The Three Strains Within the Historical ROCOR

[haralampopoulosjc]

As far as I can tell, the ecclesiological convictions of the hierarchs of the historical ROCOR can be divided into three groups:

Rigourists: Those who believed that the Moscow Patriarchate was graceless and that the ROCOR should break communion with all of World Orthodoxy. Metropolitan Philaret of New York, Archbishop Averky of Syracuse, and Bishop Gregory Grabbe would fall into this group.

Moderates: Those who had an Orthodox confession of faith but refrained from making a definitive statement as to whether the Moscow Patriarchate or the Ecumenical Patriarchate were graceless. Metropolitan Anthony Khrapovitsky, Metropolitan Anastasy Gribanovsky, Saint John Maximovitch, Fr. Seraphim Rose, and Metropolitan Vitaly Ustinov would fall into this group.

Liberals: Hierarchs who were basically ecumenists and probably would have felt more at home in the Moscow Patriarchate. Archbishop Anthony of Geneva, Archbishop Mark of Berlin, and Metropolitan Laurus would fall into this group.

[BenjaminMcCraw]

I actually was thinking along a similar line recently! Im not dead set on this list.

To define the terms in how im using them:

Inconsistent is a group who's actions do not seem to line up with the stance they claim today.

Separatists believe that the ones they separated from are not members of the church.

Resistors (resist from within) believe that the ones they are resisting are heretics but still members of the Church until some future point (like an ecumenical council as one example though not the only theory)

The line between Rigorist and Moderate Separatists is three main questions: whether the question of grace is the right question or if we should focus on separating from heretics and leave the rest to God, whether grace left the state synods gradually or immediately, and whether there is grace among other True Orthodox or not.

The line between Rigorist and Moderate Resistors is whether to only stop commemorating local heretical hierarchs or to fully wall off and cut off communion completely.

Consistent Rigorists Separatists:
Matthewites
ROAC

Inconsistent Rigorist Separatists:
Bostonians
Vitalyians
Romanians

Consistent Moderates Separatists:
Avlonians & Co.
GOC-K & Co.

Consistent Rigorist Resistors:
Cyprianites
Serbians under Artemije

Consistent Moderate Resistors:
Non Commemorators among State Synods

Inconsistent Moderate Resistors:
Majority of the Athonites
Ephraimites
ROCOR-MP
Personalities such as Metropolitan Neophytos of Morphou, Metropolitan Seraphim of Piraeus, and Metropolitan Hierotheos Vlachos ect.

Unknown:
Old Brotherhood of Esphigmenou?
Lamians?
Other Auxentians?
ROCANA & Co?

I think to your observation there was at least four different camps among Rocor in before the 1990's. What you called the Rigorists I believe would become ROAC. The Liberals who i call the Inconsistent Moderate Resistors, these would become the Rocor-MP. The ones you call the Moderates i would split into two groups: the ones who agreed with the ideas of the Cyprianites and encouraged union with them, and the ones who held that cyprianism was a faulty theological opinion that should be ignored. That last group split into two, one leaving and becoming Rocie and renouncing cyprianism and the other remaining and encouraging union with the GOC-K. There is a real case to be made that in Rocor-A today there remains two camps: Consistent Moderates Separatists who disagree with cyprianism and Consistent Rigorist Resistors who still believe in cyprianism.

Thoughts?

[haralampopoulosjc]

If you want to look at who had the 100% pure Orthodox confession of faith, then, really, of all the groups in the 20th century, only the Matthewites and the Josephites had it. But, like Fr. Joseph has said on many occasions, it's unwise for us to look back from our age of mass communication and assume that every synod that was trying to hold to Orthodoxy should have been up on all the details.

[haralampopoulosjc]

As far as whether grace leaves a synod gradually or immediately, it's difficult to say. I would say that the Sergianists were immediately graceless after the Nomadic Council of 1928 condemned them, the State Church of Greece became immediately graceless after the 1935 encyclical was issued, and the State Church of Romania became immediately graceless after the Council of Slatioara in 1956. Then, let's look at Serbia. The Serbian Orthodox Church joined the WCC in 1965. Saint Justin of Celije broke communion with Patriarch German in 1971 and refused to commemorate him during the liturgy up until his repose in 1979. He continued to commemorate his local bishop, Jovan Velimirovic (nephew of Saint Nikolai Velimirovic), who distributed Saint Justin's anti-ecumenist writings to other bishops and clergy in the synod. Can we say that Jovan Velimirovic remained a True Orthodox bishop in the Serbian state church up until his repose in 1989? Maybe. There was no local True Orthodox synod in Serbia at the time that was capable of declaring the State Church to be graceless, as in the case of Greece, Romania, and Russia. I think that the whole period beginning in 1924 with the Calendar Innovation to the capitulation of the ROCOR to the Moscow Patriarchate in 2007, can be viewed in parallel with the Great Schism and Investiture Controversy from 1054 to 1122. Difficult to tell who's in communion with whom, who's a heretic, and who's not.

[Barbara]

Excellent, this is REALLY a help !

It seems we might want to draw up a chart if anyone is able to do that type of graphic thing, if that's what that is called.

That way we can see even different versions of these groups - how they evolved in their approaches, how they split, who they became, and in what year approximately ?

Just imagine how confusing it would be a new person to try to figure out just from reading threads about the different synods who believes what exactly compared with the other TOCs or conservative World Orthodox like Rocor-MP - !

We may not even agree on the chart in its entirety but we could even have several charts showing different models to help even ourselves see through the dense forest of TOC activity !

[Lemon Schist]

I second Barbara's request

[Barbara]

Glad to hear that !
Of course, it may take awhile.
But the effort expended would be worth it.