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The Orthodox Are Coming!
Nicolai N. Petro

The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming! was a 1966 Hollywood spoof
of Cold War attitudes. It portrays a Soviet submarine crew stranded on the
coast of Maine. The Soviet sailors end up winning over the local
townspeople, who even help the sub to escape before U.S. Air Force planes
arrive to sink it. The movie made light of the differences between Russians
and Americans by suggesting that they had much more in common than they
realized.

As improbable as that story seemed back in 1966, an even more momentous
encounter is currently taking place in Europe. Thanks to the expansion of
the European Union, millions of Orthodox Christians now have a seat at the
table of European decision-making bodies. The admission of Romania and
Bulgaria will quadruple the number of Orthodox Christians in the EU, from
ten million to more than forty million, but this is just the tip of a very
large iceberg. Should the EU continue to expand eastward, it could someday
encompass as many as 200 million Orthodox believers, transforming Orthodox
Christianity from a quaint minority into the largest denomination in Europe,
with the Russian Orthodox Church as its pre-eminent political voice. This
will be true regardless of whether Russia itself joins the EU, since more
than half of its parishes are located outside Russia. For the first time
since before the fall of Constantinople, Orthodox polities are part of the
decision making structures of Europe, yet little thought has been given to
the impact this is likely to have on the political complexion of Europe.

There are some potentially worrisome aspects to this encounter. For one
thing, the political weight of the Church within those countries is not
declining, as it is in Western Europe, but growing. Orthodox faithful expect
to have their voice heard within the European political institutions of
which they are now a part, and this poses a direct challenge to the secular
framework of the EU. Moreover, with the fall of communism, the various
branches of Christianity are once again in direct competition for members.
Religious proselytism has already emerged as a source of tensions in several
Orthodox countries. Finally, while most take it for granted that people in
Eastern Europe will follow the Western path of modernization, it is
certainly worth pondering what impact the values of Orthodox Eastern Europe
will have on the West, and the potential danger of an intra-European clash
of cultures, if a common ground is not found.

There are many who believe that there is, in fact, no common ground to be
found. Following in the footsteps of historians Oswald Spengler and Arnold
Toynbee, Samuel Huntington has warned of the coming clash between
Slavic-Orthodox civilization and the Catholic-Protestant West. He claims
that basic Western cultural values (individualism, liberalism,
constitutionalism, human rights, equality, liberty, the rule of law,
democracy, free markets, the separation of church and state) have little
currency within Orthodox cultures. In his view there is a slim chance that
Orthodox countries can join the West, but only if they recast their
self-identity in clearly secular terms. Huntington portrays the Eastern and
Western halves of Europe as profoundly alien, and the eastern boundary of
Western Christianity [as] . . . the most significant dividing line in
Europe.

Recently, however, a much more hopeful assessment has begun to gain ground
in both Western and Eastern Europe. It advocates a broader view of the
process of European integration, by suggesting that the Western and Eastern
branches of Christianity focus less on what has divided them, and more on
re-acquiring the common cultural heritage that once united them. Most people
realize that the common cultural legacy begins with Roman law and Greek
philosophy, and that both contributed to the stability of the Byzantine
Empire. Few, however, stop to consider its contribution to the theology of
the Christian Church and its doctrines on Church-State relations in
particular. Of special importance is the evolving Orthodox view of democracy
and civil society, which can be most clearly traced in the Russian Orthodox
Church because of its size and its impact on the whole Orthodox world.

According to senior spokesman for the Patriarch Alexey II, Fr. Vsevolod
(Chaplin), there is a renewed appreciation of democracy within the Russian
Orthodox Church. Democratic institutions allow the Church to carry out its
social mission more effectively, and to voice concern about the decay of
moral standards in post-Soviet Russia. Still, he says, Orthodoxys
endorsement of democracy can only be a qualified one. Democracy,
particularly secular democracy, can never be considered a proper ideal,
because the Church can never accept as ideal any form of government that
consciously separates itself from the divine. However, there are two notable
elements in Church life that directly contribute to the democratization of
society: 1) the locus of its authority; and 2) its stewardship of the
community.

Unlike Roman Catholicism, Orthodoxy is highly decentralized and dispersed.
There is no supreme papal authority overseeing the fifteen autocephalous
Local Orthodox Churches. Ultimate authority rests with Church Councils that
bring together the entire religious communityboth laity and clergy. Within
that context, bishops are expected to administer their diocese in harmony
with the will of both these groups. Historically, such administration has
taken a wide variety of forms in Russia from thoroughly hierarchical control
to extensive popular control, including consensual investiture of bishops.
The form deemed most suitable depends on the needs of the particular Church,
and the community's prevalent political culture. In the present context of
expanding democracy, the Russian Orthodox Church has responded by expanding
dialogue on ways in which Church life should democratize.

