DOCUMENT: APPEAL FROM CLERGY AND FLOCK OF THE SIMBIRSK DIOCESE OF RPTsMP TO THEIR FORMER BISHOP, METROPOLITAN FEOFAN
Your Eminence!
The clergy and flock of the Simbirsk diocese are appealing to you. When we learned that you, the archpastor whom we fervently love, had been transferred to the Kazan see, our heart was filled with pain and sorrow. However, even greater pain was evoked by the appointment of the metropolitan of Kazan to the ancient Simbirsk see.
We live in a century when, in accordance with the Savior's words, "There is nothing secret that will not be made evident" (Mark 4.22; Luke 8.17). Of course, rumors reached us about the gay scandal in the diocese entrusted to Metropolitan Anastasy in that period. According to the 90th rule of the collection of Carthagenian councils (79th rule of the local Carthagenian council of 401), he was supposed to clear his name within the course of a year.
Because the rule says: "Determined: when there is a denunciation of a member of the clergy, and several accusations are announced, then partly in order to deflect criticism of the church and partly for the sake of the dignity of the clergy, and partly to avoid the proud insolence of heretics and pagans, if they wish, as they should, to defend their cause and provide proofs of their innocence, let them do this within a year of their excommunication. If in the course of a year they fail to clear their case, then after this no word from them will be admitted."
Here is the interpretation of this rule: "Since each cleric must enjoy a good name, then the rule issued on this matter prescribes the following: if as the consequence of some crimes a complaint is lodged publicly against a cleric or a rumor circulates in society that they have done some crime, then for the sake of their good name and the authority of the church, they should make every effort in order to justify themselves within a year before a church court, and also to demonstrate their innocence before public opinion. If they do not manage to do this within the designated time, then they lose the right to vindication and they are sent to trial. And the condition that, as the rule orders, such clerics must be excommunicated for a year is not because they have been proven guilty on the basis of the accusation, as Zonar's interpretation of this rule says, (since in that case they would have been deposed), but only because they gave people some doubt as to whether they have committed the crime" (Athenian Sintagma, III, 502).
The blessed Augustine says every cleric must always have two things before his eyes: conscience and a good name. For us, conscience is sufficient, but for the sake of others, we must have a good name. "Conscience for you and a good name for the sake of your neighbor."
The document adopted on 4 February 2011, by the bishops' council of the Russian Orthodox Church, "Attitude of the Russian Orthodox Church toward intended public blasphemy and slander against the church," specified the means by which Metropolitan Anastasy was supposed to put a stop to slanders against him and, inasmuch as he is a metropolitan, that means also against the Kazan metropolitanate.
Here are these means:
--attempt to enter into negotiations with appropriate news media, a journalist, politician, or public or religious leader with the goal of clarifying his position and conducting an honest and open discussion. If he does not achieve understanding and reconciliation, it is necessary to cease cooperation with them;
--demand from the editorial staff of news media a refutation of reports not corresponding to reality and damaging the honor and dignity of the church and its representatives, which had been spread in those new media;
--publication of materials refuting the libelous information that has been distributed;
--exercise his right established by law for any believer or Orthodox organization to answer (comment, reply) information published in news media that does not correspond to reality or infringes upon his right and legal interests, in the same news media;
--appeal to an arbitration organization with a complaint against the author of libelous material in a self-regulating journalistic organization;
--filing by an individual of a lawsuit in a civil proceeding for defense of honor and dignity or filing by an Orthodox organization of a lawsuit in a civil proceeding for defense of business reputation;
--application to open a criminal case for slander or insult, and in the event of spreading libelous information on the part of an undefined circle of persons on the basis of attitude toward Orthodox Christianity, application to open a criminal case for inciting religious strife and demeaning of human dignity on the basis of attitude toward religion or application to issue a warning about the impermissibility of such actions;
--tradition of the canonical interdiction of those guilty of libelous actions, if they are Orthodox Christians.
Metropolitan Anastasy has not done any of the enumerated things. Materials dishonoring him are freely available on the Internet, and he has not appealed to a church court for defending his name. Therefore we, as faithful servants of the Russian Orthodox Church, cannot accept Metropolitan Anastasy as the ruling bishop of the Simbirsk diocese until he acts in accordance with the 90th rule of the Carthagenian collection and clears his good name.
We ask you, Your Eminence, to inform Vladyka Anastasy, as your possible successor, of our position, which is based not on a desire to introduce schism or division in the Simbirsk church but purely on the firm conviction that the canons of the church that apply to the moral image of an archpastor must be strictly observed.
Every day a multitude of people appeal to priests of the Simbirsk diocese, who are extremely embarrassed by the dire rumors about Metropolitan Anastasy. They are on the brink of leaving our church. We implore Vladyka Anastasy to pity "the least of these" (each of the priests signing this appeal knows dozens of such persons) and to display a feat of Christian humility and to retire, or to display some other form of courage and in a judicial and canonical way prove the error of the accusations against him. Moreover, we are forced to testify that the feelings of many believers are so tense and shamed by the rumors circulating that they are ready to enter into a confrontation with the new metropolitan if he, despite our request, tries to take the see under his control by force.
We hope that you, as our beloved father and archpastor, will not be indifferent to the misfortune befalling the see, for whose revival you have devoted so much energy and health
The orphaned children of your Eminence
(tr. by PDS, posted 20 July 2015)
Russian original posted on Portal-credo.ru site, 16 July 2015
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