August 15, 7533
–Gleb Chistyakov At the outset of my presentation, I would like to turn to the relatively recent past—the late 1980s and early 1990s. This was, without exaggeration, a romantic time when many believed that a truly free and genuinely equal society was just around the corner. Terms such as people’s power, pluralism, multiparty system, freedom…
The heresy of Nikonianism lies in its departure from the historical Orthodox faith that had been continuously upheld in Russia. Everything else stemmed from this event. Following the infamous “Great Moscow Council of 1666,” which anathematized historical Russian Orthodoxy, a separate existence began for the schismatic hierarchy of the Russian Church and part of its…
“And a heavy darkness… then covered Russia.”— Andrey Denisov, Funeral Oration for Peter Prokopyev Ты была ХристоваДо шездесят шестова… (You were Christ’sUntil sixty-six…)— Old Believer spiritual verse, “On the Nikonians” Long before the onset of Nikon’s “ventures” in Russia, when nothing seemed to foreshadow the impending catastrophe that would befall the Russian Church, the first…
As is known, Old Believers refer to the “nominal” finger arrangement used by Nikonite priests during blessings as “Malaksa.” This practice is named after Nikola Malaksa, a native of the city of Nafplion on the Peloponnese peninsula. Nikola was born after 1573 and received his education in Constantinople. Following the Turkish conquest of the region…
At the start of the 21st century, no one disputes that the church schism of the mid-17th century was one of the most tragic and bloody chapters in Russian history. The church reformation, initiated 350 years ago by Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich and Patriarch Nikon, not only split the Russian Church but also divided Russian history…
“May the Lord bring together those who are divided, so that in love for one another we may confess and glorify with one mouth and one heart the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, the Consubstantial and Indivisible Trinity.”(From the Acts of the New Ritualist Council of 1971) A few years ago, I asked…
The question of faith—whom to believe in, how to pray correctly, and how to glorify God—was one of the central issues following the schism in the Russian Church in the 17th century. While the ritual differences between Old Believers and New Ritualists have been thoroughly studied in both polemical and scholarly literature, questions of dogmatic…
According to Christian doctrine, everything that exists, apart from God Himself, is God’s creation. All that exists has its cause in God and is therefore intimately connected with Him. Unfortunately, rational beings do not always understand this; yet, even if creation does not acknowledge it, it was, is, and will always remain a manifestation of…
To address this, we must first ask: Why did God create humanity? God had no need to create humans. God is the Holy Trinity, and He does not experience loneliness or lack. He created humanity out of the abundance of His love. Like a loving parent, God desires love in return from the beings He created. However,…
By Bishop Mikhail (Semyonov) The Old Believers are most frequently accused of “ritualism,” that is, of stubbornly venerating rituals even more than dogma. Their reverence for ritual is often regarded as little less than idolatry. But is ritual really something insignificant, of little importance in the order of spiritual life? We have already written briefly…