Is There Grace…?

-from LIVING ORTHODOXY issue # 156 November 2006

Is There Grace…?

(editorial)

We often hear the question posed as to whether or not “there is Grace” — usually in the Moscow Patriarchate.  Wisely, the hierarchs of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia have never spoken with respect to this question.  One of them, Bishop Daniel of Erie, spoke about it — to say that it was a falsely posed and probably unanswerable question.

The Scriptural response would seem to be quite clear.  The Lord said:  “The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.” [Bear in mind that the Greek word for “wind” is the same as for “Spirit”.]  (John 3:8)

We cannot ever categorically state that the Holy Spirit is not any place — not even outside the confines of what is loosely known as “Christianity”.  Much less can we say that it is not present within the (spiritual) boundaries of what we call the Moscow Patriarchate — or the heretical church of Rome, or any other even marginally “Christian” body.

The question was posed “Is the Grace of God Present in the Soviet Church?” by Prof. I.M. Andreyev in the book of the same title (Monastery Press, Wildwood AB Canada, 2000).  His exhaustive answer reaches a largely (even if not categorically) negative conclusion.

But the question is posed in quite another fashion by Dr. Timothy Clader in the address published in the preceding issue of Living Orthodoxy (#155, XXVI 5, Sept-Oct 2006).  He asks “whether we can say categorically and with God’s authority that the Moscow Patriarchate has grace.”  (p. 21)  To pose the question thus puts it in quite a different light.

We may find the Holy Spirit anywhere, and should always be ready to recognize the “manifest works”, even if in unexpected contexts.  But when it comes to the life of the Church, Holy, Catholic, Apostolic and Orthodox, we can and must expect far more — that we will find the Holy Spirit present in the Holy Mysteries, without question; that we will find Him present in the legitimate Councils of the Church, despite the sinfulness of the human beings who there serve.

Can we say this of the Church of Rome, even though it has bishops, priests, “sacraments”, and at least in some respects a superficial resemblance to the Orthodox Church.  We cannot.

Could the true Church have said this of those parts of herself which fell into separation in the Aryan heresy, teaching that Jesus the Christ was not in truth the Son of God, but only the greatest of God’s creation?  Decidedly not.

More to the point at the moment, can we say it of the “Russian Orthodox Church”, of which the “Moscow Patriarchate” is the administrative entity — and, at least in principle, the spiritual authority and guide.  Both Prof. Andreyev in his writings a half-century ago and Dr. Clader in the recent past feel compelled by the data to answer in the negative: we cannot be assured of the universal presence of the Holy Spirit, the Grace of God, in this body conceived and nurtured and controlled, until very recently, by an atheistic, God-hating state, which oversaw its every appointment and “consecration”.  It is precisely those who were put in place by the Soviet state who continue to direct the policies of the Moscow Patriarchate, to make decisions as to who shall be appointed and “ordained” to what office.

Can this change?  Yes, by the Grace of God.  Has it changed?  We have no convincing evidence to that effect.

God help us!