The Attitude Of The Russian Orthodox Church Abroad Toward Non-Orthodox Christians And The Ecumenical Movement (1920-1964): An Historical Evaluation

The Russian Orthodox Church Abroad (ROCA) is known today as one of the most conservative Orthodox Churches in the world, known for its rigid stance in opposition to ecumenism. To demonstrate how the ROCA came to such a position is the task of this investigation. This thesis evaluates the ROCA’s relations with non-Orthodox Christians and the ecumenical movement in light of the Orthodox canonical tradition and pastoral concern. The pre-revolutionary Russian ecclesiology of Evgenii Akvilonov and Aleksei Khomiakov are considered as sources of the ecclesiology of Metropolitan Antonii (Khrapovitskii) and his disciples. Representatives of the ROCA during the first twenty years of its existence consciously participated in ecumenical projects. After World War II the attitude toward the ecumenical movement begun to change due to the rigidly anti-Communist orientation of the ROCA and the problems of the Orthodox witness within the WCC. The conservative stance of the ROCA toward the non-Orthodox enabled it to preserve its flock within Orthodoxy against Roman Catholic proselytism, while not enabling it to recognize the problems of its own ecclesiology, e.g., sacramental oikonomia. The political position of the RCOA had its positive side: the uncovering of the persecution of the faith in the USSR. It also had a negative one: an under-evaluation of the evils of extreme-right nationalistic movements. The present work has assembled all available data concerning the relationship of the ROCA with the ecumenical movement and with non-Orthodox Christians during the primacy of Metropolitans Antonii (1920-1935) and Anastasii (1935-1964) and analyzed the character of these relations. The assembled data is divided by theme. The information within the chapters is presented in chronological order. The data is analyzed in the conclusion of each chapter according to categories contained in the overall conclusions, with an attempt to present an evaluation of the total picture drawn from all individual conclusions. The chapter from the thesis Relations between the ROCOR and the Roman Catholic Church, 1920-1964, can be read here: http://www.rocorstudies.org/articles/2010/02/28/andrei-psarev-relations-between-the-rocor-and-the-roman-catholic-church-1920-1964/