Rating: 10|Votes: 2

Act of Canonical Communion

The reestablishment of canonical communion will serve, God willing, towards the strengthening of the unity of the Church of Christ, of her witness in the contemporary world, promoting the fulfillment of the will of the Lord to “gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad” (John 11:52).

Act of Canonical Communion

Being guided by the effort towards reestablishing blessed peace, Divinely-decreed love, and brotherly unity in the common work in the harvest-fields of God within the Fullness of the Russian Orthodox Church and her faithful in the Fatherland and abroad, taking into consideration the ecclesiastical life of the Russian diaspora outside the canonical borders of the Moscow Patriarchate, as dictated by history; Taking into account that the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia performs its service on the territories of many nations; By this Act declare:

Rating: 10|Votes: 1

Addendum to the Act of Canonical Communion

Acting in the spirit of ecclesiastical oikonomia, the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church and the Synod of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia envision a five-year transition period for the full regularization of the status of former parishes of the Russian Church Abroad on the canonical territory of the Moscow Patriarchate, through their entering into the jurisdiction of the local ruling bishops.

Summation of the Joint Work of the Commissions of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia and the Moscow Patriarchate

Concluding the eighth joint meeting of the Commissions and summarizing its work, it is worth noting the path traveled, beginning with the meeting between His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Russia and His Eminence Metropolitan Laurus, First Hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, in Moscow in May 2004.

Rating: 5.6|Votes: 8

Indulgences in the history of the Greek Church

Sergei Govorun

In the 16th—18th centuries the Greek Church, even though limited in its contacts with the outer world to the borders of the Ottoman Empire, came under a great influence of Western Christianity—greater than did the Russian Church. Here Catholic propaganda worked more effectively, especially with the foundation in 1622 of the Sacred Congregation of the Propaganda of the Faith, for both Greek scholars and theologians had increasing contacts with the West and most of them studied there.