Bishop Raphael Hawaweeny on the Anglicans and Orthodox Baptism
Pastoral Direction and Instruction on Orthodox/Episcopal Relations and Ministrations in America (1912)
Definition of Status of
Anglican Communion and Strict
Prohibition to All Orthodox the Acceptance of Protestant
Ministrations of Any Sort is Still in Force in America, as
Given by the Late Bishop Raphael of Brooklyn, First Orthodox
Bishop Consecrated in This Country
His Grace, the Right
Reverend [Saint] Raphael Hawaweeny, late Bishop of Brooklyn and head of the Syrian
Greek Orthodox Catholic Mission of the Russian Church in North America, was
a far-sighted leader. Called from Russia to New York in 1895, to assume charge
of the growing Syrian parishes under the Russian jurisdiction over American
Orthodoxy, he was elevated to the episcopate by order of the Holy Synod of Russia
and was consecrated Bishop of Brooklyn and head of the Syrian Mission by Archbishop
Tikhon and Bishop Innocent of Alaska on March 12, 1904. This was the first consecration
of an Orthodox Catholic Bishop in the New World and Bishop Raphael was the first
Orthodox prelate to spend his entire episcopate, from consecration to burial,
in America. [Ed. note—In August 1988 the remains of Bishop Raphael along
with those of Bishops Emmanuel and Sophronios and Fathers Moses Abouhider, Agapios
Golam and Makarios Moore were transferred to the Antiochian Village in southwestern
Pennsylvania for re-burial. Bishop Raphael's remains were found to be essentially
incorrupt. As a result a commission under the
direction of Bishop Basil (Essey) of the Antiochian Archdiocese
was appointed to gather materials concerning the possible glorification of Bishop
Raphael.]
With his broad culture and international
training and experience Bishop Raphael naturally had a keen
interest in the universal Orthodox aspiration for Christian
unity. His work in America, where his Syrian communities were
widely scattered and sometimes very small and without the
services of the Orthodox Church, gave him a special interest in
any movement which promised to provide a way by which acceptable
and valid sacramental ministrations might be brought within the
reach of isolated Orthodox people. It was, therefore, with real
pleasure and gratitude that Bishop Raphael received the habitual
approaches of "High Church" prelates and clergy of the
Episcopal Church. Assured by "catholic-minded"
Protestants, seeking the recognition of real Catholic Bishops,
that the Anglican Communion and Episcopal Church were really
Catholic and almost the same as Orthodox, Bishop Raphael was
filled with great happiness. A group of these "High
Episcopalian" Protestants had formed the American branch of
"The Anglican and Eastern Orthodox Churches Union"
(since revised and now existing as "The Anglican and Eastern
Churches Association," chiefly active in England, where it
publishes a quarterly organ called The Christian East).
This organization, being well pleased with the impression its
members had made upon Bishop Raphael, elected him Vice-President
of the Union. Bishop Raphael accepted, believing that he was
associating himself with truly Catholic but unfortunately
separated [from the Church] fellow priests and bishops in a
movement that would promote Orthodoxy and true catholic unity at
the same time.
As is their usual custom with all prelates and
clergy of other bodies, the Episcopal bishop urged Bishop Raphael
to recognize their Orders and accept for his people the
sacramental ministrations of their Protestant clergy on a basis
of equality with the Sacraments [better, Mysteries—webmaster]
of the Orthodox Church administered by Orthodox priests. It was
pointed out that the isolated and widely-scattered Orthodox who
had no access to Orthodox priests or Sacraments could be easily
reached by clergy of the Episcopal Church, who, they persuaded
Bishop Raphael to believe, were priests and Orthodox in their
doctrine and belief though separated in organization. In this
pleasant delusion, but under carefully specified restrictions,
Bishop Raphael issued in 1910 permission for his faithful, in
emergencies and under necessity when an Orthodox priest and
Sacraments were inaccessible, to ask the ministrations of
Episcopal clergy and make comforting use of what these clergy
could provide in the absence of Orthodox priests and Sacraments.
