Russia's Orthodox Church and its foreign-based sister church, estranged for eight decades, pledged on Tuesday to overcome differences and unite their ranks, but set no deadlines for achieving that goal. Russian Orthodox Patriarch Alexiy II and Lavrov, head of the Russian Orthodox church abroad staged the first top-level meeting since clerics who fled the Bolshevik revolution founded their rival institution in the United States in 1920.
"At the talks, a desire was expressed for the Moscow Patriarchate and the Russian Church abroad to overcome the tragic division of our people which emerged as a consequence of the revolution and (Russian) civil war," a joint statement said. Television showed Alexiy presiding over talks at Moscow's Danilov Monastery, praising "the first steps at rapprochement, which arise from a desire in the heart of so many of us".
"Let us look at the roots of the problem," said Mark, archbishop of Berlin in the foreign-based church. "Most of (our) dioceses were created in conditions of Soviet reality. These have changed." The foreign-based church, which has most dioceses in the United States but also in Western Europe, had refused all contact with the Russian Orthodox leadership on grounds that it was cooperating with communist authorities. Lavr's predecessor still rejected any meetings in the early 1990s.
The launch of these talks was eased by a meeting last year in New York between Lavr and Russian President Vladimir Putin, who describes himself as a devout Orthodox believer. Any move towards unification would have to deal not only with longstanding differences in outlook but with issues of determining church leadership and management of vast assets.