Dear Keepers of the Flame,

     Thank you for your calls and prayers during this difficult time here in the Russian-speaking lands. We greatly appreciate the support you have given us throughout the years and your desire to see a God-victory here.

     As you have been made aware by the President of the Church, Lois Drake, the Board of the Moscow Study Group has been dismissed, and a new board was appointed. Also in the Ukraine, the Dnepropetrovsk group cancelled the travel plans for the ministers coming for the Summit University class and the board was dismissed (See attached letter from Dnepropetrovsk). No new board was appointed, as the group was fully united behind the board's decision. We would like to provide you with some additional information that can assist you in taking a stand for Truth, Freedom and Justice.

     On August 8th we received a letter from Peter Duffy advising of meetings that were required by the Church leadership coming to Moscow. He warned, "If you are unable or unwilling to make the arrangements, then we will work with others in the community to arrange venues and other details." Our Board was very concerned that these actions would promote a division of the Moscow Group .

     In order to prevent such a division, we sent the letter, Ignorance of the Law is No Excuse (See attached letter) to the Church Presidents, Board of Directors and Council of Elders on August 13th. We expressed our serious concerns about the security implications for the Church leadership's visit. We had requested a response before August 16th, because on that day we had to make an announcement to the Moscow group concerning Peter Duffy's requests. There was no written or e-mailed response from the Church leadership to the Board by August 16th, or in the days before we met them in person. In the week preceding the Saint Germain service of August 16th many Keepers had been telephoned advising them of the public meetings with the Church leadership that were being organized by people not on the Moscow Board.

     On August 16th the president of the Moscow Group read a translation of the letter "Ignorance of the Law" to the congregation of the Moscow Group (approximately 140 people) after the sealing of the Saint Germain service. There were verbal attempts to disrupt the reading of the letter from a small group of people who objected to the content. But the majority of the group applauded the position of the Board expressed in the letter.

     On Friday 29th of August the Moscow Group Board met with the Church leadership. We had been made aware from numerous sources from inside and outside Moscow that the Church leadership had already made a decision to dismiss the board of the group. In a meeting lasting three and a half hours, they first of all requested financial information about the group and its publishing activities. They told the Board that their lawyers and advisors disagreed with our position on the issue of security in Russia. We reaffirmed that the legal implications of the coming of the President of the Church and the ministers to Moscow were extremely serious. They condemned the behavior of the President of the Moscow Group and the board's support of her behavior. They blamed the Board for some people leaving the group but didn't tell us why. We reaffirmed the fact that our group has been growing, that our weekly Saint Germain services have an average 135 people in attendance, quarterly conferences have 200 people and annual Teaching Classes 500 people. But we told that "numbers do not matter". The leadership did not ask what the needs of the Moscow group were, or how they could help us meet the needs of the thousands of KOF that we assist. We agreed upon a meeting for the next day, but the Church leadership cancelled the meeting later that evening.

     Also in the evening, in their community meeting with approximately 40-50 people, the Church leaders said that the Board had been dismissed and asked for volunteers to stand for a new Board. They solicited negative opinions about our Board from the congregation. The next day they ran a short Saint Germain service in a different venue for between 40-60 people, appointed the new board and the President of the Church blessed the congregation with the emerald matrix. They also began an attempt to seize assets belonging to the two legal organizations that our Keepers use in Moscow and give them to the newly appointed board.

     We want to affirm that Lois Drake's letters have provided more written information about the Moscow Board's failings or concerns about the Group's activities, than we have received from Headquarters this year.

     The Church leadership appears to have chosen to listen to a small group of people who have negative things to say about us. They have not informed us of these people's concerns, or their own concerns, or given any suggestions for change.

     We firmly believe the Church leadership wanted our removal because we refuse to invite ministers and the President of the Church to our city, and we refuse to comply with their demands to break the laws of Russia on their behalf.

     So what do we think the Church leadership is going to do to us next? We expect an attempt to close down the publishing activity of the Moscow Keepers that has published 700,000 books in the past 6 years. If this happens it will mean the closing of the only source for Russian-speaking Lightbearers to read books of the Teachings of the Ascended Masters in their native language. Tens of thousands of people will be affected. By God's grace let it not be so!

     We understand that our Board has not been outwardly perfect. But "by their fruits yea will know them". People know us by our fruits. Our deeds speak for us. That is why the people in Moscow choose to elect us. That is why Dnepropetrovsk and other Ukranian cities have chosen to stand with us. That is why we expect the big majority of the Lightbearers all over the Russian speaking lands will choose to do the same, by God's Grace, as soon as they will know what has happened in Moscow.

