Bishops in Moscow call it the biggest split in eastern Christendom for centuries
JUST OVER a year has passed since the Patriarch Kyrill of Moscow, the Russian spiritual leader and ally of President Vladimir Putin, went to Istanbul to make one final attempt to dissuade another Orthodox prelate, the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, from recognising an independent church in Ukraine.
That takes some explaining. First, the French capital is home to a group of worshippers which styles itself the Archdiocese of Russian Orthodox Christians of Western Europe. It regards itself as the main heir to a group of quarrelsome refugees from the Bolsheviks who brought their sharp theological minds to France. The twilight of the tsarist era had seen a flowering of creative religious thought in Russia and this movement shifted westwards.
The Orthodox hierarchy in Moscow sensed, accurately, that this situation could be turned to their advantage. The Paris archdiocese refused the order from Istanbul to dissolve itself, saying it was established in French law and would consider suggestions to ensure its continuation. The Muscovites then made an offer that would apparently preserve the self-governance of the archdiocese, albeit under Patriarch Kyrill’s ultimate authority.
To many observers, one thing seems clear. A period when a substantial body of Orthodox Christians in the West, loyal to Russia’s spiritual traditions but resistant to Muscovite authority, lived more-or-less comfortably, and managed their own affairs, has come to an end. Sergei Chapnin, an influential commentator on the Russian Orthodox scene, lamented on social media that “the [Paris] archdiocese has practically ceased to exist, and the logic of imperial Patriarchates has prevailed.
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