By Demetrios Rhompotis
When I had the opportunity to visit Constantinople for the
first time two years ago, I was amazed by what I saw. Even
after these many centuries, the magnitude and grandeur of
a Christian empire's fall, shows through. Because the
analogy with Russian history was more than obvious, I was
exceedingly interested as to how this extraordinarily
vital, capable, and enlightened empire, far surpassing all
other nations of its time, suddenly lost its life forces
and finally collapsed. Why did this great nation,
enlightened with the light of the Gospels, lose its
historical home to another, more primitive state and
people? This film arose out of my pondering over the
history of Byzantium and of Russia. Work on this film went
on for a year and a half. The idea consisted in showing
the process and causes of degradation, how the Empire lost
its ability to respond to the calls of history. This was
the main subject of my research, and attention was paid
first of all to those historical facts connected with this
matter.
In this country, during the last decade mostly, we
have witnessed the meddling of certain Christian sects in
partisan politics putting in danger the separation of
Church and state and compromising, sometimes irrevocably,
Christianity’s integrity. Is there a similar
situation in Russia? In fact, you have been accused of
doing so by releasing the film right before the Russian
presidential election.
Yes, such accusations were directed at the film. However,
some said that the film supported Putin's successor,
while others said that it was aimed against him. I pay no
attention to such criticism.
There was criticism that the film modernized Byzantine history by introducing such terms as “oligarchs” and “corrupt politicians.” Yes, this is true. History was consciously reconstructed to our contemporary reality, and terminology was used with a large audience in mind. Nevertheless, all the facts presented in the film are absolutely true. Or, for example, there was criticism that nothing was said about the overblown Western concept of “byzantine deceitfulness.” There was an obvious attempt by the Western Europeans after the vicious fourth Crusade to accuse their victims, the Greeks, in order to justify themselves. It would be more appropriate to speak of how the motives and behavior of a highly developed Byzantine state were rarely fully understood by the simpler inhabitants of Medieval Western Europe, just as the inhabitants of a large city seem cunning to a simple country boy.
Archbishop Demetrios of America, during his recent
visit to Russia, spoke of the “unchurched
people” in the US and in other western societies.
Can today’s Orthodoxy appeal to them, is our Church
able to “speak their language,” to offer a
spiritual and yet realistic alternative?
After 80 years of militant atheism, Russians have gained
unique experience not only in preserving Orthodoxy under
the conditions of a totalitarian state, but also of an
active contemporary Orthodox mission within one's own
nation, in a society which is often called
“post-Christian.” The main bearers of Orthodox
spirit were the new martyrs and confessors of Russia.
Amongst those confessors were those who have lived even to
our own days. One of these was my spiritual father,
Archimandrite John (Krestiankin), who lived through the
Stalinist camps. He remained unbroken, and was an example
of the greatest Christian love and faith to the end of his
life. He also had an amazing gift of discernment, which
the Holy Fathers call the crown of spiritual ascetic life.
His remarkable pastoral letters were recently published
(they have also been translated into English,) and were
distributed throughout Russia by the thousands. The
problem of missionary work in the contemporary Russian
Church is of the utmost importance. I can say that we are
gradually finding the right language of communication with
the modern, ecclesiastically uneducated individual, to
which the million-fold printings of our missionary
apologetic brochures and books can testify. In Sretensky
Monastery, which is located in the center of Moscow, half
of the parishioners are under 40 years of age. They are
high school and elementary school students, government
officials, scholars, public servants, workers, and
cultural activists. Answering to the last part of your
question, I will say that for these people, a spiritual
and realistic alternative to the corrupt secular world
which is increasingly senseless without God are the
Gospels and Holy Fathers, as they have been throughout all
times.
Many of those “unchurched people” and
many of the “churched” as well, resort to
kinds of New Age “spiritual” options that we
thought gone forever. Magicians, astrologists,
fortune-tellers, wizards are in vogue, a phenomenon
reminiscent of Europe’s Dark Ages. Does there exist
a void that established religions are not filling and does
the religious version of Orthodoxy fall in the same
category?
We ran up against this problem in the beginning of the
‘90’s, but in general, this is nothing new.
The same thing happened in Byzantium, especially during
its period of decline. The spectrum was very broad: from
the sophisticated pagan teachings of Gemistos Plithon to
the most crude and blasphemous superstitions. In Russia
today, we have with God's help been able to convince
our flock of the incompatibility of any kind of
superstition with life in the Church. Although of course
this sickness flares up here and there, it is localized,
while the Church as a whole does not suffer from it.
People say that Orthodoxy, with all its beauty and
transcendental qualities, is antiquated in many ways. It
seems to have stopped developing a couple of centuries
ago, resembling the Amish in that sense. On the other
hand, efforts to modernize it are greeted with suspicion
and hostility. As a new generation clergyman – and a
very talented film director, I should add – what are
your thoughts on this vital question?
We have firmly assimilated from the great Greek Fathers
the teaching of the eternally young Church. Russia is now
in a period when a huge number of people are entering the
Church, especially young and educated people. The Russian
Athonite Elder Silhouan wrote about this back in the
1930's. He spoke of the future of Russia, that there
would come a time when mostly educated people would be
coming to God.
