interwiki, renameuser, Administrators
13,552
edits
Changes
→1917-1946: A Tale of Two Histories: photo
:Notwithstanding the departure from the Church Abroad — and, one may say, from the Russian Church altogether — of Metropolitans Evlogy and Platon with their followers, the Russian Orthdox Church Outside of Russia remains the free part of the Russian Church.[http://www.orthodoxinfo.com/ecumenism/roca_history.aspx]
[[Image:Karlovtsy 1935.jpg|left|frame|The "Karlovtsy Synod" meeting in Serbia in 1935. Seated (L to R): Metropolitans Theophilus (then primate of the Metropolia) and Anthony, Patriarch Varnava, Metropolitans Evlogy and Anastasy. Standing: Archbishops Theophan and Germogen, Bishop Dimitri.]]
The question of the nature of the relationship between the ROCOR and the Metropolia during this period has significant bearing on the jurisdictional legitimacy of both the OCA and the ROCOR as they now exist. If they never had much more than a "loose association," then the OCA's argument for Orthodox primacy in America is strengthened, as it would never have been under any jurisdictional authority other than Moscow's or its own. The period from the 1920s until 1970 of tension between it and Moscow are simply a difficult period between a mission diocese and its mother church.
If, however, the Metropolia was indeed part of the ROCOR, then its claims to being the direct heir of Russia's primacy in America are thrown into question, and the legitimacy of Moscow's grant of [[autocephaly]] to the OCA in 1970 has significant problems, in that it would be favoring a rogue jurisdiction which had switched allegiances multiple timesand could be said to have been in schism from its legitimate canonical authority.
==1970: Autocephaly for the OCA==