration… We do not want this new ‘universal Orthodoxy’, which is pushed with such vehemence by our rector and archbishop. If we are so despised by our hierarchs that we are found unworthy of an answer, many of us are forced to leave our churches. These are churches where we spent all our lives, where we cried many a tear, where in the past we said so many prayers”, Mme Plas wrote. She also noted with regret that when the late Metropolitan Laurus, the head of the ROCOR, visited St Nicholas Cathedral on 16 February, “the rector and those about him did not even deign to inform the parishioners of this. In the words of the rector, this was a ‘special and private’ visit. The only people who met the metropolitan were the rector and his friends. But, we, the parishioners, were not invited. We deeply regret that not only did we not have the chance to receive a blessing from the metropolitan, but, we also protest the modest, if not pitiful, welcome shown to him. We ask Vladyki Laurus to forgive us for such a meeting”, Mme Plas stated in her article.
Interfax-Religion
http://www.interfax-religion.ru/?act=news&div=24463 (in Russian)
Editor’s Note:
There one has it. This group in Paris is the idol of the OCA. Therefore, note the similarities in how the EP Parisians treated Mme Plas and how the OCA treated the Alaska situation and other things roiling at the moment. I note a similar contempt for tradition and the common faithful in the leadership of both bodies. Let those with eyes see.