As for the modernization of Orthodoxy (I will emphasize that this concerns only the ritual side of the Church and not Evangelical and Patristic side,) that life and times are bound to introduce their necessary changes into the external spheres of Church life. The most important thing is that those reforms be truly necessary to life and introduced with love for Orthodoxy, and not with high-minded contempt for “routine and Orthodox limitation.” Another very important point is that these changes be conducted in a spiritually talented way, and not superficially, primitively, or basely. Otherwise, the Church will fatally consign itself to cruel divisions and suffering.
Although you don’t belong to any
“anti-Hellenic” group within the Russian
Greek-Orthodox Church, certain points in your documentary
can be rendered as hostile to Hellenism. In your opinion,
can there be an Orthodox Catholic and Apostolic Church
without the Greek – spirited Church Fathers and the
Hellenic tradition in which they and the early church was
steeped in?
I must admit that this is the first I have heard of an
“anti-Hellenic” group in the Russian Church.
The vast majority of Russians have always related to the
Greek Church as to their spiritual mother, toward whom we
feel sincere love and reverence. Greek Holy Fathers and
ascetics of piety, from St. John Chrysotom to St. Paisius
the Athonite are published in Russian by the hundreds of
thousands of copies. Very many students of theological
institutions study the ancient and Modern Greek language.
The Russian Church is penetrated with Greek spiritual
patristic tradition. As for the film, the subject of the
sad phenomenon of neo-paganism which arose amongst the
Greeks in Byzantium does in fact come up in the context of
understanding the many causes underlying the Empire's
collapse, especially during the final century of its
existence. This is an important subject for Modern Russia,
because neo-paganism is raising his ugly head here as
well. It is stated that, by force of many factors,
Byzantium, in the person of its ruling elite, gradually
denied its own governmental and spiritual foundations and
traditions, and later its Divine calling. Similar
processes have taken place in Russia, and it is very
important for us to see the consequences of these
processes in history. It is stated in the film that Greek
nationalism did a great disservice to the Empire at one
point, making enemies out of former friends. This same
thing is happening, unfortunately, in Russia. But these
sad historical facts should help us to think about our
contemporary life. As the Russian historian Kliuchevsky
said, “history is not a kind, old teacher, but a
stern instructor; it does not ask about lessons, but it
cruelly avenges their negligence.”
Russian and other eastern European churches have
suffered and are suffering from the activities of Uniats,
a very treacherous process sanctioned by the Vatican, in
which appearances are kept intact while the Faith is
essentially compromised. This is one of the major
obstacles in the dialogue – really, what kind of a
dialogue can you sustain with someone who claims to be
infallible – between the schismatic Rome and the
Ecumenical Patriarchate. What is your take on
that?
I will return once again to the film. Many critics
reproach the film as being “anti-Western.”
This is not true. Two things are very clearly stated about
the Roman Catholic West: “Of course, it is senseless
to say that the West was to blame for Byzantium’s
misfortunes and fall. The West was only pursuing its own
interests, which is quite natural. Byzantium’s
historical blows occurred when the Byzantines themselves
betrayed their own principles upon which their empire was
established …The Byzantines were supposed to get
the point that the West needed only complete and
unconditional religious and political submission. Not only
the Pope was to be recognized as infallible, but the West
itself as well.” These two postulates—the
exclusiveness of their own interests and their
infallibility, as it seems to me, remain unchanged in the
Vatican's policies even now. It would be naïve at
the least not to take these two basics constants of Roman
Catholicism into consideration. As for the Uniates, those
who now talk today, for example, about autocephaly for the
Ukrainian Church, forget that this is in fact part of an
old Roman Catholic project worked out during the tragic
Union of Brest in the Ukraine back in the 16th century.
Later, the leader of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholics,
Metropolitan Andrei Sheptitsky, wrote in his letter to
Emperor Franz Joseph in 1914 that, in order to make the
Ukraine Roman Catholic, it is necessary to separate it
from the Russian Church, create a “Kiev-Galich
Orthodox Patriarchate” and then, soon afterwards,
transfer it to the “bosom of the Catholic
Church” through the Uniate process. Of course, one
could say to me in the words of Heraclitus, that
“you can't go down the same river twice.”
This is true, of course… But you can easily jump
into one and the same puddle.
What message would you like to convey to the
American Greek-Orthodox people as this year’s
Clergy-Laity Congress is about to commence?
Much of what is important to me and many priests in the
Russian Church has already been mentioned in this
discussion. I would only like to add that our experience
of life and witness of the Church during the era of a
totalitarian regime belongs not only to us, but to the
entire Orthodox Church. Your experience of the
Church's existence in a pluralistic society is very
important to us, as is your experience of pastoral
service. For example, we do not have such annual
conferences of clergy and laypeople as you have in
America. It would be extremely interesting and important
for us to take on this tradition and experience. Greek
Orthodoxy has always been for Russia not only an
instructor, but also a special spiritual orientation. Thus
do we highly value our spiritual unity in our Lord and
Savior Jesus Christ and in His Holy Church.
Translated by nun Cornelia (Rees)