Being Vice-President of the Eastern Orthodox
side of the Anglican and Orthodox Churches Union and having
issued on Episcopal solicitation such a permission to his people,
Bishop Raphael set himself to observe closely the reaction
following his permissory letter and to study more carefully the
Episcopal Church and Anglican teaching in the hope that the
Anglicans might really be capable of becoming actually Orthodox.
But, the more closely he observed the general practice and the
more deeply he studied the teaching and faith of the Episcopal
Church, the more painfully shocked, disappointed, and
disillusioned Bishop Raphael became. Furthermore, the very fact
of his own position in the Anglican and Orthodox Union made the
confusion and deception of Orthodox people the more certain and
serious. The existence and cultivation of even friendship and
mutual courtesy was pointed out as supporting the Episcopal claim
to Orthodox sacramental recognition and intercommunion. Bishop
Raphael found that his association with Episcopalians became the
basis for a most insidious, injurious, and unwarranted propaganda
in favor of the Episcopal Church among his parishes and faithful.
Finally, after more than a year of constant and careful study and
observation, Bishop Raphael felt that it was his duty to resign
from the association of which he was Vice-President. In doing
this he hoped that the end of his connection with the Union would
end also the Episcopal interferences and uncalled-for intrusions
in the affairs and religious harmony of his people. His letter of
resignation from the Anglican and Orthodox Churches Union,
published in the Russian Orthodox Messenger, February 18,
1912, stated his convictions in the following way:
I have a personal opinion about the
usefulness of the Union. Study has taught me that there is a
vast difference between the doctrine, discipline, and even
worship of the Holy Orthodox Church and those of the Anglican
Communion; while, on the other hand, experience has forced
upon me the conviction that to promote courtesy and
friendship, which seems to be the only aim of the Union at
present, not only amounts to killing precious time, at best,
but also is somewhat hurtful to the religious and
ecclesiastical welfare of the Holy Orthodox Church in these
United States.
Very many of the bishops of the Holy
Orthodox Church at the present time—and especially
myself have observed that the Anglican Communion is
associated with numerous Protestant bodies, many of whose
doctrines and teachings, as well as practices, are condemned
by the Holy Orthodox Church. I view union as only a pleasing
dream. Indeed, it is impossible for the Holy Orthodox Church
to receive—as She has a thousand times proclaimed, and
as even the Papal See of Rome has declaimed to the Holy
Orthodox Church' s credit—anyone into Her Fold or into
union with Her who does not accept Her Faith in full without
any qualifications—the Faith which She claims is most
surely Apostolic. I cannot see how She can unite, or the
latter expect in the near future to unite with Her while the
Anglican Communion holds so many Protestant tenets and
doctrines, and also is so closely associated with the
non-Catholic religions about her.
Finally, I am in perfect accord with the
views expressed by His Grace, Archbishop Platon, in his
address delivered this year before the Philadelphia
Episcopalian Brotherhood, as to the impossibility of union
under present circumstances.
One would suppose that the publication of such
a letter in the official organ of the Russian Archdiocese would
have ended the misleading and subversive propaganda of the
Episcopalians among the Orthodox faithful. But the Episcopal
members simply addressed a reply to Bishop Raphael in which they
attempted to make him believe that the Episcopal Church was not
Protestant and had adopted none of the errors held by Protestant
bodies. For nearly another year Bishop Raphael watched and
studied while the subversive Episcopal propaganda went on among
his people on the basis of the letter of permission he had issued
under a misapprehension of the nature and teaching of the
Episcopal Church and its clergy. Seeing that there was no other
means of protecting Orthodox faithful from being misled and
deceived, Bishop Raphael finally issued, late in 1912, the
following pastoral letter which has remained in force among the
Orthodox of this jurisdiction in America ever since and has been
confirmed and reinforced by the pronouncement of his successor,
the present Archbishop Aftimios.
Pastoral Letter of Bishop Raphael
To My Beloved Clergy and
Laity of the Syrian Greek-Orthodox
Catholic Church in North America:
Greetings in Christ Jesus,
Our Incarnate Lord and God.
