Natural change

The name of the future head of the Russian Orthodox Church abroad has been announced

The name of the possible future head of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad (ROCOR) has become known. This place remained vacant after the death of the first hierarch of the ROCOR, Metropolitan Laurus, on March 16 , who has already gone down in history as a person who did a lot to overcome the long-term schism of the Russian Church. The successor to Bishop Laurus will most likely be Hilarion, the 60-year-old Archbishop of Sydney and Australia and New Zealand, who is now temporarily acting as chairman of the highest body of the ROCOR, the Synod of Bishops. This was announced by Archbishop Mark of Berlin, Germany and Great Britain, the head of the affairs of the ROCOR in the Holy Land, during a meeting with a delegation of the Russian Foundation of St. Andrew the First-Called in the Palestinian village of Bethany. “We deliberately, with changes in mind, chose Bishop Hilarion as the first deputy of Metropolitan Laurus,” explained Archbishop Mark. According to him, these are the expectations of the majority of ROCOR parishioners. In addition, the archbishop, Vladyka Hilarion added, “this is a natural succession” for Metropolitan Laurus: he grew up in the same monastery where the former first hierarch of the ROCOR was, and “in his make-up he is the same kind of person, a gentle one.”

Archbishop Hilarion (in the world - Igor Kapral) was born on January 6, 1948 in the town of Spirit River in the Canadian province of Alberta, into a family of immigrants from Ukraine. At the age of 19, Igor entered the Holy Trinity Theological Seminary, located in the American city of Jordanville. Two years after graduating from the seminary, he was tonsured a monk with the name Hilarion. In 1984, Hieromonk Hilarion was consecrated Bishop of Manhattan and Eastern America; in 1995, he took the episcopal see in Washington, and a year later he was elevated to the rank of Archbishop of Sydney and Australia and New Zealand.

Deputy Head of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, in a conversation with Vremya Novostei, recalled that according to the Act on Canonical Communion, signed by Metropolitan Laurus and Patriarch Alexy II on May 17, 2007, the foreign church retained autonomy within the Russian Orthodox Church. Therefore, the election of the first hierarch of this church remains the prerogative of the ROCOR itself. “This process takes place entirely within the framework of the foreign church, it is the work of its hierarchs, who will elect the first hierarch at the Council of Bishops,” said Fr. Vsevolod. “Their decision is subject to approval by the Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus' and the Holy Synod of our church.” The DECR deputy head emphasized that whoever becomes the first hierarch of the ROCOR will be “a person with whom good relations have already been established with brothers and sisters in faith living in Russia.” “Of course, their participation in the life of the church in their homeland will continue,” added Fr. Vsevolod.

However, not all foreign priests were ready to reconcile with the “church in the fatherland.” Part of the ROCOR clergy refused to accept the Act of Canonical Communion. According to Archbishop Mark of Berlin, the most unfavorable situation has developed in South America, where “with the exception of two parishes, everyone has left.” “But there are not many of them - eight, maximum ten parishes,” added Bishop Mark. - And mostly the priests left, the parishioners are simply helpless, they don’t know how to act. There are some very dissatisfied people among them.” But, the archbishop is sure, no one will follow the schismatics; moreover, many “dissidents” have returned to the bosom of the church.

“I hope that the new first hierarch of the foreign church will be able to resolve this problem, because time heals many wounds,” Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin emphasized in a conversation with VN. “At the same time, it became obvious to me from the very beginning that a certain small part of this church would separate from it after reunification with the Moscow Patriarchate.” The DECR deputy head recalled that some parishes began to separate from the ROCOR even before the reunification. Thus, most of the parishes that the foreign church accepted into its composition in Russia and other post-Soviet countries broke away even before it became known about the signing of the Act on Canonical Communion. “These parishes were led by conflicting and ambitious people who were not satisfied with any authorities - both in Russia and abroad,” notes Fr. Vsevolod. Moreover, those who did not recognize the reunification of the ROCOR and the ROC MP have already managed to split into six groups that do not recognize each other. “Each of these groups is very, very small, if not dwarf,” states the deputy head of the DECR. “Well, this is the fate of any schism, it divides further and further.”

Mikhail MOSHKIN