On the Temporary Period When the Church of Christ Was Without a Bishop #
A Dialogue between an Old Ritualist, a Priestless Old Believer, and a New Ritualist
In one place, three people gathered:
- Old Ritualist – A follower of the old rites, who accepts the priesthood of the Belokrinitsky Metropolia.
- Priestless Old Believer – Also an adherent of the old rites, but without a priesthood.
- New Ritualist: – A member of the dominant church in Russia, which has followed the new rites since the time of Nikon.
They engaged in the following conversation.
On the Widowhood of the Church #
New Ritualist: I am amazed at you schismatics. Many of you are reasonable people. Do they not understand the falsehood and illegitimacy of their community’s position? I refer to the well-known fact that in this community, there was no bishop from the time of Patriarch Nikon, or the Council of 1666, until Metropolitan Ambrose joined in 1846, a period of exactly one hundred and eighty years. Does this not trouble you at all, nor make you doubt the righteousness of a community that went one hundred and eighty years without a bishop?
Old Ritualist: On the contrary, it is precisely this fact—that the Old Believer Church of Christ was without a bishop for so many years—that further convinces me of the righteousness and strength of this Church.
New Ritualist: How so?
Old Ritualist: In this way: that despite not having a bishop for many years, this Church did not adopt any heresies or false teachings, nor did it alter the Orthodox faith and church traditions in any way, preserving them as the apple of its eye. This is truly worthy of great wonder, reverence, and praise: to preserve the Orthodox faith without alteration, even without bishops, when we see that all other churches, though possessing many bishops, have accepted various errors and ceased to be the Orthodox Church. A Church is called Orthodox not because it has bishops, but because it holds to the Orthodox faith. The Old Believer Church holds this faith without the slightest mixture of error, as even your own synod testifies (Synodal Admonition, p. 35).\footnote{The references used are given as found in the printed Russian edition. The title names have been translated into English, however the books themselves in almost all cases have not.*
New Ritualist: Let that be so. Let us agree that your Church holds no heresies and is entirely Orthodox in faith, but it still cannot be the true Church of Christ. You yourself admit that you were without a bishop for one hundred and eighty years, and without a bishop, the Church is called a widow. This is well-supported by the writings of Ozerov (Vol. 1, Part 2, p. 4).
But if your Church was a widow, then how could it have offspring? If it did bear children, then surely they were illegitimate. God could never allow such shame and disgrace to His Church. Only your schismatic church could sink to such a disgraceful state that everyone reproaches and scorns it for its widowhood, as if it were abandoned by God. Our Orthodox Church, however, has never been a widow and never will be. She will not reach such disgrace as to be widowed and lament her condition; she sits as a queen in the world.
Old Ritualist: Speaking impartially, I must acknowledge that much of what you say about the widowhood of the Church is true. It is true that without a bishop, the Church is called a widow; it is true that your Church reigns, outwardly appearing not to be widowed; it is also true that the Old Believer Church was widowed, having no bishop. Now we must consider which of them is the true Church of Christ, and which is false, heretical: the widowed or the non-widowed? Let us listen to what Holy Scripture says about this. Concerning the widowed Church, we read in the book of the prophet Isaiah:
But Zion said, “The Lord hath forsaken me, and God hath forgotten me.” Shall a woman forget her child, that she should not have compassion on the offspring of her womb? Yea, though a woman may forget, yet will I not forget thee, saith the Lord. Behold, I have graven thy walls upon my hands, and thou art ever before me; and soon shalt thou be rebuilt by those who have torn thee down, and those who laid thee waste shall go out from thee. Lift up thine eyes round about and see all these gathered together and come unto thee. As I live, saith the Lord, thou shalt clothe thyself with them as with an ornament, and bind them upon thee as a bride doth her jewels. For thy desolate places and thy destroyed places and thy fallen places shall now be too narrow for those who dwell within, and they that swallowed thee up shall depart far from thee. Thy children, whom thou hadst lost, shall say in thine ears, “This place is too strait for me; give place to me that I may dwell.” And thou shalt say in thine heart, “Who hath begotten me these, seeing I was childless and a widow? And who hath reared these? Behold, I was left alone; whence then have these come to me?” (Isaiah 49:14-21).
Thus, not only you but even the Church herself wonders and is puzzled as to how she has offspring when she was a widow.
For the Lord hath said: “Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thy habitation; spare not, lengthen thy cords and strengthen thy stakes. Spread out to the right hand and to the left, and thy seed shall inherit the nations and make the desolate cities to be inhabited. Fear not, for thou shalt not be put to shame, nor be confounded, for thou shalt forget the shame of thy youth and shalt remember the reproach of thy widowhood no more. For thy Maker is thine husband, the Lord of Hosts is His name, and thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel; He shall be called the God of all the earth. Not as a forsaken and brokenhearted woman hath the Lord called thee, nor as a woman despised from her youth, saith thy God. For a little while I forsook thee, but with great mercy will I gather thee. In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment, but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee,” saith the Lord thy Redeemer. (Isaiah 54:1-8).