My Beloved Brethren:
Two years ago, while I was Vice-President and
member of the Anglican and Eastern Orthodox Churches Union, being
moved with compassion for my children in the Holy Orthodox Faith once
delivered to the saints (Jude 1:3), scattered throughout the
whole of North America and deprived of the ministrations of the
Church; and especially in places far removed from Orthodox
centers; and being equally moved with a feeling that the
Episcopalian (Anglican) Church possessed largely the Orthodox
Faith, as many of the prominent clergy professed the same to me
before I studied deeply their doctrinal authorities and their
liturgy—the Book of Common Prayer—I wrote
a letter as Bishop and Head of the Syrian-Orthodox Mission in
North America, giving permission, in which I said that in extreme
cases, where no Orthodox priest could be called upon at short
notice, the ministrations of the Episcopal (Anglican) clergy
might be kindly requested. However, I was most explicit in
defining when and how the ministrations should be accepted, and
also what exceptions should be made. In writing that letter I
hoped, on the one hand, to help my people spiritually, and, on
the other hand, to open the way toward bringing the Anglicans
into the communion of the Holy Orthodox Faith.
On hearing and in reading that my letter,
perhaps unintentionally, was misconstrued by some of the
Episcopalian (Anglican) clergy, I wrote a second letter in which
I pointed out that my instructions and exceptions had been either
overlooked or ignored by many, to wit:
a) They (the Episcopalians) informed the
Orthodox people that I recognized the Anglican Communion
(Episcopal Church) as being united with the Holy Orthodox Church
and their ministry, that is holy orders, as valid.
b) The Episcopal (Anglican) clergy offered
their ministrations even when my Orthodox clergy were residing in
the same towns and parishes, as pastors.
c) Episcopal clergy said that there was no need
of the Orthodox people seeking the ministrations of their own
Orthodox priests, for their (the Anglican) ministrations were all
that were necessary.
I, therefore, felt bound by all the
circumstances to make a thorough study of the Anglican Church's
faith and orders, as well as of her discipline and ritual. After
serious consideration I realized that it was my honest duty, as a
member of the College of the Holy Orthodox Greek Apostolic
Church, and head of the Syrian Mission in North America, to
resign from the vice-presidency of and membership in the Anglican
and Eastern Orthodox Churches Union. At the same time, I set
forth, in my letter of resignation, my reason for so doing.
I am convinced that the doctrinal teaching and
practices, as well as the discipline, of the whole Anglican
Church are unacceptable to the Holy Orthodox Church. I make this
apology for the Anglicans whom as Christian gentlemen I greatly
revere, that the loose teaching of a great many of the prominent
Anglican theologians are so hazy in their definitions of truths,
and so inclined toward pet heresies that it is hard to tell what
they believe. The Anglican Church as a whole has not spoken
authoritatively on her doctrine. Her Catholic-minded members can
call out her doctrines from many views, but so nebulous is her
pathway in the doctrinal world that those who would extend a hand
of both Christian and ecclesiastical fellowship dare not, without
distrust, grasp the hand of her theologians, for while many are
orthodox on some points, they are quite heterodox on others. I
speak, of course, from the Holy Orthodox Eastern Catholic point
of view. The Holy Orthodox Church has never perceptibly changed
from Apostolic times, and, therefore, no one can go astray in
finding out what She teaches. Like Her Lord and Master, though at
times surrounded with human malaria—which He in His mercy
pardons—She is the same yesterday, and today, and forever
(Heb. 13:8) the mother and safe deposit of the truth as it is
in Jesus (cf. Eph. 4:21).
The Orthodox Church differs absolutely with the
Anglican Communion in reference to the number of Sacraments and
in reference to the doctrinal explanation of the same. The
Anglicans say in their Catechism concerning the Sacraments that
there are "two only as generally necessary to salvation,
that is to say, Baptism and the Supper of the Lord." I am
well aware that, in their two books of homilies (which are not of
a binding authority, for the books were prepared only in the
reign of Edward VI and Queen Elizabeth for priests who were not
permitted to preach their own sermons in England during times
both politically and ecclesiastically perilous), it says that
there are "five others commonly called Sacraments" (see
homily in each book on the Sacraments), but long since they have
repudiated in different portions of their Communion this very
teaching and absolutely disavow such definitions in their
"Articles of Religion" which are bound up in their Book
of Common Prayer or Liturgy as one of their authorities.
