Now at the conclusion, we confess once again the Orthodox Faith is this, that we worship One God in Trinity, and the Trinity in Unity, neither confounding the persons (hypostasis), nor dividing the substance (Symbol d’Athanasius). It is well to take note of the pious advice of Thomas a Kempis, who says: “What will it profit us when we study deeply concerning the Trinity, if we be found lacking in humility and thereby are displeasing to the Most Holy Trinity?” We realize that we are far from being perfect. We keenly feel our defects, and in a certain way our unwholesomeness, notwithstanding that we do confess the Orthodox Faith. Christians of the Eastern Church may learn much to their gain from the Western Church. We may imitate your great Sunday schools for little children, and Bible classes for the people. We may imitate the universal spread of printed matter and knowledge, and also the general public’s interest in matters and knowledge purely spiritual among you. Not to point out both Roman Catholic and Protestant methods, we may at least imitate the zeal of your missionaries, women as well as men. We may imitate the private and public devotion of many who profess to be not simply nominal, but converted, i.e., active Christians.
In The Gazette-Journal, St. Petersburg, No. 17, of March 1st, 1901, in an article dealing with the evils of the day, under the heading “At Home,” among other things, we read:
“Of the 200 annual graduates of the Church Universities, not more than twenty become priests. One of the causes for their dislike to the cassock is hidden in the fact that to the (theological) seminarians is debarred the approach to secular higher institutions of learning. On this account seminarians enter the theological academies, not because of a vocation, but involuntarily, for the sake of a diploma. The order of religious subjects and sciences and the extreme monotony in which they are treated help to create the indifference to service in the spiritual (cleric) ranks. Other causes are: the clergy’s remuneration through voluntary giving at the performance of their service (as to the poor), regard for relationship ties and the protection to certain ones seeking the position of priests, attaching livings to intended brides, diocesan Bishops’ dislike for priests with the higher degrees of learning, and the servile dependency of the clergy upon the judgment of the Bishop and other persons, sometimes that of his secretary, and even that of the Bishop’s servant, also with regard to the attitude of vulgar petty officers in the consistories and the clerks, which of course are unbearable to a man with developed self-consciousness.”
With us the extreme slowness to organize new and independent Dioceses is a great drawback. We see that the Anglican Church has not only a Diocese in almost each province of the world, but in many comparatively small States she has as many as three Bishops. The ancient practice was that one Bishop should rule over a city; now we have the very opposite in the Russian Empire, where there is but one Bishop presiding over thousands of miles of territory, with one million communicants and many thousands of other souls outside the influence of the Church. There are Dioceses literally loaded with wealth, and then again not many miles away there are Dioceses in need of bread for subsistence.
Those who will study the doctrine of the Eastern Church, not in the errors and weakness of human superstitions and failings, but in her own divinely inspired rites and institutions, will appreciate the matchless purity of our beloved Church. Let us not be misunderstood. We do not assume to ourselves any prerogative of goodness; on the contrary, woe unto us who have so little profited by the perfect holiness of our Mother Church. The best among us fall grievously short of the ideal of the Church, which towers high above us, bearing aloft the standard of the cross.
Truly glorious and divine is the plan of our Church, but beware of judging her by the failures and errors of her unworthy Children.
In her daily offices1, our Mother the Church calling the faithful to prayer, teaches us thus: Let us pray to the Lord for the peace of the whole world, the good estate of the holy Churches of God, and the union of them all.
For the unity of the Faith, and the communion of the Holy Spirit making request, let us commend ourselves and one another and all our life to Christ the God.
Miscellaneous Writings >
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Vespers, Matins, Liturgy, etc.