Acts of Canonical Union

The Acts of Canonical Union is a set of Documents which formalized Communion between ROCOR, then under First Hierarch and Metropolitan Laurus Škurla, and the Moscow Patriarchate, then under Patriarchate Alexey II Ridiger, on May 17th of 2007 in the Christ the Saviour Cathedral in the Heart of Moscow. The Acts of Canonical Union not only resulted in a Formal Communion between ROCOR and the Moscow Patriarchate but also ROCOR becoming an Autonomous Jurisdiction being under the Authority of whomever is the Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church (Also called the Moscow Patriarchate).

History Leading to the Union

The History leading to the Union between ROCOR and the Moscow Patriarchate stems from the 1980s during a time when Mikhail Gorbachev started to Liberalize the Soviet Union more in terms of continuing, since Brezhnev, the lessening of Persecution of Orthodox Christians and putting forward a more Liberal Idea of Secularism and Freedom of Faith. Many Clerics and Laity in the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad (ROCA) were starting to look onward at the Soviet Union for positive change with abandoning Dogmatic Marxism in favour of a Free, National, and Orthodox Russia and certain Clergy, such as Father Seraphim Rose of Platina, were gaining optimism of the Soviet Union collapsing or having Radical Reform. At the same time, however, a good deal of the optimistic Clergy did not want to get ahead of themselves and tread carelessly in relations of ROCA and the Russian Homeland or head straight for a Union with the current Moscow Patriarchate or tread carelessly in relation of ROCA and the Russian Homeland. In 1989, after some more Policies and Grantings for Religious Tolerance and Opening up more from the Soviet State, ROCA decided to journey into Ex Soviet Territories (Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan) and either buy up or take some old Churches (As there was only around 500 Churches operating at that point vs 30,000+ before 1917 Bolshevik Revolution as they were either closed down or partially destroyed and closed down) or build entirely new Churches all together in areas of Russia. This started to increase during the very early 1990s as the Soviet Union's Government was in decline and the Communist System would collapse in 1991 in favour of what we know now as the Russian Federation. And during the early 1990s, ROCA managed to reopen, fix up and open, and or build over 500 Parishes for its Jurisdiction across the giant Russian Landmass.

With the onset of the Collapse of the Soviet Union and a Free Russia setting itself on the World Stage, albeit experiencing some troubling times Economically, Russian Orthodox Laity, both within the MP and in ROCA, looked towards the Hierarchy of the Moscow Patriarchate and were eager to see it's route and course it takes after the assured pressure against it was gone now.