Re: ROCOR

No one is baiting and no one is ratcheting the discussion up. The facts speak for themselves. ROCOR has wilfully separated herself from 90% of worldwide Orthodoxy, Panteleimonite period notwithstanding. One has only to read ROCOR periodicals (and I do) to appreciate the polemic nature of such. ROCOR is constantly throwing spitballs at the MP and the EP and that does not bode well for your argument. Indeed, I also remember the local ROCOR refusal to participate in our Pan Orthodox services back home. Instead a few not-so-faithful-ROCORites came and kept a very low profile, afraid, no doubt, that their presence would be reported to their priests. ROCOR has also refused to cooperate with SCOBA and that is yet another example of her self-righteous stance. Have you not seen the splintering in ROCOR over the past few decades? I can name at least two splinter groups who are, quite frankly, a scandal to the Body of Christ. This is the fruit of schism and why St John Chrysostom warned so vehemently against such. The literal kidnapping of ROCOR's former hierarch is yet another sorry chapter in its recent history.

Lest I be misunderstood, I have friends within ROCOR but they are working towards ROCOR's re-entry into the canonical Orthodox family and not the other way around.