1967 ROCOR Decision on Conciliarity in the Church

Decision of the Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad, dated May 19/June 1, 1967.

 

After further exchange of opinions, the following definition is unanimously adopted:

The Council of Bishops held the judgment that within the flock there has appeared a movement striving to limit the canonical authority of bishops, which belongs to them by Divine right and by the sacred canons. As a result of this, there arises a danger of distortion of the dogma of the Holy Church, the preservation of which in uncorrupted purity constitutes one of the most important tasks of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad.

The most vivid expression of this public movement is:

1. In California, the establishment of a “Society of Laity,” registered under civil laws, interfering in church affairs, and

2. In Eastern America, the appearance of a “Conference of Church Workers.”

The latter, perhaps even out of good intentions, published in the month of February 1967 an appeal, sent to the Most Reverend Bishops, parishes, and certain private individuals, with accusations against the hierarchy of an alleged striving of the bishops to establish in the Church a “dictatorship of Bishops,” and with the demand to broaden the participation of the laity in the governance of the Church.

In view of this, the Council of Bishops explains that in Christ’s Church, beginning with the Apostolic Council in Jerusalem in the year 51 after the Nativity of Christ, and according to the canons of the Ecumenical and Local Councils, the supreme ecclesiastical authority belongs to the Bishops, as successors of the holy Apostles, to whom was given from the Lord the command concerning the establishment and governance of the Holy Church, as well as the grace of the Holy Spirit in the sacrament of priesthood, for the fulfillment of this ministry. Representatives of the clergy and laity may be invited to participate in church construction as co-workers of the Hierarchy, however, not as bearers of ecclesiastical authority, but as participants in the building of church life in conciliar cooperation with the Hierarchy.

Such an order of church life is clearly defined by the sacred canons, which state:

39th Apostolic Canon: “Presbyters and deacons shall do nothing without the will of the bishop, for it is to him that the Lord’s people are entrusted, and he will render an account for their souls.”

It should be explained that if presbyters and deacons cannot perform anything in the Church without the will of the bishop, then all the more must this be said about the laity, concerning whose authority in the Church the canons say absolutely nothing, but clearly indicate the necessity for the laity to be subject to the bishops.

8th Canon of the Fourth Ecumenical Council states: “Clergy at hospices, monasteries, and martyr shrines shall remain, according to the tradition of the holy fathers, under the authority of the bishop of each city, and they shall not be torn away, out of presumption, from the administration of their bishop. But those who dare to violate this decree in any way, and who do not submit to their bishop—if they are clerics, let them be punished according to the canons; but if they are monastics or laymen, let them be excluded from ecclesiastical communion.”

41st Apostolic Canon: “We command that the bishop have authority over church property; for if precious human souls must be entrusted to him, then how much more should he be entrusted with money, so that he may manage all things by his authority.”

The same is stated in the 24th Canon of the Council of Antioch: “It is a good thing that church possessions be preserved with all diligence and a good conscience, and with faith in God, the All-seeing and Judge; and it is fitting that the bishop, to whom all the souls of those assembling in the church are entrusted, should manage them with discernment and authority.”

Since the Bishop is the successor of the Apostles and the spiritual father of his flock, the sacred canons uphold the authority of the Bishop, as well as that of the presbyter.

The 55th Apostolic Canon states: “If anyone from the clergy offends the bishop, let him be deposed. For ‘you shall not speak evil of the ruler of your people’ (Acts 23:5).”

The 56th Apostolic Canon states: “If anyone from the clergy offends a presbyter or a deacon, let him be excluded from ecclesiastical communion.”

The sacred canons forbid the making of censures directed against hierarchical authority, and, recognizing the sinfulness of such actions, strictly warn against them.

Thus, the 18th Canon of the Fourth Ecumenical Council states: “Conspiracy or the forming of gatherings, as a crime, is completely forbidden even by the external laws; how much more must it be forbidden in the Church of God, so that this may not occur. If, therefore, certain of the clergy or monastics are found binding one another by an oath, or plotting against bishops or their fellow clergy, let them be entirely deposed from their rank.”