The Orthodox Church has ever taught that there
are seven Sacraments. She plainly points out the fact that each
of the seven has an outward and visible sign and an inward and
spiritual Grace, and that they are of gospel and apostolic
origin.
Again, the Orthodox Church has certain rites
and practices associated and necessary in the administration of
the Sacraments which neither time nor circumstances must set
aside where churches are organized. Yet the Anglicans entirely
neglect these, though they once taught and practiced the same in
more catholic days.
In the case of the administration of Holy
Baptism it is the absolute rule of the Orthodox Church that
the candidate must be immersed three times (once in the name
of each Person of the Holy Trinity). Immersion is only permissory
in the Anglican Communion, and pouring or sprinkling is the
general custom. The Anglicans do not use holy oil in the
administration, etc., and even in doctrinal teaching in reference
to this Sacrament they differ.
As to the doctrine concerning Holy Communion
the Anglican Communion has no settled view. The Orthodox Church
teaches the doctrine of transubstantiation without going into any
scientific or Roman Catholic explanation. The technical word
which She uses for the sublime act of the priest by Christ's
authority to consecrate is "transmuting" (Liturgy of
Saint John Chrysostom). She, as I have said, offers no
explanation, but She believes and confesses that Christ, the Son
of the living God Who came into the world to save sinners, is of
a truth in His "all-pure Body" and "precious
Blood" (Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom) objectively
present, and to be worshiped in that Sacrament as He was on earth
and is now in risen and glorified majesty in Heaven; and that
"the precious and holy and life-giving Body and Blood of Our
Lord and God and Saviour Jesus Christ are imparted" (to each
soul that comes to that blessed Sacrament) "Unto the
remission of sins, and unto life everlasting" (Liturgy of
Saint John Chrysostom).
Confirmation or the laying on of hands, which
the Orthodox Church calls a Sacrament—"Chrismation"—in
the Anglican Church is merely the laying on of hands of the
Bishop accompanied by a set form of prayers, without the use of
Holy Chrism, which has come down from Apostolic days as
necessary.
Holy Matrimony is regarded by the Anglican
Communion as only a sacred rite which, even if performed by a
Justice of the Peace, is regarded as sufficient in the sight of
God and man.
Penance is practiced but rarely in the Anglican
Communion, and Confession before the reception of Holy Communion
is not compulsory. They have altogether set aside the Sacrament
of Holy Unction, that is anointing the sick as commanded by Saint
James (see James 5:14). In their priesthood they do not teach the
true doctrine of the Grace of the Holy Orders. Indeed they have
two forms of words for ordination, namely, one which gives the
power of absolution to the priest, and the alternative form
without the words of Our Lord, whosoever sins ye remit, etc.
(John 20: 23). Thus they leave every bishop to choose intention
or non-intention in the act of ordination as to the power and
Grace of their priesthood ("Ordination of Priests," Book
of Common Prayer).
But, besides all of this, the Anglican
Communion ignores the Orthodox Church's dogmas and teachings,
such as the invocation of saints, prayers for the dead, special
honor to the blessed Virgin Mary the Mother of God, and reverence
for sacred relics, holy pictures and icons. They say of such
teaching that it is "a foul thing, vainly invented, and
grounded upon no warranty of Scripture, but rather repugnant to
the word of God" (Article of Religion, XXII).
There is a striking variance between their
wording of the Nicene Creed and that of the Holy Orthodox Church;
but sadder still, it contains the heresy of the
"filioque."
I do not deem it necessary to mention all the
striking differences between the Holy Orthodox Church and the
Anglican Communion in reference to the authority of holy
tradition, the number of Ecumenical Councils, etc. Enough has
already been said and pointed out to show that the Anglican
Communion differs but little from all other Protestant bodies,
and therefore, there cannot be any intercommunion until they
return to the ancient Holy Orthodox Faith and practices, and
reject Protestant omissions and commissions.
