Advertise in this spot on CatholicCulture.org. View all ads.

Catholic World News News Feature

Ecumenism as Seen by Outspoken Orthodox Priest July 21, 1999

By Aleksandr Shchipkov, Keston News Service

Three years ago, in November 1996, the Russian Orthodox Archbishop Yevsevi of Pskov and Velikiye Luki banned Archimandrite Teodor Zinon from serving the liturgy. Archimandrite Zinon, a famous icon-painter and 1995 laureate of the Russian State Prize, was punished for having taken communion with Catholics at a Mass celebrated in the Mirozh monastery in Pskov by an Italian Catholic priest, Father Romano Scalfi, the director of a Milan-based center for studies of Russian Christianity.

The punishment imposed on Archimandrite Zinon evoked a stormy reaction in the Catholic and Orthodox press. Archpriest Valentin Asmus, an Orthodox writer popular in church circles, supported Archbishop Yevsevi's move in the pages of the Moscow paper "Radonezh." But the French Orthodox theologian Olivier Clement spoke up in Archimandrite Zinon's defense in the Paris paper "Le Monde."

Father Scalfi wrote to Russian Orthodox Patriarch Alexei II to stress that in celebrating a Mass in an Orthodox monastery he had not intended to "violate canonical rules," but rather he wished to "overcome the painful divisions which still exist between our two churches."

Archimandrite Zinon for his part pointed to the precedents of ecumenical Eucharistic liturgies which had taken place with the blessing of the Moscow Patriarchate. In particular, in an interview with Igor Vinogradov, the editor of the journal "Kontinent," Archimandrite Zinon declared: "In the Trinity-St Sergius Monastery, when I was living there back in the days of Patriarch Pimen, the Smolensk church was specially assigned for Catholic services ... A Benedictine monk in the Pskov Monastery of the Caves took communion before my very eyes in Lent 1979 from the same chalice as Father Ioann Krestyankin, his deputy and all the venerable elders, and there was never any scandal about that."

Archimandrite Zinon remains barred from carrying out his priestly functions. He lives in the village of Gverston, 30 miles from Psko, close to the Russian- Estonian border. He has refused contact with the outside world, and does not travel anywhere. (Rumors that he spends a lot of time abroad have not been confirmed.) Nor does he receive visitors. Archimandrite Zinon refuses contact with the press and over a long period has not given a media interview. He made an exception for Keston News Service in this interview, recorded in July 1999.

Aleksandr Shchipkov (Keston): Father Zinon, it is three years since, on the order of your ruling ordinary, Archbishop Yevsevi, you have been banned and do not have the right to conduct the liturgy. The reason for the ban was your joint communion with Catholics.

Archimandrite Zinon: I did indeed take communion at a Catholic Mass which was celebrated by the Catholic priest Father Romano Scalfi in the church of the Mirozh monastery, which had not yet been consecrated.

This was not a public service, but it became known to Archbishop Yevsevi through a denunciation written by a certain emigre-tourist who is a parishioner of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad. He witnessed this service solely by chance. I do not intend to descend into canonical arguments over the fact that a ban was imposed on me through the testimony of a member of another Church. Likewise I do not intend to conceal the fact that I did take part in a joint Eucharist with Catholics.

It is possible that formally the bishop treated me correctly, though in the spirit of the Gospel incorrectly.

Keston: The prohibition may be lifted only if you recant?

Zinon: Our Church recognizes Catholic sacraments, so this means that it recognizes also the Catholic Church itself, as sacraments are not conducted outside the Church. You cannot approach Church sacraments without faith. I am being pressured to recant, but recant for what? That I took the Body and Blood of Christ? I cannot repent of that, as that would constitute direct blasphemy and mockery of Christ.

Keston: You are accused of absence of humility and excessive pride, the source of which is your realization of your own talent as an icon painter.

Zinon: An icon painter is not an artist in the worldly sense of the word. He must not express himself in the icon. He must paint the icon in a way so that it will be an aid to prayer. Icon painting is an integral part of divine service. A badly painted icon grates in the same way as bad church singing or poor, illiterate reading of the texts of the liturgy. The Lord gave me the ability to paint icons. My talents belong to him and I have nothing to be proud of about this.

I am not the only icon painter in the Church and I am prepared to submit if I am condemned as a sinner or as a bad icon painter. But I cannot submit when I am being forced to insult Church sacraments.

Keston: The Pskov clergy told me that Archbishop Yevsevi said of the sacraments of the Catholic Church that if an Orthodox Christian-- physically unable to take communion at an Orthodox liturgy-- takes the Holy Gifts from the hands of a Catholic priest he is indeed partaking of the Body and Blood of Christ. But if he goes to communion at a Catholic Mass without being compelled by necessity (for example here in Russia, where there are many Orthodox churches) he does not receive grace as in that case the Holy Gifts do not constitute the Body and Blood of Christ.

Zinon: Grace does not depend on geography or on political borders. Grace bears an ecumenical-- that is a universal-- character. The Jews did not maintain relations with the Samaritans, and the Samaritan woman whom Jesus asked for something to drink was surprised by his request. Do you remember how Jesus replied? "If you only knew what God is offering and who it is that is saying to you: 'Give me a drink,' you would have been the one to ask, and he would have given you living water." [Jn 4: 13-14] This is the example of ecumenism from the Gospel and it was Christ himself who gave it.

The essence of deep ecumenism lies not in overcoming jurisdictional arguments, but in seeing in the other your brother. It is impossible to view everyone around you as enemies. Latins have always been different from Byzantines, even before the Schism. Forms and traditions have differed. The Gospel truth has been absorbed into national cultures in their own way.

The schism exists, I agree; but heresy does not! The holy Filaret Drozdov did not even consider Lutherans as heretics. As for myself, I personally do not want to live any more with enmity.

Keston: Are you pessimistic about the future of our Church?

Zinon: I take a sober view. If the existing conditions continue, then we can expect nothing good ahead of us. One needs to be honest with oneself and with the members of the Church. The Church authorities are trying to please everyone: both the right and the left, the secular world and the world of the Church. But it is impossible to please everyone. Christ was without sin, yet even he did not please everyone. A sectarian spirit has enveloped our Church and there is a danger it could remain in the same isolation as the Orthodox Church Abroad. Self-isolation is death.

Keston: Have you thought of going over to Catholicism?

Zinon: I am a monk of the Russian Orthodox Church. I am not going to transfer either to the Catholic Church or even to another Orthodox jurisdiction. I know that the Moscow Patriarchate never forgives anyone anything, but I know how to wait. I will sit and wait.