If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand wither, prophetically exclaimed King David, when Sion was still flourishing. In their grief the Jews sang this song during the Babylonian captivity.
The Lord Jesus Christ loved Jerusalem; He shed tears over the calamities soon to befall it.
Jerusalem, which was sacred for the Old Testament Jews, became yet more sacred for Christians, sanctified as it was by the steps and then also the blood of our Divine Saviour, Jesus Christ.
As soon as the persecutions of the Christians ceased, pilgrims from wherever the name of Christ was glorified began directing their paths to that city, beginning with Empress Helen, who found Christ's Cross and built several magnificent churches on sites associated with Christ's earthly sojourn.
These places likewise filled up with monasteries, where ascetics sought for themselves, and indicated to others, the path to salvation.
The subjugation of these countries by heterodox peoples of the east did not diminish the Christians' devotion to the Holy Land. Western peoples undertook crusades to liberate them, although they did not achieve their objective.
With the baptism of Rus', from the very inception of Christianity there, came new pilgrims. The Russian Church, from the first, forged strong links with the Holy Land. Everything that came or was brought from the Holy Land was sacred in the eyes of the Russian people. The ultimate goal of devout people was to visit the Holy Land. Individuals managed to do this even when such a journey entailed incredible difficulties. In the last century the flow of pilgrims was continuous.
To facilitate such pilgrimages, the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in Jerusalem and the Palestine Society were founded. These acquired ownership of a number of plots of land in holy places, and on them monastic communities were established.
These monasteries allowed visiting Russians a place to stay while they were venerating the holy places, and even to the end of their lives for those who so desired. Thanks to the flood of donations from Russia, these communities could also develop widespread missionary activity among the local inhabitants and give essential support to the local Jerusalem patriarchate.
All this changed when sorrowful times came upon Russia.
With the onset of the First World War the stream of pilgrims and donations in support of the work of our holy communities came to a halt, and by the end of the war, with the Russian government shattered, their situation became still more difficult. The Second World War and the partition of Palestine between the Jordanian kingdom and the emerging state of Israel brought new adversities and dangers.
Those communities which turned out to be in Israel were deprived of part of their property and handed over to the jurisdiction of the Moscow Patriarchate. Communities in Jordan remained within the body of the Russian Church Abroad, despite the attempts of the Moscow Patriarchate to lay hold of them; these communities, and other Orthodox Russian establishments there, refused to submit to the Moscow Patriarchate on account of its ties with the Soviet government.
The Patriarchate is striving to subjugate and spread its influence to all nations. To this end, the Soviet government, an enemy of the Church and religion, realizing the significance of Orthodox Russia and its renown among Orthodox peoples, is positioning itself in the Near East as their protector, and is trying by all means to establish the influence of the Moscow Patriarch, who is under their control.
If there were no opposition to this activity, it could be very successful, and places dear to the entire Christian world might well become bases for anti-Christian influence.
However, the poor and truly holy communities and Russian Orthodox institutions in the Holy Land have proved to be an insurmountable obstacle to their intent and actions.
Aware of the submission of the Moscow church authority to the Soviet government and knowing that the Moscow Patriarch is not a free servant of God and His Church but rather a puppet of the godless authorities, those holy communities and institutions refused to recognize his authority and have remained in submission to the authority of the free part of the Russian Church — to the Synod of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church abroad, although such recognition would have brought great advantage materially.
The Russian monastic communities in the Holy Land embody a pure Christian conscience in the Near East, and their presence and their confession prevent the Orthodox people there from opening their hearts to the influence of that church authority dependent on the enemy of God and the Church.
The courageous exploit of those communities in confessing the faith inspires a feeling of compunction, and we should bow down before them.
It is both natural and necessary that Russian people abroad recognize as their duty to support, morally and materially, the glorious exploit of those elderly monks and nuns who are enduring great need in all respects, although they remain strong in spirit.
To organize this effort, the Synod of Bishops has established the Palestine Committee under my leadership.
In undertaking the establishment of representatives of the Committee throughout the Diaspora, I appeal to all Orthodox to give them their cooperation, and to consider as their sacred duty to assist the monasteries and Orthodox institutions in the Holy Land, a duty before the Church and Holy Russia, which has had such sincere and devoted veneration for Jerusalem.
If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand be forgotten.