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Between [[October 30]] and [[November 4]], the Council established the procedure for choosing the new patriarch, deciding on a procedure of selecting by lot from among the three candidates who received the most votes by the Council membership. On [[November 5]], a starets (elder) extracted the name of the new patriarch, Metropolitan Tikhon (Belavin) of Moscow, who became Patriarch of Moscow and All-Russia. On [[November 21]], 1917, in an elaborate service Metr. Tikhon was installed as the first patriarch of the Church of Russia since the early eighteenth century. The enthronement took place in the Kremlin's Dormition Cathedral.
As the nature of the Bolshevik government became more evident, the Council on [[January 25]],1918 issued a decree for the Patriarch to establish a succession as a safeguard for the Church: "in case of illness, death, or other tragic eventualities for the Patriarch, it is decided to ask him to choose a few [[Locum tenens|Locum Tenens ]] of the Patriarchal [[See]], who in order of their seniority shall continue the authority of the Patriarch, lawfully succeeding the Patriarch."
===Holy Synod===
===Parish===
Other Sections of the Council addressed reforms proposed for the [[parish]] and life at the parish level. Such issues as adjusting the division of parish income among parish staff, revival of parish life, the parish statute, and women's role in the Church including the [[deaconess]] issue, were discussed vigorously. A Council decree of [[November 17]], 1917 adjusted the split of parish income among the parish staff, making the priest's share 46 percent, the deacon's 31 percent and the sacristan's 23 percent. This was not received well by the [[clergy]] members who found their shares lowered by six percent at the expense of an increase for the sacristan.
On [[April 20]], 1918, the Council adopted a ''Parish Statute''. The statute defined the parish as a society of Orthodox clergy and laity unified in a locality around an edifice under the canonical administration of the bishop and led by a priest who was assigned by the bishop. The parish was required to maintain records of each parishioner and record vital statistics. Administration of the parish was to be carried out by a staff of clergy and laity and an assembly that had to meet twice a year to consider maintenance of the buildings, elect parish office holders, financial support of the clergy, maintain parish records, and manage the parish schools. Women could participate in the assemblies and serve as starosta.
=== Liturgical life===
A number of aspects involving the liturgical life of the church was addressed by the Section on Divine Services, Homiletics, and Churches, (led by Archbishop [[Eulogius (Georgievsky) of Paris |Evlogii of Volhynia]], later of the emigration in Paris). Among the aspects debated were the careless behaviors by both the clergy and [[laity]], preaching, the [[typikon]], sale of items within the sanctified space of the church not related to the services, observance of [[fast]]s, [[calendar]] reform, [[marriage]] and [[divorce]], and [[celibacy]] and marriage issues. The turmoil of the Bolshevik takeover seriously altered the atmosphere for debates and conditions concerning church life. Much of the section's efforts was not to reach the Council plenum. A decree by the Section "On Church Preaching" was issued through the plenum on [[December 1]], 1917, but by the conclusion of the Council in September 1918 the Council was able to consider only some of the Section's work, but without making any decisions.
Calendar reform was debated with note of the difficulties of smoothly making a transition to a modern calendar such as the Medler model of the 1860s. But, with the Bolshevik decree on [[January 26]], 1918 that made the Gregorian calendar the civil calendar, with [[February 14]] (ns) following [[February 1]] (os), much of the discussion became moot. Thus, the Council on [[January 30]], 1918 approved the sections section's proposal to retain the old style calendar to be used in parallel with the new style calendar.
The problems associated with the Church control of marriage and divorce laws in Russia had been debated for decades. The need to relax the strictness of the laws that allowed only four reasons for divorce (adultery, abandonment, sexual incapacity, and mental incapacity) had been recognized both within the imperial government and the Church. While the Bolshevik decree of [[December 20]], 1917 ended control by the Church over marriage and divorce, the Church categorically refused to recognize this in so far as believers were concerned and considered those who married in the Church guilty of adultery if the marriage was ended in a civil divorce with remarriage. In the atmosphere of civil control of marriage and divorce the Council continued the debate of adapting the ecclesiastical position on divorce in the modern world and adopted in an amended decree just before the Council closed rules expanding the grounds for divorce that ecclesiastical courts should consider.
===Church-State relations===
While based upon the [[Byzantine]] principle of ''symphonia'', the relationship of the Church with the State had been filled with matters of contention and negotiation. This was true in the Russian state and empire, witness the relations between [[Ivan IV of Russia|Ivan IV]] and Metr. [[Philip I of Moscow|Philip]] and of Alexis and Pat. [[Nikon of Moscow|Nikon]]. With the reforms of Peter I the Church became subordinate to the State, even to becoming a department of the State. With the February Revolution of 1917, the Church looked to establishing a new relationship in which the Church was fully independent of the State yet would look to the State for finances. This hoped-for-relationship was proposed by the Preconciliar Committee. The spirit of this proposal was carried into the Council and was formulated into a draft decree that came up for consideration by the Council plenum on [[November 13]], 1917. It could not be a more inauspicious time.
The fact that no government existed was acknowledged by [[Sergius Bulgakov|Sergius N. Bulgakov]] (then a layman), who presented the draft decree prepared by the Section on Church-State Relations. Continuing, Bulgakov considered it necessary to present the Council's idea to the Church at large, that is the [[Ecumenical Church]], and to the faithful of the Russian Orthodox Church. Some theoretical arguments that challenged the idea of national church were made, such as the issue of maintaining missions in Japan, China, and America under their own civil governments. The ideas were formulated into a decree by the Council on [[December 2]], 1917 that set out the conditions a government must accept to guarantee the freedom and independence of the Russian Church.
