Decree 348 (349) of Patriarch Tikhon and the Joint Session of the Holy Synod and the Supreme Church Council, Addressed to Metropolitan Anthony, President of the Supreme Church Administration Abroad

This document,[1]The decree that was addressed to Metropolitan Anthony was numbered 348 and the one sent to Metropolitan Evlogii had number 349. Kostriukov, Russkaia Zarubezhnaia Tserkov’ v pervoi polovine 1920-kh … Continue reading adopted on May 6, 1922, must be examined in detail, since it is the only specific disciplinary measure undertaken by His Holiness the Patriarch Tikhon against the Russian Church Abroad.

With the blessing of His Holiness the Patriarch, the Holy Synod and Supreme Church Council heard in a joint session: the statement of His Holiness the Patriarch of March 28/April 10 [2] April 10 is a wrong date because the event took place on March 28, new style. This is clear from Sledstvennoe delo Patriarkha Tikhona, 117. of this year [1922], with the following content:

“Herewith I attach issues of Novoe Vremia from December 3 and 4, 1921, and March 1, 1922. In them are printed the Encyclical of the Karlovtsy Council and its address to the [Genoa] World Conference. These are documents of a political nature and as such are in contravention of my encyclical of September 25, 1919. Therefore:

1) I consider the Karlovtsy Council of Russian clergy and laity abroad not to have canonical significance, and its encyclical concerning the restoration of the Romanov dynasty and its address to the Genoa Conference not to reflect the official voice of the Russian Orthodox Church.

2) In light of the fact that the Russian Church Administration Abroad is digressing into the domain of political statements, and seeing as the Russian parishes abroad have already been entrusted to the care of His Eminence Metropolitan Evlogii, who is residing in Germany, the Supreme Church Administration is to be dissolved.

3) The Holy Synod is to take charge of the ecclesiastical disciplinary proceedings against certain clerical persons from abroad who have made political statements in the Church’s name.”

Following discussion of the Patriarch’s statement, it was resolved:

1) To consider the “Encyclical Letter of the All-Diaspora Church Council to all Children of the Russian Church Existing in Diaspora and in Exile,” concerning the restoration of the monarchy in Russia headed by a Tsar from the House of the Romanov, printed in Novoe Vremia No. 184 of December 3, 1921, and the “Encyclical Letter to the World Conference in the Name of the All-Diaspora Church Council”, printed in the very same Novoe Vremiaon March 1 of this year and signed by Your Eminence [Metropolitan Anthony Khrapovitskii], to be documents that do not reflect the official voice of the Russian Orthodox Church and, which, in light of their political character, do not have ecclesiastical or canonical significance;

2) In the light of the explicit political digressions admitted by the Supreme Russian Church Administration Abroad, and taking into account that, with the appointment of His Eminence Metropolitan Evlogii by the same Authority as head of the Russian Orthodox churches abroad, there is in fact no place for such a Supreme Church Administration to exercise this authority, to abolish the designated Supreme Church Administration, temporarily keeping the Russian parishes abroad under the governance of Metropolitan Evlogii and to entrust him with the task of drawing up schemes for the governance of these churches;

3) for the purposes of ecclesiastical disciplinary proceedings against certain clerical persons from abroad on account of their political statements made in the name of the Church, to attend to the gathering of materials, and, in the light of the fact that some of the aforementioned persons belong to the episcopate, for the proceedings themselves to take place upon the resumption of the normal functioning of the Holy Synod, with full membership as determined in the decisions of the Council [1917-18], and to inform Your Holiness about matters that depend on the subject of this Resolution.

Archbishop Thaddeus, Member of the Holy Synod. Minutes by N. Numerov.