Posted on 05/17/2007 8:34:10 AM PDT by kawaii
17 May 2007, 10:33
Act of Canonical Communion signed in Moscow (updated)
Moscow, May 17, Interfax - The Act of Canonical Communion between the Russian Orthodox Church in Russia and abroad was signed at Moscow's Christ the Savior Cathedral on Thursday morning.
The historic document was signed by Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Russia and by First Hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia Metropolitan Laurus.
The ceremony is being attended by President Vladimir Putin, several thousands Orthodox believers, including believers who have arrived from abroad, and about 500 journalists.
The Christ the Savior Cathedral is decorated with white flowers - a traditional adornment used on the Ascension holiday to symbolize renewal.
The signing of the Act of Canonical Communion symbolizes the return of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia into the fold of the Moscow Patriarchate and of the whole of the Orthodox world, which until recently did not recognize the Russian Church abroad. From now onwards, being part of the Mother Church, parishioners of the Russian Orthodox Church abroad will have the right to take communion at all of the world's Orthodox churches, while its clergy gains the right to serve jointly with the hierarchs and clergy of all 15 local Orthodox Churches.
The name of the Russian patriarch will now be mentioned in all services of the Russian Orthodox Church abroad before the name of the first hierarch.
According to the Act of Canonical Communion, the Moscow Patriarchate recognizes the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia as "an indissoluble part of the local Russian Orthodox Church, but independent in pastoral, educational, administrative, managerial, property and civil matters," and remaining "in canonical unity with the Fullness of the Russian Orthodox Church."
The Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia will as previously be run by its own Council of Bishops - "its supreme ecclesiastical, legislative, administrative, judiciary and controlling authority" convened by her First Hierarch in accordance with the Regulations. "This election is confirmed in accordance with the norms of the canonical law by the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia and by the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church."
Decisions on the establishment or liquidation of dioceses of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia will be made in agreement with the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia and the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church.
The bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, elected by her Council of Bishops, will be confirmed in accordance with canonical norms by the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia and the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church.
ping
This is a wonderful event, K!
Will the ROCOR remain as a semi separate jurisdiction forever, or will a full union happen sometime?
from what i’ve red on it ROCOR is administratively separate for as long as it’s practical.
it seems that the MP will have a say in some things mostly as a formality, and ROCOR will have representation at the synod in Moscow.
they’re not autocephalous, but are semi-autonomous.
well the OCA is still considered by most to just really be part of the Moscow patriarchate. though the OCA and the MP consider the OCA to be autocephalous.
i wouldn’t really call rocor a separate jurisdiction at this point personally.
Will there not be some parishes that will be reporting to OCA while others to ROCOR, possibly in the same city?
i wouldn’t call rocor separate from moscow. i would call them distinct from the oca.
(that’d be 2 ‘jurisdictions’ not 3 if that really amounts to a different jurisdiction)
i’d say it’s similar to how the uniate parishes function within the catholic church which isn’t considered to be multiple jurisdictions.
i’d kind of like to see the MP yank the OCA’s autocephally, and bring them into the same situation ROCOR is in. I’d also like to see concelebration between the OCA and ROCOR.
(noting that the mp and oca can concelebrate, and today rocor and the mp have concelebrated, so why not the oca and rocor??)
My usage of the term jurisdiction was in reference to episcopal jurisdiction, not patriarchal or autocephalous. As for the Eastern Rite Catholics, their separate episcopal jurisdictions are based either on rites or ethnic origins (as is the case with the multiple Orthodox jurisdiction in the West). With the ROCOR and OCA there will be the case of two different bishops ministering in the same territory to parishes of the same rite and same ethnic origin.
not if you peg the low russians/ruthenian/ukrainian types as different from the high russians, and note that generally speaking the oca uses english only and generally speaking rocor uses slavonic only.
there are DEFINITLY ethnic and liturgic differences between the two.
uniates as i recall use more less the same right, often they also use the same english language liturgy if they have multiple services. yet they report to different bishops.
also btw there’s probably not a lot of places where that even is true. (there’s a couple cities where parishes split into oca and rocor but over the vast majority of the territory there is either an oca OR a rocor but not both.
