Ekaterina Alexeyeva, Postgraduate Student, Sts Cyril and Methodius Theological Institute of Postgraduate Studies; senior lecturer, SFI (Moscow)
pp. 34–51
DOI: 10.25803/SFI.2018.27.17718
The article outlines the discussion on Old Belief and Edinoverie (uniated part of Old Belief and Russian Church created in 1800) in the VI Department of the Pre-Conciliar Presence in 1906. The projects aimed at drawing together the Edinoverie and the Russian Church are presented. The author describes the Department’s judgments on the urgent need of resolving the issues related to appointing a bishop for Edinoverie parishes and to the opportunity of reversing the curses on the Old Rite. Priest Simeon Shleyev’s position on the missionary significance of Edinoverie is also introduced. As the debates within the Department demonstrated, the Russian Church was not ready to reconcile with the entire Old Believers’ world. However, this discussion marked a new stage in the development of Edinoverie in Russia and determined the agenda of the forthcoming All-Russian Council of the Orthodox Russian Church on the Old Believer issue.
Keywords: Old Belief, Edinoverie, Orthodox Old Believers, Belokrinitskaya Hierarchy, Pre-Conciliar Presence, Fr. Simeon Shleyev, All-Russian Missionary Society.