Therefore, as the official head of the Syrian
Holy Orthodox Catholic Apostolic Church in North America and as
one who must give account (Heb. 13:17) before the judgment
seat of the Shepherd and Bishop of our souls (I Pet.
2:25), that I have fed the flock of God (I Pet. 5:2), as I
have been commissioned by the Holy Orthodox Church, and inasmuch
as the Anglican Communion (Protestant Episcopal Church in the
USA) does not differ in things vital to the well-being of the
Holy Orthodox
Church from some of the most errant Protestant
sects, I direct all Orthodox people residing in any community not
to seek or to accept the ministrations of the Sacraments and
rites from any clergy excepting those of the Holy Orthodox
Catholic and Apostolic Church, for the Apostolic command that the
Orthodox should not commune in ecclesiastical matters with those
who are not of the same household of faith (Gal. 6:10), is
clear: "Any bishop, or presbyter or deacon who will pray
with heretics, let him be anathematized; and if he allows them as
clergymen to perform any service, let him be deposed."
(Apostolic Canon 45) "Any bishop, or presbyter who accepts
Baptism or the Holy Sacrifice from heretics, we order such to be
deposed, for what concord hath Christ with
Belial, or what part hath he that believeth with an
infidel?" (Apostolic Canon 46)
As to members of the Holy Orthodox Church
living in areas beyond the reach of Orthodox clergy, I direct
that the ancient custom of our Holy Church be observed, namely,
in cases of extreme necessity, that is, danger of death, children
may be baptized by some pious Orthodox layman, or even by the
parent of the child, by immersion three times in the names of the
(Persons of the) Holy Trinity, and in case of death such baptism
is valid; but, if the child should live, he must be brought to an
Orthodox priest for the Sacrament of Chrismation.
In the case of the death of an Orthodox person
where no priest of the Holy Orthodox Church can be had, a pious
layman may read over the corpse, for the comfort of the relatives
and the instruction of the persons present, Psalm 90 and Psalm
118, and add thereto the Trisagion ("Holy God, Holy
Mighty," etc.). But let it be noted that as soon as possible
the relative must notify some Orthodox bishop or priest and
request him to serve the Liturgy and Funeral for the repose of
the soul of the departed in his cathedral or parish Church.
As to Holy Matrimony, if there be any parties
united in wedlock outside the pale of the holy Orthodox Church
because of the remoteness of Orthodox centers from their home, I
direct that as soon as possible they either invite an Orthodox
priest or go to where he resides and receive from his hands the
Holy Sacrament of Matrimony; otherwise they will be considered
excommunicated until they submit to the Orthodox Church's rule.
I further direct that Orthodox Christians
should not make it a practice to attend the services of other
religious bodies, so that there be no confusion concerning the
teaching or doctrines. Instead, I order that the head of each
household, or a member, may read the special prayers which can be
found in the Hours in the Holy Orthodox Service Book, and such
other devotional books as have been set forth by the authority of
the Holy Orthodox Church.
Commending our clergy and laity unto the
safekeeping of Jesus Christ, and praying that the Holy Spirit may
keep us all in the truth and extend the borders of the Holy
Orthodox Faith, I remain.
Your affectionate Servant in Christ
+ RAPHAEL,
Bishop of Brooklyn,
Head of the Syrian Greek Orthodox Catholic Mission in North
America
Accuracy of translation and fact of the above
prescriptive direction and pastoral instruction being still in
force and authority, unabated and unmodified, now and for all
future time in this jurisdiction, certified April 27, 1927, by:
+AFTIMIOS,
Archbishop of Brooklyn,
First Vicar of the Russian American Jurisdiction,
Head of the Syrian Greek Orthodox Catholic Mission in North
America
From "The Most Useful
Knowledge for the Orthodox Russian-American Young People,"
compiled by V. Rev. Peter G. Kohanik, 1932-34. This was
reprinted in Orthodox Life, Vol. 43, No. 6, 1993.
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