Do Old Believers and New Ritualists share the same faith? #
Salvation can only be attained by uniting with Christ. And one can unite with Christ only by becoming part of His mystical Body—the Church. The Heavenly Church and the earthly Church together form one single Body. Such a Body can only be one.
“He is the head of the body, the Church.”
(Colossians 1:18)
Just as one head can only have one body, so Christ has only one Church. Groups that do not recognize each other cannot form one Body.
“The eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee: nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you.”
(1 Corinthians 12:21)
Christ also said:
“Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand.”
(Matthew 12:25)
And regarding the Church:
“I will build My Church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”
(Matthew 16:18)
Therefore, the Church cannot be divided or broken. One can only fall away from or break off from the Church through sin. Creating a parallel structure, even one that copies or externally resembles the Church and seems to preserve apostolic succession, cannot establish the Church by human effort. Christ said:
“I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me.”
(John 14:6)
Truth can only be one, and that Truth is Christ. This Truth can only be accepted, not recreated.
Old Believers and New Ritualists do not belong to a single church organization and do not partake of the same Chalice of Christ. The New Ritualist Church adopted a very different spirituality from that preserved in the ancient Russian Church and maintained by the Old Believers. A person’s spiritual state cannot be changed by decree or command.
Why, after the schism, were no Russians ordained as bishops in the dominant Church for almost 150 years? Because of the fear that a newly consecrated bishop might defect to the schism, as they called it at the time. It was not until a new spiritual system of education with new instructors was established, tested, and used to train several generations of seminarians and future priests that the Russian Church was firmly directed along its new path. Only when the fruits of Western spirituality were fully assimilated by the majority of the Russian clergy was the episcopate reopened to them.
In the 19th-century Russian theological seminaries, two competing influences—Latin and Protestant—shaped the study of Scripture, Church history, dogmatics, and theology through the works of Catholic and Protestant authors. Traditional Russian Orthodoxy was often mocked, dismissed as ignorance or schism. This spirit remains in the ROC to this day, albeit less overtly. It represents a new psychological type unknown to the ancient Russian Church—a constant sense of emptiness that must always be filled, leading to endless reforms and changes.
The image of the dominant Church in the media and online differs from reality. Books and films often convey correct teachings, quoting the Holy Fathers, but in practice, entirely different principles prevail. A false path leads to destruction. The image of God and ideas about Him may be correct, but the established practices, customs, and spiritual atmosphere may lead in the opposite direction, like misleading signs that divert one from the right path.
Old Believers and New Ritualists share many similarities, but this does not mean they share the same faith. A branch that breaks off from a tree is no longer part of it. Size is irrelevant—after a storm, the wind may topple a large tree, but if a small shoot emerges from living roots, it becomes the true tree, nourished by those roots. The broken trunk, no matter how large, is no longer connected to the source of life and grace.
Similarly, the earthly Church of Christ draws its life-giving grace from its union with Christ. If a group breaks away for political or human reasons, as the large New Ritualist branch once did, it also breaks away from the mystical Body of Christ.
— Priest Evgeny Gureev