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Sergianism is bowing to the forerunners of the Antichrist and declaring obedience to them and their agendas. The term is named after the infamous Metropolitan Sergius, who later called himself "Patriarch", who in 1927 provoked a schism in the Russian Church by signing a declaration of loyalty to the Soviet regime. In a broad sense, Sergianism is an apocalyptic disease and is manifested by those who act in ways similar to how Sergius acted and by those who offer the Church in subservience to governments and/OR agendas which are foreign to her.
Certain identifying characteristics of this apocalyptic cancer are:
1) viewing the Church first and foremost as an organization which must always be blindly obeyed - as if the voice of the organization were always, and without exception, the voice of Christ.
2) failing to distinguish between the God-given authority of Caesar and the God-allowed "authority" of the Antichrist which is rooted in Satan (Rev. 13:2).
3) lying, doing evil, persecuting the Saints, and overturning the Tradition to supposedly save the Church from evil.
4) an idolization of "canonicity" and using this to quench the Spirit. Along with this Sergianism replaces genuine spiritual life with dead canonical forms; while failing to distinguish how the Church must act during normal times and times of persecution.
5) gazing upon the "Mystery of Iniquity" and proclaiming "your joys are our joys, your sorrows are our sorrows, your mission is our mission". Thus the mission of the Church is perverted and replaced by something else (whether something openly evil or seemingly good) and effectively a new master is proclaimed as the acting head of the Church (instead of Christ).
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| St. Joseph of Petrograd trampling upon Sergius |
6) sinning against the dogma of the Church by perverting her nature; this is done by identifying the Church with Caesar, or with Antichrist, instead of with Christ. This attempts to turn the Church from being the "house of salvation" into a political or social organization.
7) betraying Christ and trampling upon the truth for the sake of obtaining or maintaining a legally functioning Church organization. Sergianism attempts to kill and suppress the Organism for the sake of the organization.
8) denying the spirit of Martyrdom and confession of faith and making, before the world, a spectacle of the Church by presenting her, by presenting Christ, as if she (He) were a pathetic slave without freedom or dignity.
9) the Chilliastic spirit which aims to transform the existing social and political order through the establishment of "Christian ideals" in order to form some moral and religious New World Order or even to supposedly establish the Kingdom of God on earth.
Sergianism is, in essence, idolatry, heresy, Renovationism, a schismatic design, and apostasy! It is systematized cowardice, non-resistance to evil, a criminalization of confessing the Faith, a denial of God's Providence and a scorning of the Neptic tradition of the Saints. It is that apostasy which (supposedly) violates "neither canons or dogmas". It is the basis of the Harlot Church and that by which she is maintained. It is a forerunner and type of the Mark of the Beast - a failure to discern the spirit of the Antichrist!
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Did the Moscow Patriarchate condemn Sergianism? The answer should be evident after reading the following:
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| Patriarch Alexy II with Lenin |
1) Patriarch Alexy in 2001: "As regards the accusations of the so-called Sergianism, I would like to say that one has to live here, in the homeland, to understand that it is an artificial accusation and an artificial pretext whipped up only to prevent reunification... It was a courageous step by which Metropolitan Sergiy tried to save the Church and the clergy. By stating that the church members wanted to be aware of themselves as part of their Motherland and wanted to share her joys and sorrows, he tried to show to those who persecuted the Church, who destroyed it, that we, children of the Church, want to be loyal citizens, so that one’s belonging to the Church might not put one outside the law. So it is a far-fetched accusation."
2) On July 18, 2002, the Moscow Synod ratified a document entitled “The relationships between the Russian Orthodox Church and the authorities in the 20s and 30s”, which declared: “The aim of normalizing the relationship with the authorities cannot be interpreted as a betrayal of Church interests. It was adopted by the holy Patriarch Tikhon* and was also expressed in the so-called ‘Epistle of the Solovki Bishops’ in 1926, that is, one year before the publication of ‘The Epistle of the deputy patriarchal locum tenens and temporary patriarchal Synod’. The essence of the changes in the position of the hierarchy consisted in the fact that the Church, having refused to recognize the legitimacy of the new power established after the October revolution in 1917, as the power became stronger later, had to recognize it as a state power and establish bilateral relations with it. This position is not blameworthy..."
