Photographs of many Orthodox services from around the world more and more show pictures of services at which virtually only clergy are present. This clericalisation was not the case previously. Although it is more obvious among minor groups in the Diaspora, especially among those who have difficulty in recruiting members because of their schismatic rather than unitive ethos, such photographs can be seen in very many places. Since such clericalisation is clearly an effect, not the cause, where has it all come from? Let us first look at Roman Catholic clericalisation.

The Case of Roman Catholicism

In the case of Roman Catholicism, the clear cause of its clericalisation was institutionalised obligatory clerical celibacy, which is another way of saying corruption. Introduced by force and even violence from the second half of the eleventh century on, obligatory clerical celibacy was inherently divisive and created a class or caste of woman-hating men who were different from and, as they imagined, superior to ‘the people’. Clericalisation, that is, the claim that the clergy are ’the Church’, which is a widespread peculiarity of the Western world, had the counter-effect of creating anti-clericalism and anti-episcopalianism. This in turn gave rise to congregationalism and eventually to Protestantism. In reality, the Church is the whole body of the faithful, clergy and people together and not apart.

However, even worse, obligatory clerical celibacy also gave rise among Roman Catholic (and Anglican) clergy to widespread bisexuality, homosexuality and pedophilia. I remember being advised by an old Russian priest in France some 35 years ago that if ever I had to meet a Roman Catholic priest, I should first ask him outright, though discreetly, if he was married or not. In France, at least, nearly all the best Catholic priests are married – about 20% of them. They have to keep it secret, of course, but, frankly, as Roman Catholicism is dying out in France for lack of priests, even if their bishops found out that they were married, they would probably turn a blind eye, as they have long done in Southern Europe, Latin America and Africa.

With Anglican clergy one must also be very careful. As we know, the British Establishment (not just the Anglican Church) has been full of pedophiles ever since William Rufus, and the Anglican Establishment full of them, like the notorious Bishop Bell and all the other criminals who have been protected by Anglican bishops, as did the scandalous former Archbishop of Canterbury. As regards Anglican clergy, even the married ones can be bisexual, especially in the so-called ‘High Church’. The Church has to be very careful about receiving Anglican clerics. Having said that, many are fine, some are admirable, but you have to check very carefully for misogyny etc.

The Orthodox Church

Wherever clericalisation is found in the Orthodox world, the cause is always the same: the lack of monastic and pastoral life, which is also another way of saying corruption. I have always thought that no man should be considered for the Orthodox episcopate until he had spent at least five years living under obedience in a monastery and/or five years living as a parish priest. This would be a ten-year long apprenticeship for the episcopate. Instead of contact with monastic and pastoral reality, what do we inevitably get? We get the same phenomena as in Roman Catholicism:

Firstly, there is homosexualisation (thank God, pedophilia is very rare among the Orthodox episcopate – I only know of two cases). Here are the bishops of many nationalities who like to visit with their ‘subdeacon’, as one senior cleric told me. He could supply a full list of names. Secondly, I have noticed that closet homosexuality also tends to go hand in hand with alcohol abuse. Thirdly, alongside the homosexual bishops are the overdressed, lickspittle careerists, who love bureaucracy and protocols. Petty bureaucracy makes them feel good, as it gives them power, the ability to humiliate others, who are often far senior to them. These careerists love centralisation and encourage it, because that gives them even more power and, above all, even more money.

All know about the Greek metropolitan who had to move from one city to another because of his notorious frequentation of gay bars (this was back in the 1970s). All know about the ultra-conservative and schismatic CIA ROCOR bishop and his sex-obsessed and money-obsessed son, ‘the six million-dollar man’, as he was called in the 1990s. All know about the recent Antiochian Archbishop of America. He is one of many – and far from the worst. The scandal is that he was defrocked, not because of his mistresses or because he was extremely rich (how?), but only because he took his own Church to court about money. All know about that Metropolitan-oligarch, who was so keenly and publicly denounced by Metr Antony of Sourozh already twenty years ago. But they are merely the tip of the iceberg, there are many others, whom we have seen, both fifty years ago and recently. But they are all absolutely alien, indeed absolutely unthinkable to real Orthodox.

We are the generation of the New Martyrs and Confessors, ready to die for the Church of God. Now instead of arkhimandrity, as they say in Russian, we have arkhibandity. In the old Soviet times, the Church was infiltrated by the Party with its atheist ideology. Now it is worse. The Party is still there, but it does not come from outside, the new Party and the new ideology, born in the 1990s, are inside the Church and they are called ‘Business’. Christ called it Mammon (money) and yet those ‘churchmen’ who are involved are told specifically by Christ that they cannot serve two masters. Sadly, the clergy involved are soldiers who owe utter obedience to corruption, for part of the episcopate has been militarised. And yet the Church is not an army, but a voluntary organisation. Here is what happens with clericalisation – militarisation of the clergy.

As one Russian told me, ‘I need no managers between me and God’, thinking of the old Protestant slogan, ‘I need no mediators between me and God’. Sadly, there is now a collective narcissistic mafia, as nobody is allowed to reveal the truth about this pharisee class of ‘effective managers’. We believe with the prophets and fool for Christ that Orthodox Russia may yet become the last bastion of Orthodoxy against Antichrist. However, this is clearly not the case now, for Orthodox Russia does not exist. What exists now is Nationalist Russia. For now the last bastion of Orthodoxy is the hearts of all the faithful, who resist Antichrist, who wants to come here and be enthroned. He will not be in our hearts.

Some who reject the new Party and its ideology make the great mistake of giving up the fight against clericalisation and corruption by joining the enemy and appearing on CIA-financed radio and television to scandalise and criticise, painting the whole Russian Church black. This is quite untrue and it is also either naïve or else foolish. These critics are playing into the hands of the CIA-financed politics of those who persecute the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church and discredit their cause and themselves, for they have chosen an episcopate no less corrupt than the one they left and one no less political than the one they left.

They too, consciously or, as I would like to think, unconsciously, become traitors to Orthodoxy. This is not the way. You cannot defeat politics with politics. We have to be aware of politics, but we do not get involved in political intrigues. Just as we are aware of the demons, but we do not get involved in demonic intrigues. Just wait, those who have compromised themselves morally and financially in military-style clericalisation and corruption, whether inspired by the ‘Church as a Business’ ideology or by CIA money, are coming to their end. Desperation and panic are their sign. Their time is clearly up.