     We in Russia have lived under the communists for too long and know what it means to live under self-appointed leaders that are "electing" themselves until their death (and this very personal experience speaks for us louder than any words and promises). And we will not let go of the little morsels of Freedom that we have earned the hard way. We trust that the Lightbearers of Russia will not allow anybody or anything to take away from them the Teachings of the Ascended Masters that bring them Freedom and Liberation. We believe that it is not the outer Church with its ministers, blessings and sacraments that will lead us to the ascension, but the Teachings internalized by students striving day by day to become the Christ. The Keepers in Russia will be making their choice. This is a large portion of Saint Germain's Fraternity (maybe a third of it, as we have about four-and-a-half thousand Keepers here). Remember we are all one body. Thus we say: YOU - the American Keepers and Keepers all over the world - will have to make your choice. Will you take a stand? Will you take a stand for the freedom of all Keepers of the Flame to study and practice the Teachings? Will you take a stand for the Messengers and their cause to bring the Ascended Masters teachings for the Aquarian Age to the world? YOU have a free will choice.

     You may choose to stand aside and keep silent, thinking that all of this is happening so far away - on the other side of the world - and will not affect you. You can choose to keep silent out of fear to lose your "good reputation" in the eyes of the Church leaders, or to lose the income you are receiving if you are a staff member, or to lose the warm chair if you are an Elder or a Board member of a Study Group/Teaching centre. You may choose to stand aside in order to avoid persecution from the Church leaders towards you, your family or your Study Group - as has probably happened so many times in previous embodiments.

     No doubt we would humanly strive to avoid any of these "disasters". But the test comes despite our human desire to avoid it. And nobody promised us that our tests will be easy, nice and humanly pleasant. It is highly probable, that together with our beloved El Morya, we were many times beheaded and burnt to death by church authorities and we know how painful it is. Now we have somewhat the same situation with the loss of opportunity to spread the teachings.

     The Ascended Masters have given the Lightbearers the Teachings through their Messengers in order to teach us how to keep the Flame of Life and how to make our ascension following the Path of Christhood. These Teachings were not meant just for communicants of one Church (even if it is the best Church in the world), but to millions of Lightbearers, who choose to study these Teachings and follow the Path of the Ascension outlined by the Masters. We are meant to bring the Teachings about karma and reincarnation, about the Violet Flame and calls to Archangel Michael for protection to as many people as possible, irrespective of their faiths and beliefs.

     The situation in Russia is difficult, though not unique at large: we are persecuted here by the state authorities if we have a Church, and we are persecuted by the Church authorities if we do not have one. Both parties exercise their powers and justify their actions through human law or divine law. It is not a pleasant thing at all to deal with this, but do we have a choice to avoid these tests?

     If you think that you belong to the one body of the Keepers of the Flame on planet earth, you will feel the pain that this body is going through right now. This is not just a pain in a little finger. And this pain is growing. We believe that no one who truly belongs to the body of the Keepers of the Flame can ignore this pain of destruction. It's YOU who makes the choice about your action or inaction. It's YOU who makes the choice of what your actions will be.

     So what do we claim? We claim the right to be the Keepers of the Flame and to publish, study and apply the Teachings of the Ascended Masters delivered through their Messengers Mark and Elizabeth Clare Prophet. We affirm that we are all one as disciples of Christ in the inner Church. We affirm the right to do this, with or without being directly affiliated with the outer Church.

Quote from El Morya - "Chela and the Path: Letter XIV" "In January 1961 I authorized the formation of the Keepers of the Flame Fraternity to be formed of a circle of devotees within The Summit Lighthouse who would give supreme allegiance to the flame of Life and to the Knight Commander, Saint Germain. I invited all who would pledge their support to this hierarch of the Aquarian age to participate in a worldwide endeavor to draw into the flame of the Holy Spirit sons and daughters of God who would come forward to claim their inheritance as joint heirs of the Christ consciousness The Keepers of the Flame Fraternity is a universal spiritual order dedicated to eternal faith, unwavering constancy, and infinite harmony with the love of God that is forever the radiant flame called Life. Keepers of the Flame live for the flame of Life, and Keepers of the Flame are the lively stones in the temple of our God. They uphold the flame of Life as the threefold flame ablaze within their hearts, a focus of overcoming victory to negate personal and planetary spirals of death, disintegration, and decay."

Always Victory!

The Board of the Summit Lighthouse Study Group of Moscow - now removed
Ketino L; Nina K; Sergey S; Margarita D; Stuart M on behalf of Moscow Keepers of the Flame.

September 4, 2003