This is what the true Church of Christ is like. Contrary to your assertions, she is found to be, according to Holy Scripture itself, a Church that is widowed, reproached, shamed, and even seemingly abandoned by God. And all these attributes you have yourselves applied to the Old Believer Church; therefore, she is the Church of Christ.
Now let us look at the other church—the one that is not disgraced, that reigns, that is not widowed—in other words, your New Ritualist Church. About this church, the book of Revelation, chapter 18, says the following:
And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory. And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, “Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird. For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies.” And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, “Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities. Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works: in the cup which she hath filled, fill to her double. How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her: for she saith in her heart, `I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow.’ Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her” (Rev. 18:1-8).
Thus, Scripture presents two churches: one that appears abandoned by God, reproached, and disgraced precisely because it is widowed, and which, by human reasoning, could hardly be considered worse. But according to Scripture, this is the Church of Christ. The other church, reigning and ruling, knows no tears or sorrow precisely because she is not a widow; she seems to be the best church. But according to the Word of God, she is “the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird,” the adulterous Babylon, which is to say, the heretical church. The marks of the first church you have applied to the Old Believer Church of Christ, while the characteristics of the second church you apply to your New Ritualist Church.
This is why the fact that the Old Believer Church went one hundred and eighty years without a bishop, that it was widowed for such a long time, does not disturb me but rather strengthens and confirms my conviction that this Church is indeed the true Church of Christ.
Priestless Believer: I am very glad that you have vindicated us. You have proven that a church which is widowed, reproached, and seemingly abandoned by God is the Church of Christ. Such is our Priestless Church. The non-widowed church, on the other hand, is the heretical Nikonian Church. All this is true, and it fully justifies us.
Old Ritualist: You rejoice prematurely. The passages I cited from the prophet Isaiah concerning the widowed church do not justify you but rather directly condemn you, Priestless Believers. You teach that if God has abandoned His Church, it is forever; but the prophet Isaiah says it is not forever, only for a little while. It is written: “For a small moment have I forsaken thee; but with great mercies will I gather thee. In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment; but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the Lord thy Redeemer” (Isaiah 54:7-8). And regarding the widowhood of the Church, it is said that it will pass: “Fear not; for thou shalt not be ashamed: neither be thou confounded; for thou shalt not be put to shame: for thou shalt forget the shame of thy youth, and shalt not remember the reproach of thy widowhood any more” (Isaiah 54:4). Why? Because, it continues, “thou shalt forget the shame of thy youth, and shalt not remember the reproach of thy widowhood any more.” This means it will pass, it will end, and the Church will no longer even remember it. But you, Priestless Believers, preach that the Church will be widowed forever; the Runaway Priests (Beglopopovtsy) say and believe the same. Thus, the passages from the prophet Isaiah about the widowed church condemn both you and the Runaway Priests, while they justify our Old Believer Church, which indeed was widowed only for a time.
New Ritualist: All of this would be valid if the words of the prophet Isaiah you cited referred to the New Testament Church and not the Old Testament Church. But our Church’s theologians and exegetes interpret these prophecies as pertaining to the Old Testament Church, specifically to the time of the Babylonian captivity. In The Explanation of the Book of the Prophet Isaiah by Bishop Peter, it is stated: “By widowhood, the prophet refers to the time of the Babylonian captivity, when it seemed as though God had entirely abandoned His people without any care or help. Thus the prophet Jeremiah says, `Israel and Judah have not been forsaken by their God’ (Jeremiah 51:5). This refers to their deliverance from the Babylonian captivity” (Explanation of the Book of the Prophet Isaiah, Bishop Peter, p. 210, 1887 edition).
Old Ritualist: You seem to forget that the Old Testament Church was a prototype of the New Testament Church, and therefore everything spoken by the prophets about the former also applies to the latter. St. Ephraim the Syrian says, “The present state is a type of captivity (Babylonian). If all things in the Old Testament had both typology and reality, then the battles and their consequences also had typology and reality” (Works of St. Ephraim the Syrian, Part 5, p. 630). He says in another place, “The mystical meaning almost always follows the historical. What the prophets say about events that happened or would happen to the people of God (the Jews), must be related to the future state of the Church of Christ, and in general serves to depict God’s arrangements for all the righteous and the wicked” (Works of St. Ephraim the Syrian, Part 1, p. 68-69; Part 5, p. 513).
Thus, even if the passage we cited from the book of the prophet Isaiah truly referred to the Old Testament Church, according to the teaching of the holy fathers, it must, without doubt, also be applied to the New Testament Church.