Divisions & Schisms in the Early Russian Church

 

·         Judaizers – 1470 in Novgorod – Zachariah; 1479 - Ivan III, Grand Prince of Moscow – appoints Judaizers to high positions; Theodore Kuritsyn – Ivan’s chief diplomat – a Judaizer

·         1485 – crackdown on Judaizers in Novgorod; 1490 – metropolitan = Judaizer

·         1497 – death of Kuritsyn; 1505 – council condemns Judaizers

·         Possessors & Non-Possessors: Nilus = Non-Possessor leader – hesychast

·         Joseph = Possessor leader –also known as Josephites

·         Old Believers/Old Ritualists: 1551 – “Hundred Chapters” Council; Ivan the Terrible (1547-1584)

·         1610-12 – Poles in Moscow; 1613 – Michael Romanov made Tsar; Romanov dynasty till 1917

·         Zealots; Alexei Romanov (1645-76); polyvocality; Patriarch Nikon (1652-66)

·         1653 – Nikon initiates reform: sign of cross; spelling of “Jesus”; Alleluia; movement around altar

·         1666 – council about reforms; Archbishop Avvakum (d. 1682)

·         Half-Old Believers; Priestly Old Believers; Priestless Old Believers

 

Church and State in Imperial Russia

 

·         Peter the Great (1682-1725); “Imperial Age”: 1682-1917; 1703 – St. Petersburg

·         End of Patriarchate: 1700 – last Patriarch died; Stephen Yavorskii (1658-1722)

·         Metropolitan of Moscow, Exarch, Keeper and Administrator of the Patriarchal Throne

·         Feofan Prokopovich (1681-1738); 1718 – Metro. of Pskov

·         1721 – Spiritual Regulation – Holy Synod; Overprocurator

·         Elizabeth (1741-1761); Peter III (1761-62); Catherine the Great (1762-96); St. Seraphim of Sarov (1759-1833)

·         Pietism & Spiritualism: Masons

·         Alexander Golitsyn (1773-1844); Overprocurator of the Synod: 1801-1824; Tsar Alexander I (1801-25)

·         Slavophiles – Optina monastery; hesychasm; Alexei Khomiakov (1804-60)

·         Westernists – positivism, materialism, revolution, socialism, Marxism

 

Reform, Mission, & Dialogue

 

·         Alexander II (1855-81); 1861: serfs liberated

·         Dimitri Tolstoy (1866-80) = Overprocurator under Alexander II; sobornost’ / conciliarity

·         Konstantin Pobedonostsev (1880-1905) – Overprocurator under Alexander III (1881-94) & Nicholas II (1894-1917)

·         Missions: Stephen of Perm (d. 1396); Permiak

·         Alaska: Russian territory 1732; Ft. Ross – 1812; Mission: 1794 – St. Herman of Alaska; Spruce Island

·         1824 – St. Innocent; Aleut & Tlingit; 1840: Innocent first bishop of Novo-Arkhangel’sk (Sitka)

·         1867 – Alaska to US; 1868 – Innocent to Moscow, US bishop to San Francisco; 1905 – bishop to NYC

·         Anglicans & Orthodox: Oxford Movement; dialogue begins 1839

·         1864 – American Episcopal church delegation to Russia; 1871 – Old Catholics

 

Renaissance & Revolution

 

·         Alexei Khomiakov (1804-60); Fyodor Dostoyevski (1821-81)

·         Vladimir Soloviev (1853-1900): Divine Wisdom / Sophia; Pavel Florensky (1182-1943);

·         Sergei Bulgakov (1871-1944) - Sophia: The Wisdom of God; Pantheism / Panentheism

·         1905: Duma (Parliament), religious tolerance; Pobedonostsev; “pre-council”

·         Feb. 1917: 1st Revolution – Provisional Gov’t; allows council – Aug. 1917 til Sept. 1918; Patriarch Tikhon

·         Oct 1917: Bolshevik Revolution; Civil War: Bolsheviks vs. White Russians

·         Oct. 1919: Whites on verge of victory; end of 1920: Whites defeated

·         Ukraine: Autocephaly & Autonomy

·         Terms in Reading: GPU = Secret Police; Politburo = Political Bureau  of the Communist Party

The Bolshevik Revolution and the Russian Church

 

·         Marxism; ideology; religion=“opiate of the people”; 1918: Lenin proclaims religious freedom

·         1921: The Renovationists / “The Living Church”; Letter from Lenin to Molotov; arrest of Patriarch Tikhon

