Resolution of the Pastoral Retreat and Clergy Assembly of the Canadian Diocese

We, the clergy and faithful of the Canadian Diocese, having gathered for our annual Lenten retreat and pastoral conference at the Church of the Protection of the Most Holy Theotokos (Hamilton, Ontario), under the presidency of His Eminence Gabriel, Archbishop of Montreal and Canada, bear witness that this meeting—despite the complexity of many of the matters discussed—proceeded in a spirit of братская любовь and concord. Thus, our fellowship strengthened the hearts of all participants in hopeful anticipation of the approaching Feast of Feasts—the Holy Resurrection of our Lord, God, and Savior Jesus Christ.

Once again, we meet this Feast of Eternal Life in days when throughout the world we hear ever anew of “wars and rumors of wars” (Matthew 24:6). Let us therefore pray that the Lord, in His ineffable mercy, may as soon as possible turn to peace the fratricidal war on the historic lands of Holy Rus’, where our common ancestors received Holy Baptism under the Equal-to-the-Apostles Great Prince Vladimir; and that the persecutions against the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church, headed by His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry, may cease—persecutions against her hierarchs, clergy, and faithful, who are being driven from the churches of God. These events recall the times of the godless persecutions, of which Saint Tikhon, Patriarch of Moscow and Confessor, spoke already in 1917: upon the lands of Holy Rus’, “the instruments of death resound in fratricidal strife…”

War has once again reached the Holy Land, directly affecting our monastic communities—above all, the monasteries and churches in Gethsemane and on the Mount of Olives. As pilgrimage to the Holy Land is presently impossible, life there has become increasingly difficult for the monastics. The participants of the meeting call upon their flock to offer generous support to the special collections for the needs of our Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in Jerusalem, which will take place in all parishes of our Diocese on Palm Sunday.

The times are truly тяжкие for all, but especially for those who seek the Lord. Yet, despite this—or perhaps precisely because of it—the number of parishes, faithful, and clergy in our Diocese, as well as throughout North America, continues to grow among Canadians and other North Americans of non-Russian and non-Slavic background. The light of Christ has illumined them, coming to them precisely through the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia. This is no accident: by God’s mercy, the Russian Orthodox Church from the beginning avoided what is known as the heresy of “ethnophyletism.” That is, to be Orthodox within the sphere of Russian civilization is by no means merely an ethnic or national category. Our parishes in Canada and the United States, where services are conducted in English, are no longer rare and no longer surprising. At our present gathering in Hamilton, three clergymen of Canadian background spoke of their path to Christ, which led them to receive holy orders within the Russian Church.

At the meeting, attention was also given to commemorative dates connected with the names of great laborers in the field of the Church in the Russian Diaspora, particularly those associated with the Canadian Diocese. Among them were our ever-memorable First Hierarchs, Metropolitans Vitaly and Laurus. Metropolitan Hilarion was born in the province of Alberta in 1948, and the possibility of establishing a memorial chapel in his honor was discussed, as there exists a church building not far from his birthplace. Due attention was given to Church history and the history of our Fatherland. A memorial litia was served for the repose of those whose anniversaries fall in the present year: Metropolitans Vitaly and Laurus, Archbishop Averky, and the Right-Believing Emperor Paul I, on the occasion of the 225th anniversary of his repose. A detailed report was presented on the labors of Archbishop Averky, and much was also said concerning Emperor Paul I. In the near future, through the efforts of Archpriest Maxim Abroskin, rector of the Church of the Smolensk Icon of the Mother of God (Jackson’s Point, Ontario), an exhibition dedicated to this much-maligned and still insufficiently understood Russian sovereign will be opened at that parish. This year also marks the centenary of the parish of St. Nicholas in Vancouver (British Columbia); the date of the celebrations will be announced in due course.

Yet above all, the most important aspect for us was the very essence of the gathering: Lenten preparation, prayer, and the divine services. The prayerful spirit contributed to the calm and meek discussion of all matters pertaining to the daily life of our God-preserved Diocese.

Link: Resolution of the Pastoral Retreat and Clergy Assembly of the Canadian Diocese