Russian Orthodoxy in Belgium

[anglomedved]

Yesterday’s annual Easter Monday liturgy of all the clergy of the Brussels diocese around Archbishop Simon was a relaxed and really quite pleasant affair. We kept a full archiepiscopal liturgy on the road without mishap, and some imported seminarians from Moscow made it sound very ‘cathedral’.

We were about thirty in the sanctuary, nearly the full Belgian clergy complement of 20, plus guests and acolytes. We are probably a much more varied group than you would get in a similar setting in Russia. Those of us who have been ordained here (all the deacons and half of the priests) have often long stories as to how we or our families ended up in Brussels. ‘Conducting’ the liturgy was the senior proto-deacon, Fr Alexander, whose 60^th birthday we celebrated afterwards. He was the last of the deacons to be trained by Bishop Basil Krivocheine, and has trained all the new generation, including myself. Competent, unassuming and patient – very patient at times, particularly with those to whom liturgy comes less naturally.

Also in the sanctuary, in stikarion, was our Polish priest’s mentally handicapped son, a short clipped beard telling me he was now adult. Like much of our large Polish contingent his father is a builder by trade, and while I would not put him on a seminary examining board, watching him confess people during the liturgy it was clear he provides that sympathetic and compassionate listening that is so important in exile communities. It was absolutely right that his son be with us. Sadder was the state of Father X, who looks like he’s on the way out and I’m not sure he’ll be around next year.

Belgium is not the highest visibility ROC diocese in Western Europe. But yesterday’s liturgy is suggesting that we might be developing a certain common spiritual style. It’s a curious mixture of personal discipline and tolerance, and a merciful lack of personal ecclesiastical ambition. Good liturgy is important to us. It’s still Russian yes, but softer and less brash than what I know from Moscow or St Petersburg. Perhaps because most of us have ‘been through the mill’ in one way or another, enough to keep us relatively humble. Interestingly, many of us are regular visitors to Athos. This may just be pointing to something…