A new generation of Western scholars on religion (Zoe Knox, Christopher
Marsh, Elizabeth Prodromou, Nikolas Gvosdev) have even applied Western
literature on civil society to contemporary Orthodoxy. By looking at the
Churchs highly delegative, almost confederative system of administration,
and focusing on its community-centered initiatives, they argue that the
Russian Orthodox Church is playing an important role as the countrys largest
civic organization. In this capacity the ROC has also had to come to terms
with de facto religious pluralism of modern Russia. Following the collapse
of the atheistic communist regime, Orthodox laity was exposed to a wide
variety of new political and economic doctrines, including some from
Orthodox communities outside Russia. In the absence of a clear consensus,
the leadership of the ROC decided to give up the role of the institutional
Church as a political competitor, and to establish it as a neutral arbiter.
As a result, the Church itself has become a place of dialogue, a space
existing outside the state, the government, or the family, devoted to the
preservation of an autonomous sphere for the individual, and a protector of
the inherent foundations of human freedom from the arbitrary rule of outside
forces. Nikolas Gvosdev quite correctly sees this as a theological
endorsement of civil society.

Indeed, Orthodox communities seem much more comfortable with the ideals of
civil society than they do with those of liberal democracy. One reason is
that they see the latter as rooted in competition and confrontation, while
the Church strives for community and harmony, a tradition that Fr. Vsevolod
calls gathering the scattered (literally, in Church Slavonic, sobrati
rastochennaya)bringing people of differing ethnic, political and social
persuasion together for the common welfare. Avoiding confrontation with
state authority is deeply ingrained in the theology of Orthodoxy, stemming
from the Byzantine view that, pace St. Augustine, the gap between the City
of God and the City of Man can and should be overcome. Societies on earth
should strive to be a "reflection" of the heavenly realm, and to accomplish
this Church and State must work together for the good of the whole
community.

The Orthodox Church does not shun the world, or abstain from politics. Its
politics, however, are non-partisan, a call to calming of political
passions, and concern for peace and harmony and to civic dialogue. A typical
example is the Russian Orthodox Churchs efforts to mediate the political
crisis between Boris Yeltsin and the State Duma in 1993. Orthodox church
leaders have played similar role in the political crises in Serbia,
Bulgaria, Georgia and, most recently, Ukraine.
The issue of the Orthodox Church's stewardship of the community also poses
the question of whether Orthodoxy is compatible with capitalist economic
development and a global market economy, which many consider as vital to
democratic development. While Max Weber stressed the otherworldly aspects of
Orthodox cultures (as he did with Islam, Hinduism and Catholicism), economic
developments in Russia suggest that the notion of Orthodox Christian
stewardship affords ample room for business and economic development. In
fact, the rebirth of Russian Orthodoxy (from 7,000 parishes in the early
1990s to more than 26,000 today) has coincided with a no less impressive
economic upsurge, particularly since 1999. Record-breaking productivity
growth, rapid increases in domestic investment, and a tripling of wages
nationwide since 2000 have been matched by a seven-fold increase in
corporate philanthropy, which Patriarch Alexey II has highlighted as vital
to the nation. Clearly, Orthodoxy has been good
for business.

We, in Catholic-Protestant West, should prepare for the coming of the
Orthodox Century" by appreciating all that unites us. If the dividing line
between East and West continues to exist in our hearts and minds, removing
it from the political map of Europe will accomplish very little. In the long
run Europeans must become much better educated about their common Byzantine
and Eastern Christian heritage. Even in the short run, however, the
essential elements of this common inheritance can be used to shore up
pan-European democratic institutions. Recent scholarship by Silvia Ronchey,
Helene Ahrweiler, and Antonio Carile, provide a conceptual link between
Byzantine political thought and the modern age, and highlight how much
current European aspirations to pluri-culturalism and subsidiarity (the idea
that matters should be handled by the lowest competent authority), have in
common with the Byzantine political model.

The worst possible solution would be to cling to a clash of cultures view
that regards Orthodoxy as anti-modern and anti-western. This can only result
in Orthodox believers feeling like strangers in the common European home
they have just joined. If that occurs, we will have succeeded only in
pushing the dividing line through the heart of Europe a little further east
of where it was before.

Nicolai N. Petro is professor of political science at the University of
Rhode Island (USA). His most recent book is Crafting Democracy (Cornell
University Press, 2004), available in both English and Russian.

Dear Father Thomas,

When is Patriarch Alexey II coming to the U.S.?

No one on the Forum can answer if his Beatitude even travels outside the MP.

If he stays at home, I am puzzled why he does not visit the ROC throughout the world.

