Moscow Patriarchate Ordains Deacon For ROCOR

[尼古拉前执事]

Moscow Patriarchate Ordains Deacon For ROCOR
http://roac-nftu.blogspot.com/2006/03/m ... n-for.html

(Moscow, MP Official Website) In a historic first, a Bishop of the Moscow Patriarchate has ordained a deacon for the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia (ROCOR) under Metropolitan Laurus on the Sunday of Orthodoxy. The MP's official website (www.mospat.ru) states that "this event has become possible in the context of dialogue between the Moscow Patriarchate and the ROCOR aimed at overcoming the division that occurred during tragic years of Russian church life in the 20th century."

————————————————————————————

A representative of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia was ordained in the Moscow Theological Academy
Фото сайта Московской Духовной академии
http://www.mospat.ru/index.php?page=30105

On the Sunday of Orthodoxy, Rector of the Moscow Theological Academy and Seminary Archbishop Mark of Vereya ordained a third-year seminary student Thomas Ditz deacon, who studies in the Moscow Theological school with the blessing of His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Russia who gave it in response to the petition of Archbishop Mark of Berlin and Germany, Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia (ROCOR).

That was the first ordination of a representative of the ROCOR in the theological schools of the Moscow Patriarchate. This event has become possible in the context of dialogue between the Moscow Patriarchate and the ROCOR aimed at overcoming the division that occurred during tragic years of Russian church life in the 20th century.

[ultra_sinful]

http://euphrosynoscafe.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6190

[Kollyvas]

I see nothing out of order here. ROCOR will soon be functioning as an autonomous diocese of the MP Abroad. What interests me, however, is how this autonomy will be melded with the independence of the OCA and what emerging diasporan structure will result. In North America, at least, I think it becomes appropriate to commemorate the primate of North America who is +Metropolitan Herman. ROCOR in North America may become the "Russian" diocese of the Orthodox Church in America. Rumors are circulating that, indeed, the new diocese will be called the "Russian Orthodox Greek Catholic Church," the old name of the Metropolia. Axios! Axios! Axios!
R

[尼古拉前执事]

Kollyvas, how does that make sense when the OCA is a schism from the ROCOR? Also since ROCOR is more than America, them being under the OCA would not make sense in that was as well. Not that union with the MP does.

[Kollyvas]

Evlogeite Pater.

A point could be made that the Metropolia was in schism from the ROCOR, but what trumps that is that the Metropolia achieved a self-governing status with the Mother Church, the MP, and is effectively its N American diocese. ROCOR rapproachment then becomes rapproachment with the MP as a whole. As has been bandied around in the past, say in the case of the Russian Orthodox church in Europe, the stated MP model has been consolidation of Russian Orthodox diasporan administrations resulting in autonomous self-governing dioceses under the omophorion of the Mother Church. That means various parts of ROCOR eventually being fused into different diasporan administrations and/or, perhaps, one large administration. The OCA autocephaly is a fiction and is de facto disregarded by nigh everyone, but almost everyone does recognize the self-rule of the OCA predicated on its relationship to the Mother Church. In the early '90s it was clear +Alexis II had little respect for the autocephaly and indicated as much to +theodosius, causing some acrimony--the ep was salivating. The accession of +Herman has meant the triumph of the Russian party in the OCA over the Parisians and hints of this are seen in current OCA documents which prefer the terminology "Mother Church" to the haughty and unrealistic theodosian "sister church" self-appelation. How this makes sense, then, is that the MP is working to undue the trauma of the post-revolutionary era and reestablish the integrity of the Russian diasporan mission(s) and their unity, quietly setting forth unification and self-rule frameworks with amendments to "acts" of the past to make this happen. You see, Father, this makes all the sense in the world.
In the LOVE of Christ,
Rostislav

[尼古拉前执事]

Of course in the tome of autocephaly the MP promised not to build any more churches in America, leaving it all to the OCA. Then they had 9 churches I believe and now they have over 30. So since the MP does not follow the promises of autocephaly, having the ROCOR churches be MP rather than OCA is not inconceivable.

BTW what do you thinbk of the OCA having churches outside of the Americas (such as Australlia) and in Mexico their having shrines to "Our Lady of Guadalupe"?

[Kollyvas]

Evlogeite Pater.

I have to caution us all in how we approach the issue of OCA "autocephaly": I would wager we will all be surprised to see how the "tomos" becomes radically redefined. In all honesty, I don't see jurisdictional boundaries emerging between OCA, MP, ROCOR in diaspora, but rather territorial boundaries. I think it healthy for our Russian diasporan mission to reach as many as it can in the ways most receptive to the congregations in question. That calls for a stratified model of witness, whose top end is traditional, but whose body is broad and counter-balanced with a strong monastic movement. Not one of us can point to a diasporan administration ready to be recognized as a "local church," but our historical circumstances indicate we must indeed unite and create on our missionary territories the possibility of future local churches. That is where the model of the OCA comes in. Think of it as a limited production concept car whose experience has educated us in a limited way in successful and unsuccessful models of witness, and now a more general production model is in the tooling which is more expansive in scope and available to a larger public.
In the LOVE of Christ,
Rostislav
When the time arrives, I think that this is what members of the ROCiE & ROAC will encounter in discussing the future of the Russian church.