ecumenism" "
The Patriarch of Moscow and of all the Russias, Alexis II, recently sent a letter to the faithful of the Russian diaspora in Western Europe and their pastors to describe the plan to create a metropolitan province in the area which would bring together Orthodox dioceses, parishes, communities and monasteries of Russian origin and tradition. “Many of the descendents of emigrants of the first generation, bearers of the Russian tradition in Europe, wish to preserve their local organized forms of ecclesial life, developed over the years, which are different from those of the Church in Russia, although founded on the same canonical tradition”, points out Alexis II. These are parishes and communities that “have acquired a multinational character and use the local language in the liturgy”; some of them “have expressed the desire to continue to live in the Church according to their own statutes that guarantee them internal autonomy with the election of their own bishop, on condition that this nomination be confirmed by the Patriarchate of Moscow and the Holy Synod of the Russian Church”. The same wishes have been expressed by the “Commission for the future of the archdiocese of the Russian Orthodox parishes of Western Europe” established two years ago. According to Alexis II, such wishes could be fulfilled “through the creation in Western Europe of a special metropolitan province that would bring together the Orthodox dioceses, parishes, communities and monasteries of Russian origin and tradition that wish to form part of it”; such a province would be headed, at least in its initial phase, by Metropolitan Antony of Sourozh with the collaboration of all the “pastors of the Russian Church in Western Europe”. This would be just the first stage of the “journey of the Russian diaspora towards unity”: the same concludes the Patriarch of Moscow “needs to be done in the countries of Central Europe too”.