At the same time, the Church requires due respect toward the rank of the clergy, even in those cases when the clergy are guilty of something.

In the Nomocanon appended to the Great Trebnik is found the 121st rule:

“It is not fitting for a layman to reproach a priest, or to strike him, or to revile him, or to slander him, or to rebuke him to his face, even if these things be true (that is, even when the priest is in the wrong). But if he dares to do this, let the layman be accursed, let him be cast out of the Church, for he is separated from the Holy Trinity, and he shall be sent to the place of Judas.”

Thus, the fullness of authority in a diocese belongs to the Bishop, and in the entire Church – to the Council of Bishops, as is clearly stated in Apostolic Canon 37, the 5th of the First Ecumenical Council, the 6th of the Second Ecumenical Council, the 19th and 28th of the Fourth Ecumenical Council, and the 8th of the Sixth Ecumenical Council.

The sacred canons know nothing of councils with laity. There does not exist a single canon which would speak of the participation of laity in councils.

The governance of the Church is carried out jointly – by the First-Hierarch and the Council of Bishops, as is indicated in the 34th Apostolic Canon: “It behooves the bishops of every nation to know the one who is first among them, and to acknowledge him as head, and to do nothing exceeding their authority without his consideration. But each one should do only that which pertains to his own diocese and to the places belonging to it. Yet the first should do nothing without the consideration of all. For thus there will be unanimity, and God will be glorified through the Lord in the Holy Spirit, and the Son and the Holy Spirit.”

We know well that in antiquity, in the history of the Church, there were Councils with the participation of clergy and laity, who were present at the Councils as representatives of their Bishops (for example, papal legates), or as theologians (for example, Athanasius the Great in the rank of deacon at the First Ecumenical Council), or as representatives of the emperor, or confessors of the faith of Christ (monks at the Seventh Ecumenical Council), but not as elected representatives of their parishes or dioceses, in the manner of popular sovereignty. Only in later times were elected, as well as appointed, representatives of clergy and laity invited to Councils, but with the indispensable condition that the final decisive word remained with the hierarchy, as was the case at the All-Russian Moscow Council of 1917–18 and at the Councils Abroad in Sremski Karlovci, in 1921 and 1938.

Thus, to the hierarchy belongs the canonical right of involving clergy and laity in participation in Councils and in the ordering of church life, but only when this is required by the benefit of the Church.

Such also is the participation of the laity in the administration of the diocese. Diocesan assemblies and councils are auxiliary bodies under the bishop.

In what then does true conciliarity consist, according to the teaching of the Church of Christ?

Obviously, not in this: that Bishops should be deprived of authority in the Church, and that ecclesiastical authority, according to the principle of popular sovereignty, should be handed over jointly to bishops, clergy, and laity.

The Longer Orthodox Catechism, in response to the question: “Why is the Church called Catholic, or, which is to say, Universal or Ecumenical?” answers:

“Because it is not limited by any place, nor time, nor people, but embraces within itself all the truly faithful of all places, times, and peoples.”

Here nothing is said about the authority of the laity in the Church.

The conciliarity of the Church consists in the fact that the Church is composed of all people, without distinction of their class or social affiliations and nationalities. Conciliarity also consists in the fact that the children of the Church must be in complete unanimity in their beliefs and in their life with their Church, confessing everything that the Church has preached from the beginning of its foundation. The conciliarity of the Church also consists in the way of life of the members of the Church, both in their relations with one another, bound by the ties of Christian love, and in the observance of the entire order of church life.

If, however, any of the laity should seize authority in the Church and place themselves on a level with the Bishops, appropriating to themselves the functions of episcopal authority, then this will no longer be conciliarity, or even democracy, but arbitrariness, self-will, opposition to the will of God and to God’s designs, and consequently, a violation of conciliarity, which violation inevitably leads to the destruction of the Church. The command of Christ, given to the Apostles concerning the establishment of the Church, remains in force until the end of the age: “Go therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.” (Matt. 28:19–20), and also: “He who hears you hears Me; and he who rejects you rejects Me; but he who rejects Me rejects Him who sent Me.” (Luke 10:16).

