Why is the Russian Orthodox Old-Rite Church (RPSC) the true Church of Christ, and not the New Rite Church? After all, many call Old Believers schismatics. #

The Holy Fathers call schismatics (heretics of the second rank) those who introduce novelties into Church tradition, thereby separating themselves from the unity of faith.

The Orthodox Old Believers not only introduced no novelties but actively resisted the innovations attempted by Patriarch Nikon and his like-minded followers.

The holy martyr Protopriest Avvakum wrote in his Fifth Petition to Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich:

“What is our heresy, or what schism have we brought into the Church, as the Nikonian liars write about us, calling us schismatics and heretics in their deceitful and God-hated ‘Staff’ (the book The Staff of Governance), and elsewhere even forerunners of the Antichrist? We know no heresies within ourselves—may the Son of God spare us from such impiety now and in the future—nor any schisms. God is our witness, as are the Most Pure Mother of God and all the saints! If we are schismatics and heretics, then so too are all our holy fathers, the pious rulers of old, and the holy patriarchs of the past. O heaven and earth, hear these flood-like words and their haughty tongues! Truly, O Tsar and Sovereign, we say to you: you dare boldly, but not to your benefit… If in our Orthodoxy, in the holy books of the fathers and their dogmas, there is found even a single heresy or blasphemy against Christ God and His Church, we are ready to be judged before all the Orthodox, even more so if we have introduced anything of our own—stumbling blocks or schisms—into the Church. But there is none, none! All the Church’s teachings are righteous for those who understand the truth and find sound reason in Christ Jesus, not in the elements of this world, for which we suffer, die, and shed our blood.”

The fact that the Orthodox Old-Rite Church of Christ contains no novelties or heresies is confirmed even by some New Rite theologians and preachers. For example, in the Exhortation of the Governing Synod to the Old Believers (1766), it is acknowledged that Old Believers in their two-finger sign of the cross “truly confess the Lord Jesus Christ” and do so “excellently.” Similarly, in the preface to the Psalter (1866), Synodal publishers wrote that Old Believers associate “no erroneous reasoning” with the two-finger sign. The same Exhortation addresses Old Believers with the following words:

“Tell us, you who call yourselves Old Believers… why do you separate yourselves from us? You believe in the One God, glorified in the Holy Trinity, just as we do; you confess the Savior of the world, our Lord Jesus Christ, just as we do; you honor the Holy Gospel and the holy Ecumenical and Local Councils as rules of faith and pious living, just as we do; you expect the resurrection of the dead, just as we do; you hold that there will be rewards for the righteous and punishment for the wicked, just as we do. In these beliefs lies the entire essence of faith.”

Church historians such as Professors N.F. Kapterev and E.E. Golubinsky convincingly demonstrated that the “old rites” are Orthodox traditions, not invented by the Old Believers, but adopted by the Russian Church from the ancient Orthodox Greek Church during the Baptism of Rus and preserved unchanged until the time of Patriarch Nikon. At the Local Council of the Moscow Patriarchate in 1971, Metropolitan Nikodim (Rotov) delivered a report stating:

“The Great Moscow Council of 1667 anathematized the Old Believers based on an incorrect view of the old Russian Church rites as heretical.”

After hearing this report, the Council of the Moscow Patriarchate lifted the anathemas imposed on the old rites in the 17th century, declaring all curses pronounced against them “as if they had never existed.”

Earlier, in 1929, the Synod of the Moscow Patriarchate wrote in its decree lifting the oaths against the Old Believers:

“We recognize the liturgical books printed under the first five Russian Patriarchs as Orthodox; the Church rites cherished by many Orthodox, Edinovertsy, and Old Believers as salvific in their inner significance and unity with the Holy Church. The two-finger sign of the cross, symbolizing the Holy Trinity and the two natures of our Lord Jesus Christ, was undoubtedly practiced in the Church of earlier times… Condemnatory expressions concerning the old rites, particularly the two-finger sign, wherever they may be found and whoever may have uttered them, we reject as if they had never existed.”

Thus, the Orthodox Old-Rite Church introduced no innovations and remained faithful to ancient Church Tradition. The New Rite Church itself acknowledges that it was the one to introduce novelties in the 17th century, declaring the Church’s ancient Orthodox traditions heretical and anathematizing them, thereby blaspheming against the Orthodox Church as if it had harbored heresy until Nikon’s reforms. Based on this, we believe that it was the New Rite Church that created the Schism, breaking spiritual unity with the Church of Christ, while our Church has remained, and continues to remain, the true Church of Christ on earth.

— Archpriest Vadim Korovin