The Council of Bishops of the ROCOR approved the draft "Act of Canonical Communion" with the Moscow Patriarchate

On May 19, the ROCOR Council of Bishops completed its work in San Francisco. He "in principle" - noting the need to refine some provisions - adopted and approved the draft "Act on Canonical Communion" with the Moscow Patriarchate, the Interfax-religion portal reports with reference to the official website of the Church Abroad. The ROCOR Synod of Bishops will prepare the final version of the text. The ROCOR Commission for Negotiations with the Moscow Patriarchate was instructed to reach an agreement on the joint publication of the document before its final approval, so that the clergy and flock of both churches could familiarize themselves with the contents of the act.

The Council of Bishops of ROCOR also addressed the flock with a message . “We intend to carry out the cause of the unification of the Russian Church without delay, as far as a satisfactory mutually acceptable solution of the remaining problems,” the document says. “They are known and clearly formulated. We have no intention of making new claims.

The canonical and, opened by him, Eucharistic unity of the Russian Church Abroad and the Russian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate is absolutely necessary, as the only way to carry out the convening of the Local Council of the Russian Orthodox Church with the participation of all its parts, about which our predecessors, the spiritual leaders of the Russian Diaspora spoke. The path to this Council is the path of unity, and not of polemical disputes."

Sources

• Message from the Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad // Interfax-religion. 2006. May 19.
• The ROCOR Council of Bishops approved in principle a document that will finally restore the unity of the Church Abroad with the Moscow Patriarchate // There. May 20.