From the above it is evident that those persons who do not acknowledge the church rules must not be participants in the organs of church administration.

As for such organizations as the “Society of Laity” in California and those similar to it in other places, by their aspirations and by the manner of their actions, they have taken the un-Orthodox path of a Protestant character, threatening to turn into a heresy dangerous for the Church. Therefore, the Council of Bishops entrusts the Diocesan Bishops to take appropriate measures to safeguard the Church from their harmful activity, which disrupts peace and unity.

The Russian Orthodox Church Abroad is founded on the decree of His Holiness Patriarch Tikhon of November 20, 1920, No. 362, which states that in the event that a diocese, as a result of the movement of the front, change of state borders, and the like, should find itself outside of any communication with the higher church administration, and for some reason ceases its activity under the leadership of His Holiness the Patriarch, “the diocesan Bishop shall immediately enter into relations with the Bishops of neighboring dioceses for the purpose of organizing a supreme instance of church authority for several dioceses which are in the same conditions. In the event of the impossibility of establishing relations with the Bishops of neighboring dioceses, and until the organization of a supreme instance of church authority, the diocesan bishop assumes upon himself the entire fullness of authority granted to him by the church canons, taking all measures for the ordering of local life and, if it should prove necessary, for the organization of diocesan administration, according to the circumstances that have arisen, resolving all matters entrusted by the canons to episcopal authority, with the cooperation of the existing organs of diocesan administration (diocesan assembly, council, etc., or newly organized ones); and in cases of impossibility, to establish the above-mentioned institutions by himself and under his own responsibility.”

Thus, the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad is organized on the exact foundation both of the sacred canons and of the decree of His Holiness Patriarch Tikhon, according to which the supreme authority in it belongs to the Council of Bishops; in the Dioceses – to the Diocesan Bishops, who administer the dioceses with the cooperation of the organs of diocesan administration.

The Council of Bishops highly esteems the labors both of our self-sacrificing clergy, who in difficult circumstances and with weak material provision carry out their pastoral work, as well as of church workers, the laity, who in good and harmonious cooperation with their Archpastors and pastors labor in the work of the well-ordering of Orthodox parishes.

The Council of Bishops invokes God’s blessing upon all its flock, through whose piety God’s work is being accomplished in the present difficult time.

We joyfully bear witness that, with few exceptions, in our church life the conciliar principle is being realized according to the Symbol of Faith and the 64th Canon of the Sixth Ecumenical Council, according to which: “In the one Church, God has made different members, according to the word of the Apostle (1 Cor. 12:27), which, explaining, Gregory the Theologian clearly shows the order found among them, saying: Brethren, let us honor the order, let us preserve this: let this one be an ear, and that one a tongue; let this one be a hand, and others something else; let this one teach, that one learn. And after a few words he further says: let him who learns be in obedience, let him who distributes distribute with joy, let him who serves serve with zeal. Let us not all be a tongue, even though this be the nearest to all, nor all apostles, nor all prophets, nor all interpreters. And after some words he says: why do you make yourself a shepherd, being a sheep? Why do you make yourself a head, being a foot? Why do you attempt to be a commander, having been placed in the rank of soldiers?”

Therefore, let each of us perform his ministry and labor in the Church in that calling in which the Lord has called him, that is, accomplishing his salvation and building up the Church of our Lord God and Savior Jesus Christ.

Protocol No. 13, § III (pp. 7–10)

 

Russian source:

http://www.internetsobor.org/index.php/istoriya/rptsz/arkhiv-rptsz/o-sobornosti-v-tserkvi-opredelenie-sobora-episkopov-russkoj-pravoslavnoj-tserkvi-zagranitsej-ot-19-maya-1-iyunya-1967-g