Robert Arida

This article examines the reception and implementation of the conciliar principles of the Moscow Council (1917-1918) within the Orthodox Church in America (OCA). Drawing on a historical and ecclesiological approach, the author traces the transmission of the conciliar model from the Russian mission in America, under Archbishop Tikhon, to the autocephaly of the OCA in 1970. The central idea is that the OCA constitutes a privileged laboratory for evaluating the legacy of the Moscow Council, having maintained and developed an inclusive conciliarity associating bishops, clergy and laity at all levels of ecclesial life. The article nonetheless identifies the limits of this model in the face of American religious pluralism, which generates a fragmentation of cognitive and spiritual paradigms within the Church. The theological contribution lies in the tension between institutional conciliarity and living Tradition, drawing in particular on the ecclesiological thought of Father Georges Florovsky.