The New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia: Their Significance for People in the West [Cath-Orth]

Thank you for posting the icon and the explanations.

The non-Orthodox should also know that MP stands for Moscow Patriarchate — I neglected to explain it in my first post using the acronym. The more full name that makes it clear which is which is Russian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate), as opposed to several Russian Orthodox Churches that inherited from the White Movement, did not enter into the 2007 agreement with MP, and have never collaborated with the Soviets.

the nationalist, who identifies America with abstractions like freedom and democracy, may think it’s precisely America’s mission to spread those abstractions around the world — to impose them by force, if necessary. In his mind, those abstractions are universal ideals

In this we discern the difference between faith (not necessarily Christian faith but faith as a cognitive tool in general) -- and ideology. My faith is what I experience through my life; it is good for the faith to be catholic, -- held in common with the Church Eternal, but even a faith outside of religion, for example, faith in a certain ideal such as freedom, or the love for the Anglo-Saxons or for the Belgians from your post, or the Russians, -- is always a living and therefore self-correcting thing. Now, it does not mean I figure out my faith as I go along in the fashion of some religious sects, but I verify, for example, my prayer life and my confessional life by the results my life gives me. The metaphor would be a journey along a road that winds along the landscape instead of cutting through, defying all practicality, in a straight line.

Ideology cannot likewise adapt. People whose patriotism becomes an ideology have lost the ability to develop as the history progresses. An ideological system, periodically, faces a cognitive disconnect. Then it is best that it is destroyed, but unless faith replaces it, the next ideology will in due course likewise perish.

These are not my thoughts, I am retelling something I read earlier today on, what else, a Moscow Church of the Martyrs and the Confessors of Russia (non-MP) site by one Andrushkevich, and he says he got it from Ortega y Gasset.

On this a distinction can be build between a monarch and a constitution. Both are somewhat similar governing principles, except it is in the living person of the king that the nation can find its historical existence in a way constitutional legalisms cannot provide.

This is the Sutton link

WALL STREET AND THE BOLSHEVIK REVOLUTION

PREFACE

Since the early 1920s, numerous pamphlets and articles, even a few books, have sought to forge a link between "international bankers" and "Bolshevik revolutionaries." Rarely have these attempts been supported by hard evidence, and never have such attempts been argued within the framework of a scientific methodology. Indeed, some of the "evidence" used in these efforts has been fraudulent, some has been irrelevant, much cannot be checked. Examination of the topic by academic writers has been studiously avoided; probably because the hypothesis offends the neat dichotomy of capitalists versus Communists (and everyone knows, of course, that these are bitter enemies). Moreover, because a great deal that has been written borders on the absurd, a sound academic reputation could easily be wrecked on the shoals of ridicule. Reason enough to avoid the topic.
Fortunately, the State Department Decimal File, particularly the 861.00 section, contains extensive documentation on the hypothesized link. When the evidence in these official papers is merged with nonofficial evidence from biographies, personal papers, and conventional histories, a truly fascinating story emerges.
We find there was a link between some New York international bankers and many revolutionaries, including Bolsheviks. These banking gentlemen — who are here identified — had a financial stake in, and were rooting for, the success of the Bolshevik Revolution.
Who, why — and for how much — is the story in this book.
Antony C. Sutton
March 1974

...a Moscow Church of the Martyrs and the Confessors of Russia...

That's actually church of New Martyrs and Confessors (i.e. during and after the Russian Revolution...)

This church is under Metropolitan Agafangel; the only bishop (at least 3 other bishops said they would not go into communion with the MP, but they were persuaded otherwise--) at the ROCA All Diasphora Church Council held at San Francisco in 2006 to not go into union with the MP.

Also, for those of you who missed this, the author, spoke of the catholic, ie, universal church; in context this is the Orthodox Church.

Also, in your reply to me, you refer to those non MP Russian Orthodox Churches as a descent of the White movement. I think that is a bit of an overstatement. We, the non-MP, Russian Orthodox churches of various jurisdictions are just trying to keep true to Orthodoxy; not give in to worldly power, as dictated by the MP. There are major theological differences between them and us going principly back to Metropolitan Sergius' subservience of the church to soviet power. Yes, many of us are indeed pro monarchy, but it is theological issues that separate us from the MP, not issues of which form of government is better.

I hope this clarifies a few points.

Metropolitan Philaret, last of the great ROCA metropolitans.

I think that is a bit of an overstatement

Right. Of course I did not mean spiritual descent, but merely the historical fact that after MP fell into sergianism the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad (or "Outside Russia"), whose flock was primarily the White emigration of the first wave became THE canonical remnant of the historical Russian Orthodox Church.

The schism inside ROCA is very painful to watch, even to a Roman Catholic.

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