·         1923: Renovationist council; 1926: Renovationists no longer significant; 1940: completely gone

·         1925: Tikhon dies; Peter appointed locum tenens & arrested; Sergii rules as “deputy locum tenens”

·         Archbishop Grigorii / Grigorians; “non-commemorators”

·         1927: Sergii’s “Declaration of Loyalty”; Stalin: 1928-53; 1928-39 – fierce persecution:

·         1927: 30,000 churches; 1940:200-300; 40,000 priests; 40,000 monks & nuns; millions of laity martyred; 1939: 4 bishops left; League of the Militant Godless

·         Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia / “the Church Abroad” / “the Synodal Church”

·         1920: White Russian Army to Constantinople; Metropolitan Antonii, Metropolitan Platon & Archbishop Evlogii; 1921: Karlovci, Serbia; Higher Monarchist Council

·         1925: Karlovci breaks w/ Moscow; 1926: Platon & Evlogii break w/ Karlovci; 1929: Evlogii breaks w/ Moscow

 

The Russian Church and the Second World War

 

·         1939: Soviets & Hitler sign treaty; Soviets take western Ukraine & Byelorussia from Poland; Finland; 1940: the Baltics

·         22 June 1941: Hitler invades Russia; Hitler & Karlovci – all Orthodox under Nazi rule under ROCOR

·         Church in the Ostland: 1) the Baltics; 2) Byelorussia - Minsk; 3) Ukraine – Ukrainian Autocephalous Church; 4) Romania & S. Russia

·         4 Sept. 1943: Stalin meets w/ Sergii & bishops; M. G. Karpov;

·         8 Sept. – council – Sergii = patriarch; 1945: Alexii = Patriarch (till 1970)

·         1947: 14,000 churches; 13,000 in Nazi territories; 1957: 3,800 in Russian Republic

·         ROCOR: many reunite w/ Moscow; Metropolitan Anastasii new leader; “Sergianism”

·         American Russian Orthodox Metropolitan District: “the Metropolia”; Metropolitan Platon

·         1926: break w/ Karlovci; 1933: break w/ Moscow; 1934: elect new Metropolitan

·         1936: reunion w/ ROCOR – meaningless; break again 1946

·         1970 – Metropolia autocephalous = Orthodox Church in America; 1922: Greek Archdiocese

 

The Russian Church in the Cold War

 

·         Nikita Khrushchev (1953-64): persecutes the church: 1957: 18,000 churches; 1966: 7,000

·         Council for Russian Orthodox Church Affairs (CROCA); 1965: Council on Religious Affairs (CRA)

·         1960: Patr. Alexii speaks out; Metropolitan Nikolai takes the blame; church backs down

·         1961: CROCA summons council; new regulations; church completely in state hands

·         Leonid Brezhnev (1964-82): ended persecution; samizdat; Nikolai Eshliman & Gleb Yakunin (1965)

·         Patriarch Pimen (1971-90); 1971: recognized Old Ritualists

·         Alexander Solzhenitsyn (exiled 1974); 1976 – a Committee for Defense of Believers

·         1977: Georgian Patriarch Ilia; Albania: 1967 = atheist; 1991: religion allowed – no bishops, 20 priests

·         Romania: Patriarch Justinian (1948-77); Serbia: Croatians & Nazis; Bulgaria; Poland; Czechoslovakia

 

The Russian Church & the Fall of Communism

 

·         1986: Gorbachev; Chernobyl; chornobyl = “wormwood” – Rev. 8:10-11; glasnost

·         1988: Millennium; Millennial council; extended hand to ROCOR – rejected 1990

·         Free Russian Orthodox Church (ca. 90 churches); 1992: Metropolitan Vitalii’s anti-semitism

·         1990: council elects Patriarch Alexii II; 1991 Soviet Union vanishes; church under Russian law

·         religious freedom; religion in schools; churches: 1988: 6800; 1997: 17,000; monasteries: 1988: 18; 1997: 300

·         Ukraine: 1989: Uniates reemerge; Committee for the Defense of the Ukrainian Catholic Church

·         Autocephalists: 1989: Metropolitan/Patriarch Mtsyslav; Metropolitan Filaret of Kiev – 1992

·         Mtsyslav – Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church (UAOC); Filaret – Ukrainian Orthodox Church – Kiev Patriarchate (UOC-KP); Ukrainian Orthodox Church – Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP)

·         Right Wing Nationalists: Orthodox “Brotherhoods”; Union of Orthodox Brotherhoods;1994 – church gains control