[*For an in-depth understanding of this issue from trustworthy sources please see: Was Patriarch Tikhon the father of the Tikhonites? or of the Sergianists? (catacombhistory.blogspot.com)]
3) On January 24, 2005 Metropolitan Kirill (Gundiaev) of Smolensk, head of the MP’s Department of Foreign Relations, confirmed that the MP does not condemn sergianism: “We recognize that the model of Church-State relations [in the Soviet period] did not correspond to tradition. But we are not condemning those who realized this model, because there was no other way of preserving the Church. The Church behaved in the only way she could at that time. There was another path into the catacombs, but there could be no catacombs** in the Soviet space…”
[**But, of course, there were catacombs! There was an entire Catacomb Church full of Martyrs and Confessors! These were hunted down and killed by the Soviet government, often with the assistance of the leaders of the Sergianist Moscow Patriarchate.]
4) Patriarch Kirill on May 15, 2020 spoke the following apostatic words concerning Metropolitan Sergius: "His Holiness the Patriarch, of course, had to make some compromises. But these compromises never extended to faith***, to church organization, that is, to those fundamental truths on which the life of the Orthodox Church is based. He defended these truths and these principles. Well, as for relations with the authorities, then, of course, in those conditions THERE WAS NO OTHER WAY TO SAVE THE CHURCH.
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| Pat. Kirill after blessing a statue of Met. Sergius |
People who from outside observed the activities of His Holiness Patriarch Sergius, the then Patriarchal Locum Tenens, especially those who observed from afar, in complete personal safety, often sent formidable, crushing criticism to the Locum Tenens, accusing him of treason, of betraying Orthodoxy. But life has shown that this is not so, that THESE WERE FALSE LIBELS****."
[***Lest some, being without knowledge of these matters, believe that Sergianism did not involve compromises in the Faith, please read the writings of such lights as St. Victor of Glazov (Vyatka), St. Paul of Starobela, St. Joseph of Petrograd, St. Seraphim of Uglich, Vladyka Averky of Jordanville, Fr. Seraphim Rose, Fr. Vladimir Krivolutsky, and the countless other holy ones who revealed that Sergianism is a form of Apostasy.]
[****This is a slander against the Anti-Sergianist Martyrs and Confessors who chose to suffer and die specifically for their opposition to Sergianism! Anti-Sergianism is faithfulness to Christ.]
Note: some claim that Sergianism was condemned, indirectly and without being named, by the Moscow Patriarchate in 2000, in their "Social Concept" document. This statement, full of deceit, is the equivalent of someone saying the Ecumenical Patriarch condemned Ecumenism because he professes faith in the "One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church" every time he says the Creed! It is nonsense as the quotes above reveal!
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Why does Sergianism need to be condemned?
From the book "The Truth About the Russian Church Abroad", 2002, Jordanville: "The most important moment capable of improving the state of the Moscow Patriarchate is the moment when Her faithful perceive the truth that the various divergences from Holy Orthodoxy are the fruits of Sergianism, which is a spiritual sin allowing a compromise with evil for the sake of some imaginary good. In the past decade the clergy of the Patriarchate have by their activity consistently remained faithful to the principle of Sergianism. This principle must be rejected, for it will eventually lead its followers to bow to the Antichrist. Of course, at that point these misled people will affirm that with their compromise they are saving the Church."
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St. Nektary, Archbishop of Yaransk (†1937) - concerning the approaching triumph of Orthodoxy over Sergianism:
The Saint "...foresaw that although our struggle for the Truth of Christ was holy, it would be weak and without success. From the history of the Church we see that all the fighters for the Truth of Christ perished in the struggle and that the work of God for which they struggled triumphed only after their death. That is what will happen in our struggle with sergianism. The people have become indifferent and lukewarm towards church questions, while the clergy - in its greater part, that is - have become simply fulfillers of the rites whose only concern is to have enough to eat and live quietly... The Church has departed into the wilderness, that is, she has hidden in secret places. Thus was it in the times of martyrdom, of iconoclasm and of all the heresies when there was a persecution against the supporters of Divine Truth - while our time is that of the preparation for the Antichrist and his kingdom."
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| St. Nektary, Archbishop of Yaransk (†1937) |
For more information about how the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia (and many holy ones of the historical ROCOR) viewed Sergianism please see: 41 Testimonies: on Sergianism and the "ecclesial" status of the Soviet Church (catacombhistory.blogspot.com) - Note: the primary aim of sharing these 41 Testimonies is to reveal that there were, and are, serious issues which need to be addressed according to Truth and in a Conciliar fashion. Some Saints have expressed opinions contrary to those revealed in the link immediately above. The ultimate and final judgement concerning these matters properly belongs to a future and truth-proclaiming Council of the Russian Orthodox Church. Such a Council has yet to occur.