Jordanville, New York
Updated 9/29/23, 8:45 AM
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Holy Trinity Monastery and Seminary in Jordanville, New York, the spiritual center of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, had to be evacuated on Thursday afternoon, September 28 due to a bomb threat.
The threat was called in due to the perpetrators’ belief that Jordanville supports the war in Ukraine. This was reported to OrthoChristian by multiple sources.
While OrthoChristian is unaware of any statements about the war coming from Holy Trinity Monastery and Seminary in particular, the monastery site does have a page entitled, “Concerning the War in Ukraine,” which hosts links to the Archpastoral Epistle of His Eminence Metropolitan Hilarion, the recently deceased First Hierarch of ROCOR, from February 24, 2022, the day the war started, in which he called all to fervently pray for peace, and the 
Metropolitan Onuphry appeals for penitential prayer and an end to the “fratricidal war”Defending the sovereignty and integrity of Ukraine, we appeal to the President of Russia and ask him to immediately stop the fratricidal war. The Ukrainian and Russian peoples came out of the Dnieper Baptismal font, and the war between these peoples is a repetition of the sin of Cain, who killed his own brother out of envy. Such a war has no justification either from God or from people.
“>address of His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry of Kiev and All Ukraine, also from the first day of the war, in which he condemned and called for an end to what he called the “fratricidal war.”
The threat comes two weeks after the publication of the article, “Putin’s Useful Priests: The Russian Orthodox Church and the Kremlin’s Hidden Influence Campaign in the West,” by Andrei Soldatov and Irina Borogan, in Foreign Affairs, the official magazine of the Council on Foreign Relations.
The article argues that Russian Orthodox parishes outside of Russia, and especially in America, are a source of strong backing for the Russian government, which, the authors say, was cultivated over the course of two decades by an unnamed employee of the Russian Church’s Department for External Church Relations.
However, the article is hampered at least by plain factual errors, such as massively overestimating the number of Russian Orthodox parishes in America, and a gross misrepresentation of the stance towards the war from both the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church and His Grace Bishop Irenei of London and Western Europe, who 
Bp. Irenei (ROCOR) responds to media manipulationHis Grace Bishop Irenei of London and Western Europe (Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia) notes in a new statement that “some in the media persist in misrepresenting our views, with no attempt to speak directly with us at any stage.”
“>issued a reponse.
One of the authors that went on CNN to talk about Russian Churches in America supposedly being used to spy for Russia.
May our Lord Jesus Christ keep and protect all the inhabitants and all those present at Holy Trinity Monastery and Seminary!
UPDATE: According to a statement from His Eminence Metropolitan Nicholas, the First Hierarch of ROCOR, the threat was cleared and everyone was able to return to their normal daily activities.
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