The Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church took place in Moscow

The Bishops' Council of the Russian Orthodox Church took place in Moscow. The participants of the Council discussed issues of church structure, church policy and church life.

29 November - December 2, 2017, the Bishops' Council of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC).

Members Council discussed issues of church organization, church politics and church life.

Separately in the documents of the Council it is said that it “approves the activity of His Holiness the Patriarch and approves the decisions taken by the Holy Synod during the inter-council period.

The Council approved three documents - "Regulations on monasteries and monastics”, “On the canonical aspects of church marriage” and "Regulations on the awards of the Russian Orthodox Church". The most significant of them is the document on the church marriage, which is especially distinguished by the chapter on church divorce. With this document, the Church actually legitimized the situation existing in modern society: now divorce between married spouses can be made not only in the case of matrimonial infidelity, second marriage, insanity or alcoholism of a spouse or his physical unfitness for marriage (including in the case of castration), but also if the spouses, by agreement, do not live together for more than a year (i.e. actually divorced).

Some points of the Council Decisions are devoted to missionary activity of the ROC - even proselytism, since it is not only about teaching people who have been baptized or who are preparing for baptism (“pre-baptismal and post-baptismal catechesis"), but also "the enlightenment of those who belong to the nations historically professing Orthodoxy”, including “indigenous small peoples of Russia" and peoples in "countries of the canonical presence of the Russian Church". The participants of the Council attributed to missionary work “opposition to sectarian and neo-pagan threats."

The Council made its assessment of what took place in Crete in the summer of 2016 to the Pan-Orthodox Council. “ This Council cannot be regarded as Pan-Orthodox, and the decisions made on it are binding on the entire Orthodox fullness , ”decided the participants of the Council of Bishops.

Sources

• Resolutions of the Consecrated Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church (November 29 - December 2, 2017) // Official website of the Moscow Patriarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church. 2017. December 2.