Sincerely,

Paul

Patriarch Alexey was supposed to come to the US a couple years ago for the reconsecration of St. Nicholas Patriarchal Cathedral in NYC. For health reasons, I think, he had to cancel his trip.

Dave

His Holiness has been here several times, but I am not aware of any trips that are currently planned. His health has been a concern for several years now, and he has seen a doctor in the US for his heart condition.

However, we should also be aware that extensively travels within Russia. It is a massive country, spanning 10 or so time zones. His flock is enormous, and has more than enough on his plate, I am sure...

Priest Thomas

I think couple years ago I read something that
Alexy 11 used to be a KBG agent.... I wonder if our Government put him on radar screen. Oh isnt that Putin too used to be a KGB agent as well?
Isnt that a concern a concern as well?

Randy, CHRIST IS RISEN! Thanks be to God, there is such a thing as FORGIVENESS and REPENTANCE in the Church of Christ...and this expresses God's overwhelming mercy and love for mankind! Ever take a look at the first twelve bishops of the Church??? Three feel asleep on Our Lord when He needed them most, on the night before He died, one denied Him THREE TIMES the same night, and twelve ran and hid in the 'upper room' while He was enduring the Passion and death! (St. John was the ONLY one to come around later and stand by the Cross...and he was only a boy comparatively speaking.) But NONE of us need worry...because the Lord forgives us each of uus and always holds out hope...that we will do better with our future, than we did in the past.

All Glory be to the Risen Saviour for having given us the possibility of repentance and change of heart...and for always forgiving us and granting us His mercy!

In The Risen Lord,
+Fr. Gregory

Dear Fr. Thomas,

That was an interesting article, but I don't agree with its culminating point: that the coming century will be an �Orthodox century.� I'm lousy at predications, but that seems a stretch even to me. I can't begin to characterize an entire century around the planet in this era of massive change by the minute. Perhaps part of the next 100 years will be characterizeable as a Chinese century, since they seem to be rising to superpower status. And part of it will be an Indian century, for the same reason. And part of it will be the American century. Those are just political examples. Religiously, the numbers of Muslims around the world (including in Europe) are also increasing. Likewise is true about Evangelical and Pentecostal Protestants. Etc. So, I definitely agree with the article that Orthodoxy is alive and well and even growing. And, I agree that it will have a strong role to play in the world, especially in Europe. But, an "Orthodox Century"? I don't think so. There are plenty of other forces (religious and political) that are growing too and that will continue to affect the world too.

--John

Fr,Gregory,

I agree that there is forgiveness.... but, do you think our Governemt ignore the fact that Alexy 11 and Putin used to be a KGB agent? If they killed someone... dont you think that would be a grave sin? Would there still be a forgiveness ? taking someone life?

Randy, where there is repentance and confession and absolution, there, God forgives. Whether or not the Governments in question keep Alexy II on the watchlist is irrelevant to God's forgiveness. In any case, the state of Patriarch Alexy's soul is NOT, thank heaven, our concern.

Gaudior, no fan of the MP, by anystretch of the imagination.

Imagine if it the article is true... that its Orthodox Century ...and Russian Orthodox Church the largest orthodox church have control with the European Union.....and Alexy and his KBG colleague finally back in power.... dont you think that is mind bugging?
Here are some articles that I found.....

Scope of the problems

We have a generation of people who have had absolutely no religious training. We have a church which is faced with the restoration of thousands of temples with no help from the government. We have a church which is faced with enormous moral problems. We all read in the press not too long ago the fact that many of the bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church were close collaborators of the KGB and the communist party of the Soviet Union, unfortunately. I need to qualify that statement to include not only bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church but Baltic Catholics and the Protestant evangelical churches. Father Gleb Yakunin, vice-chairman of the parliamentary commission studying the role of the social structures in Russia, says that 3,000 people within the evangelical community collaborated with the KGB. Especially prevalent were collaborators among the Moslem religions in Russia.

These problems need to be addressed. This collaboration, if it hasn't stopped, needs to be put to a halt because, from a spiritual point of view, I cannot imagine a bishop or a priest who is a collaborator building a strong spiritual life. Dr. Billington spoke of the recognition of the new martyrs of Russia. Only a handful of martyrs were recognized at that ceremony. We know that in this century the Russian Orthodox Church gave to the repository of world Christian spirituality more martyrs than in the first centuries of Roman persecution of the early church. Unfortunately, the Moscow patriarch has not recognized the vast majority of martyrs. A commission set up to study and collect materials on the martyrdom of Russian Christians has come up with a ludicrous idea that these martyrs need to be politically rehabilitated before they can be formally canonized by the church.

