the holy new martyrs of eastern russia - Coptic Orthodox teaching

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decisive protest against the criminal time-serving of Metropolitan Sergius and
his eparchs in relation to Soviet power, his allowing the GPU to
unceremoniously interfere in the inner life of the Church of Christ. This
interference of foreign elements in the appointment of bishops to sees and in
other spheres of church life cannot be justified by the church canons and the
rule of the Holy Fathers, the more so in that with us the Church is separated
from the state.
“Our struggle with Metropolitan Sergius, this champion of Bolshevik
caesaropapism, is a very honourable struggle - it is a struggle for the Truth of
Christ God, for the Holy Orthodox Church, which has been betrayed for
thirty pieces of silver to humiliation, destruction and liquidation. We are
frightened, not of Metropolitan Sergius and those who share his views and his
successors, but of those who support him by brute force. If the punitive forces
of the GPU were not on his side, those who think like him and his successors
would have been defeated long ago. This was confirmed by the denunciations
of secret agents of the GPU, who said that the people would have left him as a
turncoat and traitor of the Church of Christ.
“Our new tragedy consists in the fact that the bishops who have warred
against Metropolitan Sergius have found themselves under the heel of the
GPU. Thus Metropolitans Peter of Krutitsa and Cyril of Kazan have been
banished to the distant tundra. Joseph of Petrograd has been imprisoned
amidst the sands of [Central] Asia. Archbishop Demetrius is in the very strict
Yaroslavl isolator. Vladyka Victor is somewhere in the northern regions. Your
humble servant was confined for ten years in the concentration camps, while
Bishops Hierotheus, Alexis and Maximus were shot. A similar fate, that is, a
lengthy term of imprisonment in concentration camps and exile, awaited
many of the clergy and laity who decided to speak out against Metropolitan
Sergius and his like-minded minions.
“As early as my own break with Metropolitan Sergius, on February 6, 1928,
I foresaw that although our struggle for the Truth of Christ was holy, it would
be weak and without success. From the history of the Church we see that all
the fighters for the Truth of Christ perished in the struggle and that the work
of God for which they struggled triumphed only after their death. That is
what will happen in our struggle with sergianism. The people has become
indifferent and lukewarm towards church questions, while the clergy - in its
greater part, that is - have become simply fulfillers of the rites whose only
concern is to have enough to eat and live quietly. Meanwhile they will not
balk at force or any other methods however immoral, against us, the
opponents of sergianism, for example: denunciations, false rumours, making
brawlers tipsy at parish meetings, etc. Thus Metropolitan Sergius published a
slander against me, saying that I had ordained a bigamist to the priesthood,
while I would never think or dream of doing such a thing. Although our
struggle is holy and just, we are weak. I personally have no hopes of being
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