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ROCOR‘s going to cease to exist as an independent body… but the ROCOR will still live. It’s very much, “The King is dead; long live the King!” In short, the awkward transition will end. The ROCOR’s legal framework (if nothing else) is well-worth salvaging. However, the ROCOR that stabbed the Rodina in the back in ’91 WILL cease to exist, although we’ll still have to deal with some hardhead rightwing remnants. For instance, the Centre will leave Potapov alone until retirement, then, it’ll make certain that no new priest works for the American special services. ROCOR will be nothing more than what its name implies… the parishes of the MP outside of the territory of the former USSR. There’ll be no more Vitaly Ustinovs… God willing, we’ll see Psaryov and Larina brought to heel. Yes, the ROCOR will live… but it’ll no longer be the “Jordanville” Church… I think that you know what I mean.
I sense that the Centre has settled on the ROCOR as its vehicle for uniting the diaspora. This isn’t the ROCOR of pre-2007, nor is it the present ROCOR (a very transitional body, indeed). Mind you, the “new” ROCOR will build on the positive achievements of Antony Khrapovitsky, Anastasy Gribanovsky, and Philaret Voznesensky. It’ll also draw on solid Metropolia legacies from Leonty Turkevich and Iriney Bekish. It’ll reject all that was wrong, especially the crook legacies of Vitaly Ustinov and Aleksandr Schmemann (and his puppeteer Meyendorff).
That is, the ROCOR that’s “aborning” is going to be a big-tent church with a wide sweep, not a small band of unsmiling zealots. No, it won’t be “daddy’s ROCOR”… that’s why it’s going to attract all decent Russian Orthodox Christians in the diaspora. We’ll all join because we want to… not because we’re going to be forced to. Watch for Mark Golovkov to get a white hat and be the effectual leader of the ROCOR (Hilarion Kapral will remain in Australasia and remain First Hierarch until his death).
This is going to be an exciting event, if the Centre can pull it off… I, for one, pray that it does.
Barbara-Marie Drezhlo
Thursday 18 October 2012
Albany NY
