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There are going to be many puzzling events in the near future in Church affairs. Keep calm; keep centred in your parish. No matter what happens to this-or-that national structure, your parish is going to be what it’s always been. If we keep our parishes on the up-and-square, trust me, that’s what’s going to pull us through the coming days.
In any case, our existing parishes are what the future new Church is going have its foundation upon. We survived the chaos of the Russian Revolution, we survived the lunacy of Schmemann and Grabbe, we survived the nasty doings of Gleb Podmoshensky and Sam Greene, and we shall survive Storheim and Paffhausen. The heart of Russian Orthodoxy in America is strong. At present, we have the wheat and tares mixed together… the saintly are cheek-to-jowl with parasites; the phonies drown out the spiritual. It looks like “business as usual”, for the indefinite future. Yet, the coming ferment will be useful. We’ll find out who’s naughty and who’s nice… we might even get to the bottom of the Iliff and Ephraim (here and here) affairs.
Our parishes have lived through chaos before. What’s coming up is child’s play… the end of the OCA and the ROCOR as they’re presently constituted will only affect a small number of First Family poseurs. As for the rest of us, Home is a very good place to be… HH and the Mother Church are calling us to be One, after all.
BMD
