Georges Grigorita

This article by Georges Grigorita examines the organizational transformations of the Romanian Orthodox Church in the aftermath of the First World War, relating them to the Moscow Council of 1917-1918. Drawing on a historical and canonical approach, the author analyzes the participation of a Romanian delegation in the Council, then traces the institutional evolution of the Romanian Church in the context of the formation of Greater Romania. The central argument is that several convergences exist between the ecclesiological decisions of the Moscow Council and the organizational choices of the Romanian Church — notably the metropolitan system, the restoration of the patriarchate, and the participation of laypeople in deliberative bodies — without these parallels resulting from direct reception. The contribution of the article is to show that these coincidences are explained by a common application of the fundamental canons and by Russo-Romanian theological exchanges, while highlighting the influence of the Western model of recognized religious bodies on the legal status of the Romanian Church.