Stephen Karganovic
Since ROCOR is an American church, the attack against it can reasonably be interpreted as a broader attack on the Orthodox faith in the United States.
America traditionally has been the society most amenable to religion and to the unhindered practice of a diversity of faiths.
That is why the arrest on public property in the city of Dallas, Texas, of two Christian street preachers is particularly disturbing as possibly presaging the emergence of a different trend.
The incident was recorded by one of the arrested preachers and may be viewed here.
In contrast to the United Kingdom, the United States is fortunate to have a written Constitution with embedded guarantees of fundamental liberties. It also has a judicial system which takes freedom of conscience, especially in matters of religion, quite seriously. In the United Kingdom the recognition of such liberties is anchored in custom. They are granted or rescinded by acts of Parliament and are therefore subject to relatively easy modification. They are not enshrined in the supreme law of the land. As a result of radically changing cultural mores in Britain, the erosion of liberties that until recently were considered sacrosanct now is routine. Some of the most disturbing examples are precisely from the sphere of the public expression of religious convictions. Not too long ago, those convictions would have been regarded as mainstream.
Silent prayer and any expression of pro-life religious witness or sentiment in the proximity of abortion clinics is now prohibited and cause for arrest and the imposition of steep fines in Great Britain. In England and Wales anyone observed by the police in a prayerful posture within 150 metres of an abortion facility may be approached by officers and made to answer the very intimate question: "What is the nature of your prayer?" In Scotland, the situation appears to be even more problematic. The Scottish Parliament has adopted legislation which establishes "safe access zones" within 200 metres of an abortion clinic and criminalises any gesture that would appear critical of the activities being conducted inside. That encompasses conduct not just in the public space, but, ominously, also explicitly includes prayer for unborn children conducted within private homes if they are located within the designated 200 metre radius. The law does not address questions of enforcement or detection of offenders, which would be quite difficult in private quarters, but the intent to control thought and regulate the expression of private convictions even in the most intimate settings is quite apparent.
The situation in the United States, setting aside sporadic incidents such as the arrest in Dallas, at present is not even remotely as unfriendly to religious expression as it has become in Great Britain. However, signs are emerging of intolerance in very high places, and it is directed particularly against the practitioners of the Orthodox faith. That should put all who treasure this core human liberty on high alert.
Freedom of religious expression and respect even for the practitioners of religious faiths that we do not share is a fundamental litmus test of a society's commitment to liberty. That is why the intemperate utterances by Congressman Joe Wilson (R. - S. C.) which insinuate that the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad [ROCOR], an autonomous religious entity based in the United States that is in communion with the Moscow Patriarchate, is a foreign directed intelligence operation are cause for great and legitimate concern.
"It has come to my attention," reads a letter addressed by Cong. Wilson to Attorney General Pam Bondi, "that ROCOR [Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia] is actively seeking to expand its political influence in the United States, including through an event reportedly scheduled for November 18, 2025, aimed at lobbying Members of Congress and their staff."
Do not other interest groups do exactly the same thing, only much more persistently, every day?
The reference is to an Orthodox church delegation, including Russian prelates, that was scheduled to meet with U.S. lawmakers on Capitol Hill on 18 November to express concerns about the persecution of the canonical Orthodox Church in Ukraine.
"This development," Wilson continues, "raises legitimate concerns that ROCOR or other Russian Orthodox jurisdictions could serve as vehicles for intelligence collection or foreign influence operations directed at U.S. policymakers." So what is the solution ? Close their churches?
Rep. Wilson is a victim of disinformation on every claim that he makes.
The Russian Orthodox Church Abroad, as its name suggests, is not in Russia but abroad, in America to be exact. Since the end of World War II, the seat of its Synod has been in New York, not in Moscow. It is an Orthodox church jurisdiction founded by White Russian emigres who were vehemently opposed to the Soviet authorities. ROCOR clergy and believers, scattered throughout the world but for the last seventy years largely concentrated in the United States, far from being sympathisers or tools of Soviet secret services, were their opponents and frequent targets. Before Rep. Wilson, it never occurred to any national security agency in the United States to suspect them of sympathy or collusion with America's adversaries. At the height of the Cold War, even Sen. McCarthy refrained from making such a reckless accusation.