The leaders of the Russian Orthodox Church are all people who are chosen for their posts during the Brezhnev era, before perestroika. We know through numerous documents that were smuggled out to the West before perestroika and now through the revelations concerning the complicity of the church, the KGB and the communist party that every single person who held an important position in the church was carefully filtered by the KGB. I am skeptical that these people are capable of leading the church to a genuine revival.


READ MORE

http://guweb.georgetown.edu/centers/woodstock/report/r-fea31.htm


RUSSIAN PATRIARCH WAS KGB AGENT, FILES SAY
Patriarch Alexiy II received KGB "Certificate of Honour"
by Seamus Martin
The Irish Times, 23 September 2000


READ MORE:
http://www.orthodox.net/russia/2000-09-23-irish-times.html
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
RUSSIA: The head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Alexiy II of Moscow and All Russia, was a long-serving KGB agent and even received the agency's "Certificate of Honor", according to archive documents left behind by the Soviet spy agency in Estonia

Randy,

I respect your freedom of speech, but I ask that you refrain from making a KGB-MP connection on the Forum.

The majority of us on the Forum long for Christian unity, as our Lord prayed for. The ROC is a sister church and part of our family, yet in an imperfect bond.

Conspiracy theories are endless, government, intelligence agencies, media, churches of every denomination, et al.

Once, When I criticized a Protestant church, I was properly corrected by a brother: If you don't have something good to say, remain silent.
I have taken that correction to heart.

Please know that I still welcome you and value your participation on the Forum.

Sincerely,

Paul

Ok,,, thanks.. I keep that in mind... just wondering about the article on Orthodox Century. I be careful next time.... thanks and mahalo... aloha...

I find the article to be quite interesting, if not only a piece of speculation that has yet to come to fruition.

My concern is that some are making judgements regarding the Patriarch, and his past association with the communist KGB. Though this has probably tainted his witness, we must remember that conversion comes to all. He has displayed nothing but love in the past 10 years, having built peace and order in a post-communist church. He has approved if not promoted the veneration of the new martyrs of the communist yoke. He has overseen rebuilding the spiritual life of a church that was enslaved. Now, he is desperately trying to heal a schism that goes back over 85 years with ROCOR.

To me it sounds like a man converted, one that has ask for God's forgiveness, and is trying to promote a witness for his church and to rebuild it. You may not like the man's past, but to make conjecture that he was involved in murder, etc. is outright slander without facts.

I am not the greatest fan of him or the church of Russia, but I respect him for what he has been able to do.

We should afford respect to him as the holder of an office the comes with a weighty miter. He will have to account for his actions or inactions to the Almighty on the day of judgement, but what we seem to be doing is playing the Almighty and passing judgement ourselves.

What we need to do, is pray for him, that the Lord guides him daily in his ministry, that He truly helps the faithful he leads to make a spiritual conversion to our Lord, not just a superficial one. Then maybe with time and improvement through the patriach's efforts, the meaning of this article will have more of a bearing than just us attacking someone that taking the monumental task of rebuilding the once great Church of Russia, to be one of the premier witnesses to the EU of our Lord Jesus Christ, especially since most in the EU have been only to glad to abandon that witness.

Pray for him, and also pray for yourselves that the Lord may show you that Christ's love conquers all and lead to genuine spiritual conversion.

Forgive me!

In IC XC,
Father Anthony+

I think there is also a false dichotomy here: the "basic Western cultural values (individualism, liberalism,constitutionalism, human rights, equality, liberty, the rule of law,democracy, free markets, the separation of church and state)" contain a fair number of things that the Catholic Church would definitely require to be qualified and clarified before agreeing to them.

I think that, in some ways, the "Christian West" has evolved away from Catholic orthodoxy in quite a few matters of political/economy policy - and that, were there a clash between Orthodoxy and Protestantism OR liberalism, Catholic have no driving need to come down entirely on the side of a post-modern West.

Yours in Christ,

Jeff

Dear Paul,

Christ is Risen!

Thanks for the gentle reminder about the rules of our forum, one of which includes the convention that we always speak with respect about the leaders of our own Church, and others' Churches. We always address the leaders of Churches by their correct titles.

It is a very interesting article, and its thesis is very appealing indeed. I hopefully anticipate the re-integration of Europe, and look forward to the impact of a strengthened Orthodox Christianity in Europe!

My fear is that the article is a little naive. Europe is now so much more complicated, and it would be wonderful if its serious tension was a clash of eastern and western philosophies, and Orthodox Christianity and "western cultural values".

It would be wonderful if there would be a meeting of minds, and a strengthening of the traditional Christian ethos of Europe. But my fear is that neither has the courage alone, or even the ability together, to face up to the new paganism which is taking such a firm root in Europe, and to the now confident islamic presence throughout the continent.

The challenge is great indeed.