“Problems Must First of All be Decided by the Church Itself”
Interview with Bishop Gabriel by correspondent
Sergei Bychkov of the Moscow Komsomolets

How did the meeting with the Russian president go?

We met in New York at the Russian Consulate. On the Russian side, besides the President, the meeting was attended by Archimandrite Tikhon (Shevkunov), the Superior of Sretensky Monastery in Moscow, and Yuri Ushakov, the Russian Consul to the USA. We were represented by the First Hierarch, Metropolitan Laurus, Archbishop Mark of Berlin and Germany, Bishop Kyrill of San Francisco and Western America, and me. The President welcomed everyone, officially greeting Metropolitan Laurus, and presented him with a letter by His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Russia. Vladyka in turn greeted the President in the name of our Church. We then stood, and presented the gift of an icon of St. Elizaveta Feodorovna...

The Grand Duchess who was executed by the bolsheviks in 1918?

It turned out that the President knew of her life and of her husband’s murder, and he venerates her. The icon contains a portion of the relics of St. Elizabeth, which are kept in the Holy Land, at our monastery on the Mount of Olives. President Putin gave the Metropolitan an icon of the Holy Trinity, since the latter resides at Holy Trinity Monastery in Jordanville, and a book on the Kremlin. The President told us of the changes in Russia, assuring us that Russia would never return to a totalitarian regime.

Did the conversation touch upon Church property of arguable ownership? For after the revolution, some of the churches and monasteries went under your Church...
We discussed this matter. Today, there are some 4 million Russians in the USA–this is the fourth, and largest, Russian emigration wave from Russia. In New York alone there are almost one million Russians. Our church has 250 parishes throughout the world. Unfortunately, the old emigration is dying out, and their children are assimilating as a result of mixed marriages. We thought that some parishes were destined to close. But the new wave since the early 1990's provided a significant infusion into our Church.

There were probably preliminary discussions on the matter of meeting the President?

I met with President Putin in September 2001. This was after the terrorist attack in New York. There was an official reception at the consulate, and I was among the invitees. My conversation with the President lasted no more than a minute. In September, the Superior of Sretensky Monastery, Fr. Tikhon, came to the session of the Synod of Bishops. He relayed the message of President Putin to the bishops and declared the former’s desire to meet with us. Our meeting was to have lasted 40 minutes, but it actually lasted over two hours. This despite the fact that he had two important meetings before this, with Chirac and Schreder.
Christians in Russia are most of all concerned with the problem of the unification of the two churches...

The President shared with us his desire to see a united Russian Church, though he recognized that we have certain problems dividing us. Naturally, they must first of all be decided by the Church herself. Metropolitan Laurus assured Putin that we will discuss the question of unification at the Council of Bishops in December of this year.

During dinner, we spoke of the necessity for the spiritual education of the Russian people. We feel that it is important to introduce the Law of God into school curricula. The President reacted positively to this, but said that an obstacle may be the multi-national makeup of the country. I suggested to Vladimir Vladimirovich that the government should, together with the Church, consider how to designate one day during which Russia commemorates the many millions of victims of communism and the bloody regime. This should not be a “day off,” which often ends in inebriation, but a day of sorrow. In the West, we knew more about the victims of communism that in the Soviet Union. By the most conservative estimates, 60 million Russians were killed. The President said that he would discuss this with the Patriarch.

Official reports of this meeting stated that Bishop Mercurius, who heads the Patriarchal parishes in the USA, was present at this meeting. Is this so?

This is untrue. Besides Archimandrite Tikhon, there were no other representatives of Moscow present.

What obstacles remain for the unification of the two branches of the Russian Church?

First of all, in my opinion, the declaration of Metropolitan Sergius of 1927 and the cooperation of the bishops with the atheists. I feel that a recognition of the error of their chosen path is needed. None of the hierarchs of the Moscow Patriarchate have brought repentance in this historic sin. The second problem is ecumenism, to which the Moscow Patriarchate has remained devoted to this day.

What else did President Putin and Metropolitan Laurus discuss?

The President recounted in detail his visit to Valaam in August of 2001. Metropolitan Laurus said that he made a visit, incognito, to Valaam that same August. The monastery is undergoing a rebirth, and we are prepared to help this renewal of Orthodoxy in Russia in any way we can.

MK
10/10/2003
Sergei Bychkov, New York/Moscow