Alexy II, patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church and his counterpart of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad, Metropolitan Laurus, decided to heal the wounds of history during a solemn ceremony in the Christ the Savior Cathedral in Moscow.
Church bells rang as both leaders, dressed in traditional robes, ended the 80-year schism between the church in Russia and the offshoot set up abroad after the Bolshevik Revolution.
As Russian President Vladimir Putin watched over their shoulders, they signed a document restoring ties between the Russian Orthodox Church and the US-based Russian Orthodox Church Abroad. "Today we have restored the unity of the Russian Church," said Patriarch Alexy II in a formal sermon after a choir sang hymns. "We have overcome the rift that began during the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917…which had an impact on society and the church," he explained in a carefully scripted speech.
BISHOPS LEAVE
Many bishops and clerics fled following the Bolshevik Revolution, which ended with a victory of the atheist Communists over monarchist Whites. The exiled church leaders later began their own rival Russian Orthodox Church Abroad in 1922. Five years later, they cut off ties with the mother church after the leader of the church in Russia declared loyalty to the Communists.
The New York-based Church says it has nearly 500,000 members while the Moscow Patriarchate claims nearly 70 percent of Russia’s population of about 142 million as its members.
Thursday’s re-unification agreement was a result of years of negotiations that began following the collapse of the Soviet Union and Communism in the 1990s. Russian President Putin called the accord the beginning of a new era. "The act of reunification of the Russian Orthodox Church is of historic significance," he said. "It also means the moral healing of the Russian nation and the re-unification of the Russian world."
RETAINING PROPERTIES
However the exiles will be able to retain extensive church properties in the United States, Europe and even in Israel and can still appoint their own priests, according to the agreement. Believers said the pact symbolized the church’s resurrection after the Soviet era.
"We will be together, we will be closer to God," Tatyana Melnikova told The Associated Press news agency, her faced framed by a headscarf, as she waited to enter the cathedral. Not everyone has been pleased with the deal.
Some clergy abroad have said "it is wrong" to work with priests in Russia "who collaborated" with Communists. Others made clear it was time to forgive, and forget. (With BosNewsLife’s Stefan J. Bos. Parts of this BosNewsLife report also airs on Vatican Radio. www.vaticanradio.org).
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