Greetings to all.
My name is Father George, and with the blessing of His Grace, Bishop Gregory of Denver and Colorado of the Russian Orthodox Autonomous Church, I've joined this Forum, with the hope that I might be able to clarify some posts of late regarding our Church and Bishop Gregory in particular.
It is truly a unique experience for me to join a list that has more than one
vocal member who does not subscribe to the "Life of Bishop Gregory", if I
might refer to this unpublished story in such a manner, written by the monks of HTM and then built upon as the years have passed, by the
ecumenically minded clergy of the ROCOR.
To those who of late wished Many Years to Bishop Gregory, I pray that God will reward you with His eternal gifts in exchange for your sincerity.
I should think that most of the people on this list hold to the idea that
the ROCOR was the standard of Orthodoxy in the free world for most of the last century. Certainly, Bishop Gregory as a young man believed this, which is why in 1965 he left the cradle into which he was born, the Antiochian Church, and joined the ROCOR. As many have tried to interpret the motives for why Bishop Gregory has done what he has throughout his life, I present this first fact to show that he left the Antiochian Church for the sole reason of escaping from the all-pervasive heresy of ecumenism. For those who claim his life has been driven by a desire for power and prestige, let them consider that the stuggle Vladyka voluntarily took up deprived him of marriage into a notable family in the Antiochian Church, a scholarship to Saint Vladimir's Seminary offered to him by Bishop Anthony Bashir personally, and all the worldly splendour that clergymen of the Antiochian Church enjoy to this day.
Indeed, this separation severed him from the intense affection known all too well to those acquainted with the Orthodox Lebanese culture of his immediate family. It wasn't until years passed that his own mother finally accepted what her son had done, choosing the eternal over the temporal, that she chose to join the ROCOR before her peaceful repose.
If Bishop Gregory was seeking power, as all of his detractors wish to portray him, why did he leave HTM and come to Colorado, where there are no bishops to promote him, and settle in Saint Elisabeth National Forest, where there was no electricity, no phone, and no Orthodox people. As a true monastic, who is not only Orthodox, he sought the solitutude of Skete life and he found it in Buena Vista, a place where he was determined to live and die. Nevertheless, the words of our Saviour, wheresoever the carcass is, there will the eagles be gathered, is coming to pass around us. Both in the local towns near us and all across our country, those who seek true Orthodoxy bring themselves under Bishop Gregory's omophorion, seeking refuge from the deluge of heresy which surrounds us.
Thus, Bishop Gregory's opposition to heresy was the key first step in his life which established the direction he would consistently follow until now. Having chosen to forsake temporal glory, he ascended the cross our Lord called him to embrace, which has been a continual struggle against the heresy of ecumenism.
Many turn their noses at the idea that a clergyman in our own times would
have the character to consistently reject heresy time and time again, not
once accepting it. Looking around them and seeing compromise after
compromise, they cannot imagine that a Bishop, let alone a Synod of Bishops, exists today that holds the banner of uncompromised Orthodoxy.
But this is what ROAC is about, this is what Orthodoxy has been about for
2000 years. Yes, we are exclusive. Why? Because our Lord did not establish 40,000 different Churches, He established one Church, His own body. If the converts on this list wish to continue their life-long journey to find the Church, going from one man-made entity to another, then the ecumenical groups will suffice to accomplish this goal. But if, like myself, you tired of searching for truth where there was only deception mixed with truth, then making an honest investigation into the ROAC is a very good idea.
Yes, we are small, but to quote I.M. Andreyev's response to the apostate
Sergius, voices should not be counted, they must be weighed. Truth is not
validated by the one who espouses it, nor by the number of those holding to it. Truth stands because Christ is the Truth, and Christ is God.
For those numerous families that have united themselves to the ROAC through Holy Baptism, the criticism hurled against ROAC and Bishop Gregory vanished in the joy they received through the fulfillment of their destiny, that is, to find the Church and be united to Her.
With so much good happening to so many people, one wonders why the
ecumenical clergy are so vehement in their cries for deposition, or
illegitimacy? Perhaps one can find a similar reaction from the silversmiths
of Ephesus who assembled with the crowds, crying “Great is Artemis of the
Ephesians.” [Acts 19:28] They cannot but see the writing on the wall as
well, that the deception they have propagated will soon end.
Having written more than I intended, I shall close for now. I welcome any
replies, which may God help me to reply to well.
In Christ our Saviour,
George, hegumen
