The Synod of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia
75 East 93rd Street, New York, New York 10128
(212) 534-1601 fax (212) 426-1517
With the blessing of Archbishop Laurus
Please distribute throughout ROCOR parishes
6 February/24 January 2000
ON JERICHO
On January 15th, armed security forces of the Palestinian Authority entered a property in Jericho belonging to the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in Jerusalem of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia and forcibly evicted three residents of the small monastery.
The Palestinians arrested two monks and a layman who lived there. There they were told that they would soon be released, but could not return home. The US Consul General in Jerusalem protested, and as a result President Yassir Arafat declared that the monks of the ROCOR could return home. When they returned, however, Archimandrite Feodosii of the Moscow Church did not let them inside, stating that he was fulfilling the orders of his government.
By this time, two nuns of the ROCOR, both citizens of the US, through the intervention of the US Consul General, managed to enter our property and declared their intention to stay in protest of the violent seizure of our property on behalf of the Moscow Patriarchate. They are still there today, in difficult circumstances, defending our cause with their presence. In a press release, Archbishop Mark said: "This demonstrates once more how much the Moscow Patriarchate lacks indepence and the extent to which it still subordinates itself to the worldly powers. This is what we call sergianism, which is a vital point in our differences with the MP. This fresh example of aggression on the part of the Moscow Patriarchate and the post-Soviet state demonstrate clearly that these dark forces are not shying away from violating human and eligious rights, both in Hebron, and in Jericho."
During the occupation, the personal effects, papers and letters of 87-year- old Fr. Tikhon were mercilessly burned. Even the Holy Mysteries of confession and Communion, which must be administered through the gate (since our clergy is not allowed onto our own property), are not free from the threat of violence: Palestinian soldiers armed with rifles are always present.
Over the course of decades our Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, continuing the long pre-Revolutionary tradition of the Russian Church, selflessly, based on the Gospel's principles of kindness, love and good deeds, operates a school for Arab girls in Bethany. Now over 400 girls are enrolled, and over its entire existence, thousands of young Arab women received their education there. Sources indicated that the Moscow Patriarchate is bribing Arafat with various gifts (including helicopters and money). The ROCOR is unable to present similar gifts, but does our educational activity not earn more humane treatment by the Palestinian Authority? We only ask one thing: to allow our monastics and pilgrims to peacefully pray to God on the land sanctified by the footsteps of Our Lord Jesus Christ and by the tears of joy and tenderness of our predecessors. This illegal arbitrary seizure by the Palestinian Authority has prompted the indignation of the US Congress. Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney (D- NY) and Tom Lantos (D-CA) are scheduling a hearing before the Human Right Committee in hopes of passing a Congressional Resolution against the violation of our rights, which will open the door for further measures. Since there is no judicial system per se in the Palestinian Authority, the sole realistic means of preserving our rights in the Holy Land is the diplomatic route. The US State Department and the White House respond only to constant media pressure, pressure from US citizens and from Congress. We ask everyone who hears the words of Sr. Maria that follow, to voice their defense of our nuns and our right to exist in the Holy Land:
A LETTER TO THE WORLD
Jan 19/Feb 1 2000 St. Macarius the Great
Sr. Xenia and I are in our third week, our eighteenth day of self- imposed captivity at our Jericho monastery. Here we remain in our abandoned cement-floor room, paint chips falling from the ceiling, water seeping in the sides. No sink or shower to use, a trip to the outdoor toilet means passing by the Palestinian soldiers assembled outside our doors day and night. They predict snow again this weekend in Jerusalem - more cold rain and dampness for us here in Jericho.
In a bitter irony our would-be evictors have become our protectors, our guardians from the Soviet men, bare-chested, chain smoking housed in the apartment above the chapel only twenty feet from our quarters. The raucous laughter and menacing gestures of these Russian men (why are they here in a place of prayer?) make it uncomfortable for us to venture more than twenty yards from our room. With a soldier at our side from time to time we can make the 100 yard trip to the locked gate where our fellow monks and nuns stand vigil day and night, praying for us, passing food parcels and notes of encouragement from people all over the world - Germany, Argentina, Australia, England, Russia, the US on our behalf. Our deepest thanks to all of you. Your words and prayers mean more than you can imagine.
Why are we here?
The Palestinians have not yet perfected the art of "freedom" that characterizes a Communist system. Our prison door remains halfway open and with that ray of light I am under moral obligation to tell the world about the lack of religious freedom of the Moscow Patriarchate and it's ally in arms the Russian government.
I have to speak for Father Alexander Zharkov, a simple priest of the Moscow Patriarchate, a loving spiritual father to his flock. Tired of the arbitrariness, the lack of spirituality of his MP bishops in June, 1997 he petitioned the bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad to be under them. From that moment on he was incessantly harassed by Russian security officials. On Sunday September 14th 1997, worried that he had not returned home by that evening his wife began to make calls. She found the body of Fr. Alexander in the local morgue, a bullet in the head and the chest. He had been run over by a car for good measure.
I have to speak for the brave single souls, the pious women (babushkas) in Obayan and Tomsk and St. Petersburg and their bishops, Eutychius and Benjamin, followers of the ROCA who struggle to keep open their house churches though they know at any moment they could be arrested and their places of worship destroyed. I have to speak about the deceit of Yeltsin and of the Moscow Patriarch Alexis II who proudly tout their Freedom of Conscience law - freedom given only to those Orthodox believers who submit to the Moscow Patriarchate.
