Russia: a study on the question of “primacy” in the Church

The Theological Commission of Moscow’s Patriarchate met at the end of December to discuss the question of primacy in the universal Church. The news was given by “Europaica”, the Orthodox news service promoted by the representative of the Russian Church at the European Institutions. The topic of primacy is crucial for ecumenical dialogue and it was the topic of the works of the mixed Commission for Theological Dialogue between the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church which at the end of the Ravenna meeting (October 2007) jointly issued a document on this issue. The text however wasn’t signed by the delegation of Moscow’s Patriarchate which left before the end of the meeting to protest for the presence of the Estonian Apostolic Church which isn’t recognized by Moscow. The Patriarchate of Moscow then declared its intention to ask the Theological Commission of the Synod to accurately analyze the “Ravenna document”. These remarks will be evaluated and approved by the Holy Synod of the Russian Church. The Theological Commission held its meeting at the end of December under the presidency of Metropolitan bishop Filaret of Minsk. Bishop Markdi Yegoryevsk informed the Commission on the activities undertaken by the working group which is examining the question of primacy in the universal Church, while the Department for external relations of Moscow’s Patriarchate filed a report on the problem of primacy in the intra-orthodox and intra-Christian dialogue. “To the light of what we have heard – is stated in the Europaica press release – the theological Commission pinpointed the issues on which the debate should be centred and worked out a working plan for the development of a document which will express the position of Moscow’s Patriarchate in the universal Church”. During the meeting the Commission worked on the definition of a document on the position of Moscow’s Patriarchate vis a vis the primacy of the universal Church. During the meeting, the works of the Commission were also focused on a document by the mixed Lutheran-Orthodox dialogue Commission on the Eucharist which will be presented to the Holy Synod of the Orthodox Russian Church.