BUENOS AIRES: April 27, 2010
The Celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the Consecration of the Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ

On Sunday, April 25, 2010, clergymen of the Russian Orthodox Church and the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia jointly performed a hierarchal Divine Liturgy in the capital of Argentina.  

The feast day celebrations took place in the Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ on Nunez Street, which marked the 50th anniversary of its consecration on April 25. Divine Liturgy and a moleben of thanksgiving were headed by His Eminence Metropolitan Hilarion of Eastern America and New York and His Grace Bishop John of Caracas and South America (ROCOR) and His Eminence Metropolitan Platon of Argentina and South America (Moscow Patriarchate).  

Over a hundred people attended the Sunday services, many of whom came with their children to attend an event in which an unheard-of number of hierarchs--for South America--participated. The Cathedral could barely accommodate all of the worshipers.

In the words of Metropolitan Platon, these joint services during the Cathedral’s celebration should serve towards uniting those parishioners who “through misunderstanding or mistrust” did not accept the Act of Canonical Communion signed in April 2007 which reestablished unity between the Moscow Patriarchate and the Church Abroad. “Our mission is to pray for them, since we are all Christians of one Local Orthodox Church and must glorify His holy name here, on this distant continent,” said Vladyka.

Metropolitan Hilarion feels that many clergymen and laypersons of the South American Diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia harbor outdated conceptions of the Moscow Patriarchate. “Therein lies the reason why more than half of the South-American parishes left the authority of their hierarchy and adhered to the so-called ‘Temporary Supreme Central Authority of the Russian Church Abroad’ headed by ‘Bishop’ Agafangel (Pashkovsky) of Odessa and Tauride, who was suspended by our Synod of Bishops and defrocked,” stated the First Hierarch. In his opinion, “our errant brothers will soon come to see that they have entered a spiritual dead end.”

“Nowhere does the ‘Odessa schism’ make itself more painfully felt that in South America. We are in dire need of clergymen. I hope that the mighty Church of Russia will help us,” added Bishop John. "

The Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ was built in the late 1950’s by Russian political émigrés arriving in Argentina after World War II. Some 7,000 laypersons and 10 clergymen of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia arrived in the country at the time.

This year marks the 90th anniversary of the establishment of the Russian Church Abroad.