BISHOPS' COUNCIL OF IPTs(S) ADOPTS STATEMENT ON SITUATION WITH UKRAINIAN AUTOCEPHALY AND DECIDES TO HOLD MIATLEVO READINGS
Credo.Press, 18 September 2018
A number of programmatic decisions were adopted by the Bishops' Council of the centralized religious organization of the True Orthodox Church (also known as the synod of Schema-Metropolitan Serafim) [Istinno-Pravoslavnaia Tserkov—IPTs(S)], whose session was held on 16 September in the hall of the church councils of the St. John the Forerunner stauropegial monastery in the suburban Moscow village of Denezhnikovo. A Credo.Press correspondent reports that the sessions of the Bishops' Council and the Holy Synod of the IPTs(S) were held on 16-17 September within the framework of celebrations of the twelfth anniversary of the consecration of the cathedral church of the monastery.
In the morning of Sunday, 16 September, in the cathedral church of St. John the Forerunner the Divine Liturgy was conducted, led by Schema-Metropolitan of Moscow Serafim and concelebrated by Metropolitan of Solnechnogorsk and Klin Mark, Metropolitan of the North Caucasus and Black Sea Andrei, Archbishop of Tula and Voronezh Ioanniky, Archbishop of Dnepropetrovsk and Zaporozhe Grigory, Bishop of Boguslav Luka, Bishop of Vladimir and Orekhovo-Zuev Vikenty, and Bishop of Krasnogorsk Sergius. They were joined by more than 10 priests and deacons. The locum tenens of the IPTs(S), Metropolitan of Penza and Simbirsk Tikhon, heard the confessions of parishioners in the church. Upon the conclusion of the liturgy there was a procession of the cross throughout the entire territory of the monastery and the refectory.
The founder of the portal Credo.Press, Alexander Soldatov, who is a member of the Ukrainian Association of Religious Studies, described for the Bishops' Council the situation that has arisen in Ukraine and Russia in connection with the preparation of the Constantinople patriarchate for granting autocephaly to the Ukrainian Church, which has already led to a partial severance of canonical fellowship between the RPTsMP and the Constantinople church. The council adopted a statement in connection with the fundamental changes of the map of "world Orthodoxy," which will be published after the conclusion of the work of an editorial commission that was created by the council. In the opinion of bishops of the IPTs(S), the intention of the RPTsMP to condemn the Constantinople patriarchate for the heresy of ecumenism and modernism does not by any means signify a "return" of this religious organization to True Orthodoxy, inasmuch as it is not accompanied by repentance and a renunciation of "sergianism," which actually provoked the division of the Russian church in the 1920s and 1930s.
The Bishops' Council appointed temporary administrators for orphaned dioceses: the Perm diocese will be administered by Hegumen Nikodim and the Cherkasia (Ukraine) diocese by Archpriest Mark.
After listening to a speech by a representative of the community of True-Orthodox Christians "Ershovy," about the veneration of the catacomb ascetic Mikhail Ershov, who spent more than 40 years in soviet prisons and camps for his faith, the council decided to study his life and writings in order to make a subsequent judgment about the possibility of his canonization. Also the council supported the initiative of Skhema-Metropolitan Serafim for reviving the tradition of Miatlevo Readings of True-Orthodox Christians, which were held earlier in the church consecrated to the "Joy of all the Sorrowing" icon of the Mother of God in the village of Miatlevo of Kaluga oblast (belonging to the Bishops' Conference of the RPATs [Russian Orthodox Autonomous Church]). The next readings are scheduled for 16 December in the monastery in Denezhnikovo.
The next day, 17 September, a session of the Holy Synod of the IPTs(S) was held, the resolutions of which will be published later. (tr. by PDS, posted 18 September 2018)
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