Author: Vlad Cubreacov
August 18, 2010
The Russian Synod and the Abbess from Coada Iazului
On October 10 [2009] at St. Petersburg, the Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church [BORusia] took place. Metropolitan Vladimir of Chisinau and”All Moldova” [Hierarch under Moscow obedience] was present, as he always is… Excerpts from an article found on Cubreacov.wordpress.com/2009/10-12
(an unofficial translation)
Different issues were discussed [at the Synod]… some referred to the Moldovan Republic. In this context, Archimandrite Nicodim (Ion Vulpe) from Orhei was included on the editorial board of BORusia. Dean, Fr. Anatolie Zmeu was delegated by the Russian bishops to serve in Italy „ to start parish communities for Moldovans there” … The Russian Synod then decided to „relieve Abbess Xenia (Rusanovskaia) from her position at Tabăra monastery and name as new Abbess there Minodora (Borş) from Coada Iazului monastery”.
No particular attention would have been accorded the above facts had it not been for… [the Chisinau Metropolitanate] a few days ago flattering itself, on its own website, with its „independence” and its incensed 1993 „Tomos”, that piece of paper, void of any reality, but always passed under our Christian noses here [in the Moldovan Republic as proof of the]… „Independence” possessed by the local church structure of BORusia, reinstated here after the arrival of the Soviet tanks; which is really nothing but a pseudo-independence which is neither autocephalous nor autonomous. It is but a fiction invented by the Russian Synod… For those who do not know the real situation, and after hearing repeatedly about this „independence”, they might even believe that, from a Church perspective, Moldovan Chisinau might even be equal to that of Russian Moscow; which is surely false, given that the Moscow Patriarchate’s structure in the Moldovan Republic is as „independent” as any any Metropolitanate from within the Russian Federation. And for those situations where a “Tomos of independence” has been granted, the Russians have a telling expression: filkina gramota! [that is an invalid, obscure document].
Metropolitan Vladimir… holding the much-praised „Tomos” in his hand, doesn’t have the most basic right of naming or letting go a monastery abbess without the accord of the Russian Mother Patriarchate! Can you imagine what value and real substance exists in the „independence” „Tomos”
when the Moscow Synod must be convened for handling the problem of the abbess at Coada Iazului? …
… And when you know these things my brothers, don’t you want to ask: which „Tomos”, what„independence”? This topic merits returning to; but at another time.