I have to speak for the countless believers and priests in the MP who know full well the corruption of their bishops, the lack of separation of Church and State in Russia, but who are powerless, who do not have a voice to speak out.
They are powerless before their bishops, their Patriarch Alexis II, better known in KGB files as Agent Drozdov, a revelation so bravely revealed by Fr. Gleb Yakunin in 1991.
I have to speak out about the lies Patriarch Alexis II pronounces to this day - those both great and small.
A small one: Last week Tass News Agency reported that Patriarch Alexis II charged that the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad does not open it's Holy Land sites to he peoples of Russia, Byelorussian and the Ukraine. Patriarch Alexis, must we send you the photographs from January 7th 2000 - Christmas Day, when 100 members of the Moscow seminary choir and their priests visited our Convent of St. Mary Magdalene in Gethsemane, toured the Church and were treated to an on-the-spot meal by our sisters? Would you like to meet one of our Palestinian nuns who runs the gift shop who has so diligently learned Russian in order to accommodate the numerous Russian pilgrims who pass through our gates?
A big one: Patriarch Alexis, you say Church and State are separate and free in Russia today. Why then are there more Russian diplomats, consular officials and functionaries than MP monks in Jericho monastery, a house of prayer, today? Could the reports from high-ranking Israeli officials that the Russian government plans to convert this Jericho monastery into a consulate be true? The MP protests that ROCA churches do not care for the Holy Land sites, do not care for the pilgrims. Will a consulate on the ruins of the sixth century church better serve the religious needs of Russian Orthodox believers than a monastery?
And as I have a small crack to speak out I must ask the countries who say they stand for freedom, for the rule of law, where are your voices now?
Ministers of Israel, Natan Sharanshy and Yuli Edelstein, you were prisoners of conscience, "refuseniks" we too are refuseniks. We too know the stench of repression - the tapped phones, the knock on the door, the "friends" sent only to inform on and watch our every gesture, our every word.
Freedom for only a few is freedom for none. Show your integrity now, your belief that all people have a right to religious freedom - Jews Muslims or Christians.
To the United States and members of the World Bank, do you understand how your experiment has failed? Strobe Talbott, you want Russia to follow democratic principles. World Bank President Wolfsohn, you may want Russia to adapt a free-market economy. Has it not become glaringly obvious that a country that has had its moral fiber snapped cannot bear the weight of following principles of freedom and democracy.
The regeneration of a free Russia cannot possibly take place without a moral rebirth. A moral rebirth cannot take place without a cleansing and renewal of its largest religious body - the Orthodox Church. US, if you allow the continued silencing of the voice of the free part of the Russian Orthodox Church, the taking away of our churches in the Holy Land, you will most assuredly consign Russia to a continued state of decadence and corruption which no billions of dollars will be able to remedy.
And finally I speak to you my beloved friends, the common people I live and work with in Palestine. I know your beautiful hospitality, your humble grace amid the oppression you have suffered for so many years. I know this crack in the door is open to me because in your basic goodness you simply do not know how, do not comprehend in you beautiful hearts how to close that door. It is my deepest prayer that your leaders - your Yassir Arafat, Abu Mazen, General Rajoub, Saeb Erekat - do not succumb to the principles of totalitarianism and corruption. Your people have suffered too long, are too good to be betrayed by their leaders in such a manner now.
JERICHO SEIZURE: WHAT YOU CAN DO:
Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney came to the Synod on Thursday to discuss the situation in Jericho. Besides gathering signatures from Congressmen on a letter condemning the illegal seizure, she is organizing a Congressional hearing on the matter with Congressman Tom Lantos this week and hopes to pass a Congressional resolution. This may open the door to further political measures. SHE STRESSED THAT NOW IS PRECISELY THE TIME TO CONTACT YOUR REPRESENTATIVES AND DEMAND THAT THEY TAKE ACTION: CHECK THE BLUE SECTION OF YOUR WHITE PAGES FOR THE PHONE NUMBERS FOR YOUR LOCAL CONGRESSMAN.
STRESS THE FOLLOWING POINT: The illegal takeover of the Jericho property, is NOT an inter-church affair, it is NOT a property dispute, IT IS A -church affair, it is NOT a property dispute, IT IS A DANGEROUS EXAMPLE OF INTERFERENCE OF THE STATE IN THE MATTERS OF THE CHURCH (ANY CHURCH).
Call Congressmen every day and many times to keep pressure and attention on the issue. Voice concern about illegal seizure of Jericho property and the harassment of nuns who are U.S. citizens. Ask, WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO ABOUT IT? Call again and again for frequent updates on the situation.
Also direct your protests here:
Rep. Benjamin Gilman (NY) (202) 225-3776
Rep. Gjedenson (CT) (202)225-2076
Rep. Lieberman (CT) (202) 224-4041
Rep. Jesse Helms (SC) (202) 224-6342
Toni Verstandig at the State Dept. (Arab and Israeli Affairs) (202) 647-3672
State Dept. (Near East Desk) (202) 647-2267
PLO Ambassador Hassan Abdel Rahman (202) 785-8394
Perm. Observer Mission of Palestine to the UN (212) 288-8500 fax: 212-517-2377
President Yassir Arafat's office: Mr. Tayyeb Abdul Raheem, Secretary General/Minister (011) (972) 7 282-4171
Mr. Ahmad Abdel Rahman, Cabinet Sec. General/Minister (011) (972) 7 282-4670
Dr. Ramzy Khoury, President's Office General Director (011) (972) 7 282-4670