The Polite Art of Saying No: When Process Trumps Prophecy

As we stand merely days before the opening of the All-American Council in Phoenix, Arizona, I must share the entirely predictable news: all proposals regarding religious persecution in Russia have been declined. The rejection came wrapped in the finest ecclesiastical courtesy—a masterclass in bureaucratic deflection that deserves closer examination.

Just a few days ago, I received a second letter from the OCA Chancellor. The first had already rejected the presentation of our report, "Religious Communities Under Pressure: Documenting Religious Persecution in Russia 2022-2025." Following that rejection, I submitted three additional proposals: publishing the report on the Council's website, distributing our Open Letter to Council participants, and adopting a special resolution on religious persecution.

All were declined.

The Chancellor's response is a study in institutional politeness. We learn that proper procedures exist (published on the website). We discovered that the Council website maintains strict editorial standards—"only content directly related to the official business of the Council." We are assured that ours is not the only worthy cause to be turned away. We are even offered the consolation prize of a phone call "later in the summer."

Most revealing is the careful phrasing: "This should not be interpreted as a sign of indifference on the part of the Council to the important matters being raised, but rather as a matter of long-standing policy and practice."

Ah yes, policy and practice—those twin guardians of institutional inertia.

Let us be clear about what this means. While Orthodox Christians are being imprisoned, while priests are being defrocked for praying for peace instead of victory, while believers die in Russian detention centers, the Orthodox Church in America will maintain its "long-standing policy." The systematic persecution documented in our report—over 100 religious leaders imprisoned, exiled, or killed for their conscience between 2022 and 2025—somehow falls outside the parameters of the OCA's "official business."

The Chancellor's letter exemplifies a particular ecclesiastical communication: unfailingly polite, procedurally correct, and morally vacant. It is the language of an institution that has mistaken good manners for good witness, that has confused proper communication channels with the Church's prophetic voice.

We are told this is not "indifference." But what else shall we call it when the suffering of our brothers and sisters in Christ becomes a matter of website policy? When documented persecution cannot pierce the bubble of "official business"? When must the cries of the imprisoned wait for proper procedures?

This response illuminates a more profound crisis within American Orthodoxy: transforming the Church from a prophetic community into a well-managed organization. Everything runs smoothly. Procedures are followed. Websites are properly curated. Meanwhile, the Gospel imperative to "remember those in prison as if you were together with them in prison" (Hebrews 13:3) is relegated to unofficial status.

The irony is palpable. The Church that venerates martyrs and confessors and sings hymns to those who suffered for the faith now finds their contemporary counterparts unsuitable for "official business." We celebrate the saints who defied empires, but we cannot find space on our agenda for those defying empires today.

Well, we harbor no illusions about church bureaucracy. We've seen this pattern before—institutional preservation takes precedence over prophetic witness in every generation. The machinery grinds on, processing its official business while the Kingdom of God advances through other means.

Our witness will continue, with or without institutional blessing. The stories will be told. The persecuted will be supported. The truth will be proclaimed. Not because it appears on any official agenda, but because conscience demands it and the Gospel compels it.

Perhaps "later in the summer," we can discuss why the Orthodox Church in America finds religious persecution unworthy of its official attention. By then, the moment will have passed, filed away with all the other inconvenient truths that failed to navigate proper channels.

The Council will proceed with its official business. And we will proceed with ours—the unofficial business of standing with the persecuted, speaking for the silenced, and witnessing a Gospel that refuses to be domesticated by policy and procedure.

After all, the Kingdom of God has never been particularly concerned with proper website protocols.

The author continues to document religious persecution in post-Soviet space, whether or not it qualifies as official business

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