"The discussion of the questions formulated in the course of the May visit of the RPCZ first hierarch Metropolitan Laurus to Russia will be continued at the meeting," secretary for inter-Orthodox relations of the Foreign Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchy archpriest Nikolai Balashov said.
Relations between the Church and the state, relations of Orthodoxy with other confessions and inter-religious organisations, and the canonic status of the RPCZ as a self-governing part of the Local Russian Orthodox Church, as before, remain the principal questions which need agreement upon.
"We still have what to work on. Additional meetings may be needed," archpriest Balashov noted.
The results of the RPC Council of Bishops held in Moscow from October 3 through 8 and of the RPCZ Synod of Bishops held in New York from October 26 through 28 give grounds to hope that the question of restoring the unity of the Russian Orthodox Church outside Russia with the Orthodox Church in Russia can be finally decided within two years.
For instance, the RPC Council of Bishops approved the results and materials of the second working meeting of the commissions for a dialogue between the RPC and the RPCZ held in Munich in September 2004, and delegated the right to take a canonic decision on reunification to the Holy Synod. The bishops believe that this event can take place before the next Council slated to be held in four years.
The Synod of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad also approved the results and materials of the Munich meeting, and resolved to submit the documents, drafted by the commissions, for consideration by the RPCZ Council of Bishops which will presumably take place within the next two years.
The tragic division of the Russian Orthodox Church occurred in the 1920s as a result of the revolution, civil war and the establishment of the atheistic communist regime in Russia.
