God forbid.
When I was 17 it was a very bad year. For in 1967 the Rolling Stones
put out their song, "Sympathy For The Devil." The vulgar Mick Jagger sang:
"I stuck around St. Petersburg
When I saw it was a time for a change
Killed the czar and his ministers
Anastasia screamed in vain."
I recall saying to my Jewish hippie self at that time, "Who is Anastasia?" I simply left it at that.
I became a Jew for Jesus in 1971 and an Orthodox Christian (OCA) in 1988. Then when I joined HOCNA n the Spring of 1993 I sat at one of my first Trapezas and heard:
"In 1927 Metropolitan Sergius issued his Declaration which stated, 'The Soviet Union's joys and successes are our joys and successes.' Sergianism..." The reader went on...
"I recall saying to my befuddled Orthodox self at that time, "What is 'Sergianism?' I simply left it at that.
At a later Trapeza in 2000 I heard Fr. Gabriel of HTM begin his famous Trapeza Readings with, "The Reading Is From The Life of St. Joseph of Petrograd - Holy Master Bless!" I have never forgotten what Fr Gabriel read on that day:
"During St. Joseph of Petrograd's banishment he had slept in a boarded up shed separated from pigs by a few wooden stakes.Once a snake clinging to a peg on the roof crawled down right over his head."
I recall saying to my beginning to grasp it self at that time, "My life will never be the same."
Why did I say that? For hearing of the hell St. Joseph of Petrograd underwent forresisting the Soviet-founded Church now the Moscow Patriarchate, I knew that any MP sympathies on my part would find me an enemy of St. Joseph of Petrograd. How then could I ever face St. Joseph of Petrograd in heaven? From whose face I would be be forced by my own conscience to flee from. And from whose face there would be no place found any more for me in heaven. I knew that if I were unwilling to enter into an intimate communion with the millions of Catacomb saints, I would be found unworthy of these "Holy New Martyrs of Russia."
It is now October 23 2005 and I have come full circle. I was bar-mitzvad on this dateand had no idea at that time [or even cared] that this date also commemorated the Optina Elders. Now I care. For two Titles are my first choice on my bookshelf - "The New Martyrs of Russia" by Polsky, and "The Catacomb Saints of Russia," by Andreyev.
Uppermost in my mind at present are the dates March 15 1917 - July 18 1918 - and the traitor's Sergius' Declaration Day 1927. It is my very strong opinion that all who call themselves Orthodox Christians should live their lives grasping the significance of these dates as they have impacted on the Church beginning in 1917 and their consequences for the Church in this the beginning of the 21st Century.
It seems to me that on that Day Of The Dread Judgment Seat of Christ it is not the martyrs of the 'Emperors' that we will have to face. Nor the martyrs of the 'Caliphs' that will make inquisition of our lives. But - the martyrs of the 'Comrades' and the 'Commissars' who will make a piercing search of our reins and of our hearts.
It is for these, the Holy New Martyrs of Russia, who suffered unspeakably for resisting the Soviet founded MP that I deplore and denounce the May 2006 ROCOR/MP Union.
ROAC(V) Subdeacon Nathaniel Kapner
The Eleventh Hour
October 23 2005
Optina Elders
