The Third Pan-Diaspora Council published an epistle to the Orthodox people in Russia on this day in 1974. As I have previously written, many historical breaks in ecclesial communion can arguably be construed as theological clashes pitting the Church parties representing the akribeist (from akribeia, in this context observance of full canonical standards) and oikonomist (from oikonomia, in this context prudent management) traditions against each other. The Orthodox Church needs both parties, because, by keeping each other in check, they help the Church to navigate a middle path. In the Russian Church Abroad of the 1960s, a standoff between these two parties resulted in a compromise: the election of Bishop Philaret (Voznesenskii, +1985) in 1964 as ROCOR First Hierarch. (At that point, he had been a bishop for less than a year.) In my September 8 report, I wrote about how the election of Patriarch Sergii (Stagorodskii) in Moscow in 1943 deviated from some of the standards set at the 1917–1918 All-Russian Church Council. Similar processes were taking place in the Russian Church Abroad. Councils of Bishops in 1956 and 1964 changed the Statutes of the ROCOR in favor of a more autocratic and less conciliar form of governance by bishops. The division among some of the laity mirrored that among the bishops. Often, the activity of the laity was utterly disrespectful of the bishops’ Apostolic dignity. At an extended meeting of the Synod of Bishops in March of 1969, it was decided to convene a Pan-Diaspora Council. Due to concerns about the incendiary atmosphere among some of the lay party, the Council could only take place in September of 1974 on the grounds of the Stavropegic Holy Trinity Russian Orthodox Monastery in Jordanville, NY. Archbishop Vitaly (Ustinov, +2006) of Montreal and Canada was supposed to publish Acts of the Council, but the project never materialized. From the Epistle to the Orthodox People in the Homeland The Council testifies: The line between the protection of the Church and reprehensible self-preservation was drawn by His Holiness Patriarch Tikhon, his canonical Locum Tenens Metropolitan Peter, Metropolitan Kirill of Kazan, Metropolitan Joseph of Petrograd and the confessors imprisoned in Solovki led by Archbishop Hilarion (Troitsky). This border has been clearly drawn in recent years by Archbishop Ermogen [Golubev], some priests, among them Nikolai Gainov and Dimitry Dudko, Vyatka laymen led by Boris Talantov, defenders of the Pochaev Lavra, such as Theodosia Kuzminichna Varrava, and many others. Solzhenitsyn also drew this line with his call: “Don’t live by lies!” Living not by lies and honoring the memory of the holy martyrs and confessors of our Church is the boundary separating real Tikhonites from “Herod’s leaven of Sergianism,” as Boris Talantov, an accuser of the current leaders of the Patriarchate who died in captivity, wrote about this. In their constant prayers for each other, in their love for the Lord Jesus, in their fidelity to the ideal of past and future Orthodox Rus', the faithful archpastors, pastors, monks and laity on both sides of the Iron Curtain are united. Together they make up the Holy Russian Church – indivisible, just as the seamless robe of Christ is indivisible. The All-Diaspora Council adopted a number of decisions on providing practical assistance to spiritual revival in the homeland through the efforts of Russian church diaspora. Sources: Andrei V. Kostriukov, “Relations Between Lay Organizations and the Synod of Bishops of the Russian Church Abroad from the 1950s–1970s” Historical Studies of the Russian Church Abroad. Послание третьего всезарубежного собора Православной Церкви Заграницей, Православному русскому народу на родине. [In Russian] Russkaia Pravoslavnaia Tserkov’ Zagranitsei. | 
