The Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church made the statement during a first-ever official conference with the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad. Metropolitan Laurus of East America and New York is leading a delegation of his Church on a visit to Russia.
Hosting the landmark conference was the Synodal Residence of St. Daniel's Monastery in Moscow, official Patriarchal premises.
"Russia has never seen such Church-State relations as now. The Church met the 1917 revolution as, de facto, official institution. Though the revolution separated the Church from the State, secular authorities were interfering in Church life everywhere, to say nothing of reprisals.
"Today, mutual respect determines Church-State contacts-the Church does not intervene in politics, while secular authorities do not interfere in internal ecclesiastical affairs," said Patriarch Alexis.
In a daylong conference, the negotiators were debating the ways to overcome a tragic split that became the lot of the Russian Orthodox Church with the revolutionary upheavals of the 1920s.
"I see the current conference and initial steps to a rapprochement as fulfilling the heart's desire of many on this gathering now that the reasons for our schism are gone.
"We are together now, and we have joined in common prayer. That is a landmark event with a symbolical undercurrent to it. It is blessed by the Lord, and came through the supplication of the New Russian Martyrs and Confessors," the Patriarch said with conviction.
Though the present is a second official delegation of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad to be visiting Russia, Metropolitan Laurus has never before been to his ancestral land.
The common prayer to which Patriarch Alexis II was referring came Saturday last, May 15, when the delegates joined the clergy and hierarchy of the Russian Orthodox Church as His Beatitude served a commemorative liturgy in Butovo. What used to be an army drilling grounds in the Moscow environs, now on the city southwestern outskirts, became known as Russian Calvary. Thirty thousand victims of Stalinist atrocities met their death by the firing squad there in the 1930s. There were a thousand priests and monks among them. The Russian Orthodox Church has canonised many of the martyrs.
"I think we have made a stride forward in our rapprochement with the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad. As for re-instituting communion in prayer, the matter is up to a Bishops' Council of the Moscow Patriarchate, which is to gather in [Moscow's] Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, October 3 into 8," Patriarch Alexis II said to the media.
"Significantly, the Synods of the Russian Orthodox Church and the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad have established a commission each, and the two will meet as soon as Metropolitan Laurus finishes his visit.
"When the Russian Church in Exile established its Synod, in 1922, Metropolitan Anthony, its Primate at that time, said that the Synod was an interim arrangement to be active till the day the Church regained freedom in Russia. The basic obstacles to our reunion have been removed for today. That is my deep conviction-but the seventy years of a split have made an imprint on Church life.
"It is up to a Bishops' Council to make decisions for a reunion in prayer after a long and tragic separation. Only the Lord knows nowadays just when we shall rejoin each other, yet it is our duty to do all we can for this sublime and sacred cause," said the Patriarch.
The pace of the budding rapprochement will depend on the current conferences of the two Primates, say experts. It may launch preparations for a joint Church Council, which will eventually settle the problems that separated the two Churches due to the tragedy of 1917. The Churches may reunite if each repents errors and delusions of the dire past.
Property disputes between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad stand apart. Among the most bitter are those round property of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad, currently claimed by the Moscow Patriarchy and Russia's Foreign Ministry.
The holding of immovables and other ecclesiastical property ought to be regulated by host countries' acting legislation, point out experts. Thunderbolt U-turns in that delicate field would be pernicious, so it will be the wisest to retain the status quo ante. New forms of creative alliance in Church life can be expected to bring acceptable forms of settlement.
Analysts highlight President Vladimir Putin's enthusiasm for the emergent rapprochement of the two parts of one Church. In fact, it was launched largely thanks to his encouraging support.
As Metropolitan Laurus was addressing newsmen on the eve of his arrival in Moscow, he said the visit aimed merely to take stock of the situation. It also reflected "our Church's conscientious efforts to find the road to a reappraisal of the basic premises we share, and to mutual understanding. As for determination of canonical, pastoral and practical ecclesiastical pillars of Russian Church reunion, those matters will come under discussion as commissions get together. Those commissions have been established by the Bishops' Council of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad, and the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church."