From the 1920s until 2006, ROCOR had no links whatsoever or even channels of communication with the Patriarchy of Moscow. In 2006 that changed but only to the extent that ecclesiastical and canonical barriers were removed, allowing liturgical communion between ROCOR and the Patriarchy to be established. The reasons for the estrangement and the circumstances enabling the liturgical rapprochement are too arcane for someone like Rep. Wilson to comprehend and would be useless to attempt to explain. It is enough for him to know that ROCOR is still as American today as it was before 2006. Spiritually it is in the fold of the Moscow Patriarchy and its hierarchs officiate liturgically with their Moscow counterparts, but it continues to be as independent and self-governing as before.
An analogy might help Rep. Wilson to better understand the situation. During World War II, the seat of the Roman Catholic Church, which commanded the adherence of about a quarter of the U.S. population, was located on Axis territory in Italy, with which the United States was at war. Furthermore, the reigning Pope at that time, Pius XII, was not known for excessive animosity toward America's Axis enemies, to put it mildly. Yet it never occurred to anyone to insinuate that American Catholic bishops were a national security threat for collaborating with the Gestapo or that American Catholics were disloyal to their country.
In fact, American Catholics, including Americans of German and Italian descent, fought courageously against the Axis as members of the U.S. Armed Forces and did so with the blessing of their bishops.
Members of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad, the vast majority of whom are American-born, also are unambiguously loyal to the United States. The aspersions cast on their loyalty by Rep. Joe Wilson are ignorant, shameful, and un-American.
Following criticism for his ill-considered remarks, Rep. Wilson backtracked somewhat, but even in doing so he further revealed the extent of both his intolerance and ignorance of the religious tradition that he was vilifying:
"My comments pertain only to the leadership of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia (ROCOR) operating under the umbrella of the Moscow Patriarchate. Patriarch Kirill has advocated for mass murder and persecution of Christians and served decades as KGB. Most Orthodox churches are not affiliated with Moscow... Evangelizing is illegal in Russia and Christians are targeted and killed in Ukraine. Members [of Congress] should not entertain this intelligence operation."
ROCOR in fact is operating under the umbrella of the laws of the state of New York and of other pertinent U.S. statutes, not of a foreign church entity, with which it now has liturgical communion, just as every canonical Orthodox Church jurisdiction has liturgical communion with every other local Orthodox church. Patriarch Kirill never advocated for mass murder or persecution of Christians anywhere. He is himself the head of a major Christian church, comprising of millions of believers. In Russia, evangelising is very much legal (Rep. Wilson must have been in deep hibernation to not have noticed). And most Orthodox Churches are in fact "affiliated with Moscow", in the sense that they are in communion with it as is the norm in the Orthodox world. An exception at the moment is only the Patriarchate of Constantinople, and that for specific canonical reasons that Rep. Wilson is not expected to be capable of understanding.
Since ROCOR is an American church, the attack against it can reasonably be interpreted as a broader attack on the Orthodox faith in the United States. It so happens that today in America Orthodoxy is one of the most vibrant and fastest growing faiths . To say that it is in imminent danger of persecution would clearly be an exaggeration. But ignorant hostility emanating from Rep. Wilson and other political figures, such as Sen. Chuck Grassley who falsely and absurdly accuses the Russian Orthodox Church of "suppressing and persecuting other Christians" (presumably by "Christians" he means his fellow Protestant evangelicals, but even that is not true) does not portend well. It raises concerns. Why does Orthodoxy, of all religious faiths, with its dynamic growth in the United States, particularly among young Americans and their families, cause in some circles such immense anxiety?