Most-Eminent Vladyko Metropolitan!
Venerable Archpastors!
Beloved Fathers, Brothers and Sisters!
Of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad
The supreme executive body that we have is the Council of Bishops ("Sobor"). However, in order that the supremacy of the Council might be recognized, it has always been necessary for the entire Church to be in agreement with it. There have been numerous instances in the history of the Church, when subsequent Councils were forced to repeal the incorrect decisions of previous Councils.
The October 2000 Bishops' Council has evoked a multitude of questions, objections and disagreements, which tend to "splinter the unity of the Church." Subsequently, the Bishops' Synod, that convened February 6-8 of this year [2001], not only did not heed this voice of the clergy and the flock [of ROCOR], but confirmed, in the most categorical way, all the decisions and declarations of the Council of 2000, calling on all the ROCOR faithful to obey the Church leadership.
In direct disagreement with the declaration of the Synod of Bishops, three hierarchies in Russia are rescinding their signatures from the erroneous decisions of said Council.
Not having signed the Council's Epistle, I confess, together with them, that I had acted rashly and without due consideration in affixing my signature to the letter to the Serbian Patriarch, and I repent of having done so.
Today, however, it is impossible to stand by, after having repented, while observing how a group of bishops, led by Archbishop Mark of Germany, is undeviatingly and successfully implementing a permanent change in the life of our Church. A change designed to bring about the "desired rapprochement" and "spiritual union" with the MP, as well as with other official churches. This will lead to our gradual distancing from the true confession of the Orthodox Faith, in exchange for a materially-prosperous position in today's world.
The obvious impossibility, under the present circumstances, of setting aright the newly-introduced ecclesiastical course, which was instituted after the Bishops' Council and Synod, without a prior conciliatory discussion of the matter by the entire Church, forces us to take the only remaining redeeming path, which will preserve the spiritual freedom of our Russian Orthodox Church Abroad.
Wherefore, I wall off myself, my clergy, and my flock, from the above-mentioned bishops, until "a conciliatory review" of this new course is completed.
In his letter to the sergianist archimandrite Lev Yegorov, Metropolitan [St.] Iosif of Petrograd gave the following explanation: "I will never consider myself to be a schismatic, even though I were to remain entirely alone, as once did one of the holy confessors. This is not at all a matter of numbers; never forget that for a minute: 'The Son of God, when He cometh again, will he even find any at all on earth who are faithful?' And perhaps the last 'rebels' against those who betray the Church and those who are accomplices in Her destruction will not only not be bishops or protopriests, but the simplest of mortals, just as, at the Cross of Christ, His last, agonized, final breath was received by a few simple souls who were close to Him."
"Do not judge me harshly and clearly understand the following:
1. I am by no means a schismatic, and I call not for schism, but for the cleansing of the Church from those who sow actual schism, and who are instigating it.
2. To point out to another his errors and transgressions is not schism.
3. Refusal to accept healthy rebukes and direction is truly schism and a trampling upon truth."
"You mention, in passing, that among the ways to truth 'Christ showed us yet another new way: Love ye one another,' which way, apparently, you feel that I have left out of my purview in the course of my actions! Let me remind you, Father, in regard to this, of the wondrous conclusion of Metropolitan Filaret in his sermon concerning loving [our] enemies: 'Shun the enemies of God; strike against the enemies of the Fatherland; love your [personal] enemies.'"
"[Metropolitan] Sergii's defenders say that the Canons permit separating oneself from a Bishop only for a heresy condemned by a Council. But there are those who maintain that the acts of M. Sergii sufficiently satisfy this condition, also... On top of that, what is worse and more pernicious than any heresy, when they drive a knife into the very heart of the Church, into Her freedom and dignity? -- 'And let us not lose, imperceptibly, bit by little bit, that freedom which our Lord Jesus Christ, the Liberator of all men, granted us by His Blood.'" (Canon 8 of the III-rd Ecumenical Council). 'Fear not, little flock, the Lord is with us! And if the Lord is with us, then who can be against us?! Do not forget that the most frightful thing possible for us is to depart away from the Truth, i.e., from Christ.' I remain devoted to the Russian Church Abroad, and Your unworthy intercessor in prayer.
+Bishop Varnava [Barnabas]
Cannes, 15 / 28 February 2001 Holy Apostle Onesimus