“RAPPROCHEMENT DEMANDS TIME AND PATIENCE.” His Holiness Patriarch Alexy on the Prospects of Relations between the Moscow Patriarchate and the Russian Orthodox Church outside of Russia
26.11.2003 · English, Архив 2003
“RAPPROCHEMENT DEMANDS TIME AND PATIENCE”
His Holiness Patriarch Alexy on the Prospects of Relations between the Moscow Patriarchate and the Russian Orthodox Church outside of Russia
A delegation of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia consisting of Archbishop Mark of Berlin and Germany, Archbishop Hilarion of Sydney, Australia and New Zealand, Bishop Kyrill of San Francisco and Western America, Archpriest Nikolai Artemoff, secretary of the German diocese and Archpriest Peter Holodny, treasurer of the Synod of Bishops, arrived in Moscow on 17 November 2003 at the invitation of the Russian Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchate.
On 20 November 2003 at the meeting with the faculty and students of the Russian Academy of State Service His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Russia answered questions about the prospects of rapprochement between the Moscow Patriarchate and the Russian Church Outside of Russia.
His Holiness the Patriarch noted that an official delegation of the Russian Church Outside of Russia has come to Russia for the first time and underlined: ‘We consider the conversations, which were held in the spirit of frankness and mutual understanding, as our first meeting and acquaintance’.
At the first meeting with the three bishops of the Russian Church Outside of Russia – administrators of the dioceses in the USA, Germany and Australia, His Holiness read out a passage from his letter written in response to the message sent by the Congress of Compatriots in August 1991 to His Holiness Patriarch Alexy and to Metropolitan Vitaly (Ustinov): ‘I wrote that for the rapprochement we should first of all meet and look at the faces of each other. If a vessel is broken, one should pick up its fragments and put them together in order to use this vessel again’.
His Holiness Patriarch Alexy informed the audience that a visit to Russia of the First Hierarch of the Russian Church Outside of Russia Metropolitan Laurus is expected in the early 2004. There are plans to sign an agreement during the visit.
The Council of Bishops of the Russian Church Outside of Russia will be held in December, at which the question of dialogue with the Moscow Patriarchate will be discussed. ‘Unfortunately, there is no unanimity in the Church Outside of Russia on the matter of the unification with the Mother Church. It is quite natural, as for over 70 years the Russian Church Outside of Russia has tried to justify in the eyes of its clergy and faithful its life outside the Mother Church’ – His Holiness said.
The delegation of the Church outside of Russia put a question reestablishing the Eucharistic communion between the Moscow Patriarchate and the Church Outside of Russia interrupted for 85 years. This question will be discussed at the Bishops’ Council of the Russian Orthodox Church next year.
‘Also, a decision was taken to set up commissions to work at the solution of the problems, which impede our unification at present’ – His Holiness said. ‘To begin with, one should note the fact of the Russian Church Outside of Russia has established parishes in the territory of Russia and the Republics of the former USSR, thus bringing split to the canonical territory of the Moscow Patriarchate’.
Having noted that the hierarchs of Russian Church Outside of Russia asked to forgive them for their strongly worded utterances addressed earlier to the Moscow Patriarchate, His Holiness the Patriarch said: ‘I think that we have embarked upon the way to rapprochement, but this way is not easy and will demand time and patience’.
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