Uniates can parish hop to avoid their rulling bishop in many cases...
For example...
New York City
St. Ann’s Cathedral (Armenian/New York)
110 East 12th Street, New York, NY, 10003, Phone: (212) 477-2030, FAX: (212) 477-2185
Holy Cross (Byzantine - Ruthenian/Passaic)
323 East 82nd Street, New York, NY, 10028, Phone: (212) 737-1159
St. George(Byzantine - Ukrainian/Stamford)
22 E. 7th St., New York, NY 10003, Phone: (212) 674-1615
St. Mary (Byzantine - Ruthenian/Passaic)
246 East 15th Street, New York, NY, 10003, Phone: (212) 677-0516
St. Michael’s Russian Byzantine Catholic Church (Byzantine - Russian/Under the jursdiction of the local Roman ordinary)
266 Mulberry St, NY, NY 10012, Phone: (212) 226-2644
Vespers: Saturday night at 6:00 pm; Divine Liturgy: Sundays at 11:00 am
email: ayatriada@aol.com
http://artemis.crosslink.net/~hrycak/ch_indx/us-ny.html
Wow, finally!
indeed. there is now at least feasibly one Russian Orthodox Church.
it does quite restore communion amoung all those who were before 1917 but it comes close.
If Moscow and ROCOR are in Communion, that means that the OCA and ROCOR are in Communion as well.
Same goes for all the Canonical Orthodox Churches.
yea but there’s still rules preventing the rocor clergy from concelebrating with oca ones...
Which rules are those and are you sure this Act doesn't overrule them?
i’m not aware of anything within the act which refers to the 1970 breaking of communion with the OCa specifically.
The ROCOR’s 1971 reaction was thus as follows:
The Council of Bishops, having listened to the report of the Synod of Bishops concerning the so-called Metropolia’s having received autocephaly from the Patriarchate of Moscow, approves all the steps taken in due course by the Synod of Bishops to convince Metropolitan Irinei and his colleagues of the perniciousness of a step which deepens the division which was the result of the decision of the Cleveland Council of 1946 which broke away from the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia.
The American Metropolia has received its autocephaly from the Patriarchate of Moscow, which has not possessed genuine canonical succession from His Holiness Patriarch Tikhon from the time when Metropolitan Sergii, who later called himself Patriarch, violated his oath with regard to Metropolitan Petr, the locum tenens of the patriarchal throne, and set out upon a path which was then condemned by the senior hierarchs of the Church of Russia. Submitting all the more to the commands of the atheistic, anti-Christian regime, the Patriarchate of Moscow has ceased to be that which expresses the voice of the Russian Orthodox Church. For this reason, as the Synod of Bishops has correctly declared, none of its acts, including the bestowal of autocephaly upon the American Metropolia, has legal force. Furthermore, apart from this, this act, which affects the rights of many Churches, has elicited definite protests on the part of a number of Orthodox Churches, who have even severed communion with the American Metropolia.
Viewing this illicit act with sorrow, and acknowledging it to be null and void, the Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, which has hitherto not abandoned hope for the restoration of ecclesiastical unity in America, sees in the declaration of American autocephaly a step which will lead the American Metropolia yet farther away from the ecclesiastical unity of the Church of Russia. Perceiving therein a great sin against the enslaved and suffering Church of Russia, the Council of Bishops DECIDES: henceforth, neither the clergy nor the laity [of the Russian Church Abroad] are to have communion in prayer or the divine services with the hierarchy or clergy of the American Metropolia.[11]
orthodoxwiki
Here’s the oca stance: (which notably has no mention from Moscow)
http://www.oca.org/Docs.asp?ID=170&SID=12
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