On the way to the Council of Moscow:
a movement of ecclesial renewal in the Church of Russia at the beginning of the 20th century
Article summary proposed by the Contacts review with LLM assistance
This article by Julie Balakshina examines the process of preparing the Local Council of the Russian Orthodox Church in the early twentieth century, drawing on historical and documentary research. The author analyzes the three poles of power that structured Russian society and the Church — royal, priestly, and prophetic — embodied respectively by Nicholas II, the figures of Pobedonostsev and Metropolitan Anthony Vadkovsky, and Archpriest John of Kronstadt. She then reconstructs the pre-conciliar debates of 1905-1907 around three central questions: the necessity of convening a council, its composition, and its agenda. The main contribution of the article lies in shedding light on the role of the "group of 32" priests from Saint Petersburg and ecclesiastical brotherhoods as sites of practical experimentation with conciliarity, prefiguring the communal forms that would develop after the Revolution of 1917.
This article has not been translated yet — it is available in its French version here.
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