Looking Toward Unity: How the Russian Church Abroad Viewed the Moscow Patriarchate, 1927-2007

In 1920 the Russian refugee bishops established the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia (ROCOR), also known as the Russian Church Abroad. In 1927 this church renounced subordination to the Church in Russia (also known as the Moscow Patriarchate). On May 17, 2007,  representatives of both churches concelebrated. Divine Liturgy in the Moscow Christ Savior Cathedral. The process of reconciliation between the Moscow Patriarchate and the ROCOR became a rare example of true ecumenical dialogue, helping the two estranged branches identify common ontological grounds. The author sketches the historical antecedents of the ROCOR's relations with the Moscow Patriarchate and analyzes the ROCOR's conciliar pronouncements and other representative documents from the period of estrangement. This paper demonstrates that the ROCOR ecclesiology of the studied period had been struggling to avoid the perils of isolationism. The history of the Orthodox Church teaches us that ecclesiastical divisions tend to be most persistent  when one of the estranged factions believes that the separation is predicated on doctrine.Despite the ROCOR's occasional reference to doctrinal reasons underlying the estrangement, this division was in fact a result of political considerations and therefore was easier to overcome than, for instance, in the case of the Old Believers.