MOSCOW: November 20, 2004

The Third Joint Session of the Committees of the
Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia and the Moscow Patriarch Held

The third joint session between the Committee of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia on discussions with the Moscow Patriarchate and the Committee of the Moscow Patriarchate on discussions with the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia was held from 17-19 November at the Office of External Church Affairs of the Moscow Patriarchate at St Danilov Monastery in Moscow.

Representing the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia were the President of the Committee, His Eminence Archbishop Mark of Berlin and Germany, Bishop Ambroise of Vevey, Archimandrite Luke (Murianka), Secretary of the Committee Protopriest Alexander Lebedeff, and Protopriest Nikolai Artemoff.

Attending the session on behalf of the Moscow Patriarchate were Archbishop Innokentii of Korsun, President of that Committee, Archbishop Evgenii of Verey, Protopriest Vladislav Tsypin, Archimandrite Tikhon (Shevkunov) and Committee Secretary Protopriest Nikolai Balashov.

The meeting was held in an atmosphere of brotherly love and mutual understanding, and preliminary conclusions of their work were drawn up. Drafted also were new documents with the aim of achieving ecclesiastical unity.

As a result of the meetings, the two sides developed joint documents on matters of the relationship of the Church and state and on the attitude of the Orthodox Church to heterodox faiths. Also discussed were canonical matters: on the status of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia as a self-governing part of one Local Russian Church, and also on the conditions for establishing Eucharistic communion. General approaches to their joint resolution were established.

On the eve of the meetings, the delegation of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia attended the opening of the Festival of Orthodox Mass Media "Faith and Word," where a meeting of the delegation with His Holiness Patriarch Alexy of Moscow and All Russia and His Holiness Patriarch Pavle of Serbia was held., A display was set up at the Festival with samples of the publications of Holy Trinity Monastery in Jordanville and also those of dioceses of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia.

During the opening of the Festival, the delegates of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia became participants in an historic even in the life of the Russian Orthodox Church; the return of what seemed to have been lost forever—the ancient cross from the cupola of St Sofia Cathedral in Great Novgorod.

The prayerful mood of the participants of the third joint meeting aided in its work. The members of the Committees noted with a feeling of gratitude towards God what significant progress was made on the joint path towards unity, with the aid of the Lord, over the course of but one year, since the first visit to Moscow of the Delegation of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia headed by Archbishop Mark of Berlin and Germany (held from 17-22 November 2003).

The documents adopted at the meeting will be submitted for further consideration by the Hierarchies of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia and of the Moscow Patriarchate.

The next joint session of the Committees will be held in the spring of 2005.