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by Vladimir Rozanskij
The Metropolitan of Singapore Sergij
(Chashin), of Russian obedience, writes an open letter to the
metropolitan of Seoul Amvrosios (Zografos), linked to Constantinople.
There are not two "parallel churches", but the traditional Russian
mission in Asia.
The patriarchate of Moscow increasingly proposes itself as the true orthodox church of "universal" jurisdiction.
The patriarchate of Moscow increasingly proposes itself as the true orthodox church of "universal" jurisdiction.
Moscow (AsiaNews) - On August 27 last, the Metropolitan of
Singapore Sergij (Chashin), a Russian Orthodox exarch (in the center in
the picture), defended the creation of the ecclesiastical region of
South-East Asia. In an open letter to the Metropolitan of Seoul
Amvrosios (Zografos), exarch for South-East Asia of the patriarchate of
Constantinople, he states that the reason for forming the region for
which he is responsible is not to create a "parallel Church", but to
renew the spiritual mission of the Russian Orthodox Church in those
territories.
The open letter is the reply to an interview with Amvrosios last
April, published on the website The Orthodox World. In the interview,
the exarch of Constantinopolitan obedience expressed doubts about the
creation of the new ecclesiastical region of Russian obedience, which
took place last December 28th, after the approval of the new Ukrainian
Church, which Moscow had opposed.
In the letter released on the Pravoslavie.ru, Sergij recalls
that " today we speak not of the establishment of a “parallel Church”
but of the restoration of the ecclesiastical mission of the Russian
Orthodox Church. It is conditioned by the historical process of revival
of the Russian Church which suffered under the yoke of the godless power
for seventy years and by the need to provide pastoral care to our
compatriots in all parts of the globe including Asia, as well as by the
impossibility of our flock at present to partake of the Mysteries in the
Church of Constantinople as it has entered into communion with
schismatics and invaded the canonical bounds of the Moscow Patriarchate
in Ukraine ".
According to the Russian metropolitan, the patriarchate of Moscow
received numerous letters and appeals from the Russians living in Seoul
and in the other provinces of Korea, with the request to offer the
services of the Church. Speaking generally of the Russian Church in
Southeast Asia, he recalled that "Russian priests began their pastoral
ministry in China in 1685, St. Nicholas (Kasatkin) came to Japan in
1861, and the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in Korea was established in
1897. Russian parishes appeared in Indonesia in 1934; in the same year,
a parish was opened in Manila. St. John (Maximovitch) of Shanghai
celebrated the first Divine services in Vietnam in 1949. This is only
some of the documentary evidence of the beginning of the Russian
Church’s mission in the countries of South and Southeast Asia during
which no other Orthodox Church was represented".
It is also recalled that "the historical fact is also that for
hundreds of years not a single complaint or reproach has come to the
Russian Church from her Orthodox brothers as to our actions in Asia up
to the recent times when the Patriarch of Constantinople has changed his
ecclesiology and wished, instead of being “the first among equals” to
become “the first without equals.”. In this regard, the gratitude
letters of the Patriarchs of Jerusalem in Nikolaj of Japan are
mentioned, where the local Church is considered "daughter" of the
Russian one.
Sergij also recalls the special "friendship relationship" between the
Russian and Korean people. The current mission would be an attempt to
"revive the spiritual closeness between our peoples", forcibly
interrupted after the Second World War due to the American occupation,
and to the subjugation of the Korean leadership at the time. In this
sense, the Russian metropolitan turns his accusation of enslavement of
the Church towards politics towards his "colleague": "you prefer not to
see the political nature of your Church’s actions in Ukraine, but you
speak of a political nature of the actions of the Moscow Patriarchate in
Korea... in many countries in Europe and America, which do not belong
to the canonical territory of a particular Church, there are several
coexisting bishops of various Local Churches, and this does not present
an unsurmountable obstacle for their ministry and common witness to
Christ".
The Russian Church, concludes the metropolitan, has always solved all
the questions of collaboration with the other Churches with dialogue
and common sense, without imposing unacceptable conditions on anyone
even where its faithful represent the majority of the Orthodox in a
given region. The accusations of Amvrosios thus appear "groundless".
The tone of the letter shows that the patriarchate of Moscow
increasingly proposes itself as the true "universal" Orthodox
jurisdiction, capable of attracting all the other "sister Churches" to
itself, in clear opposition to the ecumenical patriarchate of
Constantinople.
