Meeting of the MP and ROCOR Church Commissions Concludes

Here are details on the latest meeting from the ROCOR website:

The eighth meeting between the Commission of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia on talks with the Moscow Patriarchate and the corresponding Commission of the Moscow Patriarchate was held in Cologne, Germany, from October 24-26.

Participating in the meeting were, on behalf of the Russian Church Abroad: Archbishop Mark of Berlin and Germany; Archbishop Kyrill of San Francisco and Western America; Archimandrite Luke (Murianka); Protopriest Alexander Lebedeff and Protopriest Nikolai Artemoff; and for the Moscow Patriarchate: Archbishop Innokenty of Korsun; Archbishop Evgeny of Verey; Protopriest Vladislav Tsypin; Archimandrite Tikhon (Shevkunov) and Protopriest Nikolai Balashov.

In accordance with the directions of the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church and of the Synod of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, proposals were worked out for the time and procedures for the signing and enactment of the Act on Canonical Communion already approved by both Synods, and also jointly examined the questions set before the Commissions in May, 2004.

The meetings, which were preceded daily by prayer at Divine Liturgy, concluded on the feast day of the Iveron Icon of the Mother of God. The members of the Commissions visited the ancient churches of Cologne and venerated their relics, including those of the New Testament Magi, who brought gifts to the Christ Child, and of Martyr Ursula of the 4 th century, the Protectress of Cologne.

A report from the Russian news service Interfax also contains the following:

"...the recent meeting of the commissions worked out proposals for the date and order of signing the Act of Canonical Communion between the Moscow Patriarchate and the ROCOR adopted by the Synods in Moscow and New York earlier this year. The final date of the signing ceremony is to be determined by the Synods of the Moscow Patriarchate and the Church Outside Russia in coming December.

According to Father Nikolay, secretary of the Moscow Patriarchate commission, the commissions have completed the consideration of questions they were instructed to examine after negotiations the head of the ROCOR, Metropolitan Laurus, held during his visit to Russia in May 2004. Agreed statements have been drafted on all issues submitted to the Bishops’ Synods or Councils and adopted by them.

‘Most probably, the final restoration of the full canonical unity of the Church inside and outside Russia will take place next year’, Father Nikolay said.

The priest believes this event will become one of the most vivid pages in Russian church history and attract much attention in society.

‘Church unity is the spiritual foundation of the unity of our people. We are restoring the link of times disrupted by the Russian catastrophe. And this cannot but make our hearts tremble with emotion. We anticipate this joyful and solemn day when our patriarch and hierarchs of the Russian diaspora will celebrate the liturgy together for the first time’, the secretary of the Moscow Patriarchate commission said.

Many of the documents and materials agreed upon by the Commissions can be found here.