The clergy of the Russian Church Outside Russia in the USA supports the policy towards unity with the Moscow Patriarchate

In preparation for the 4th All-Diaspora Council and Bishops’ Council of the Russian Church Outside of Russia, the three RCOR dioceses of Eastern America and New York, Chicago and Detroit, San Francisco and Western America held on March 22, 2006, clergy conferences to consider problems involved in the restoration of unity between the Church in the Motherland and the Church outside Russia.

It is expected that the 4th All-Diaspora Council and the Bishops’ Council of the Russian Church Outside of Russia, planned for May 2006, will make key decisions on the question of unification with the Moscow Patriarchate.

The pastoral conferences spoke in support of the policy taken by the primate of the Russian Church Outside of Russia, Metropolitan Laurus, and by the Bishops’ Synod for the reunification with the Church in the Motherland. ‘We unanimously support our First Hierarch, His Eminence Metropolitan Laurus, and the members of the Bishops’ Synod of the Russian Church Outside of Russia in their desire to efface the existing division through peace talks by putting aside every prejudice and censure,’ stated the resolution of the pastoral conference of the diocese of San Francisco and Western America.

The clergy of the Eastern America and New York diocese, having expressed cordial gratitude to Metropolitan Laurus and Bishop Gabriel of Manhattan for their wise leadership and paternal care of their flock, ‘expressed unanimous readiness to show obedience to the Bishops’ Council’.

The clergy of the Chicago and Detroit diocese also expressed all possible readiness for unity. ‘The fruits of the Council’, their resolution stated, ‘will brings to our flock either the universal joy of reconciliation and healing or the grief of vegetation in spiritual alienation from the Russian people living in the Motherland and of falling away from the plenitude of the Orthodox Church.’ The gathering noted that there were no more obstacles for unification, while the Church in the Motherland was growing not only in quantity but also in spirituality. ‘It is impossible in good conscience to deny the good changes that have taken place in our Motherland now and in the fold of the Russian Church and it is tantamount to conscious rйsistance to the Truth. May this not happen to us. Therefore, in face of God’s Truth and by the will of the pastoral conscience, we, clergy of the Chicago and Detroit diocese, express full and unconditional support for our venerable First Hierarch, His Eminence Metropolitan Laurus and the like-minded God-wise archpastors in their toil for healing the wound on the body of the Russian Church. At the same time, we grieve and pray for those of our brothers who, in the light of the present development, feel no peace and therefore suffer spiritually. Let us remember that the Russian Church Outside of Russia has always confessed herself to be an insuperable part of the Russian Local Church,’ the document states.

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