Different Russian Approaches Toward Non-Orthodox in the First Half of the 20th Century

September 20

The All-Russian Council approved an appeal to the Anglicans and Old Catholics on this day in 1918.

John Raleigh Mott was a long-time YMCA leader (d. 1955) and a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. As a member of President Wilson's Special Mission to Russia, he publicly addressed the All-Russian Council in 1917. Photo: John R. Mott, the American YMCA, and Revolutionary Russia, Matthew L. Miller, ed. (Bloomington, IN 2020).

This year, on the Dormition of the Most Holy Mother of God feast, August 15/28, I wrote about the All-Rusian Church Council, which opened its work in 1917. I have encountered attitudes toward the council that are often quite polarized: some are highly skeptical, while others are overly enthusiastic. These perspectives resemble attitudes toward Emperor Peter the Great among the Russian Orthodox. However, we can study this council through various lenses, not only in black and white.

I will return to this council again and again here because, among other reasons, it serves as a benchmark for the Russian Church both in the homeland and diaspora.

On August 3, 1918, at the All-Russian Church Council, a department for ecumenical relations was created for the first time in the history of the Russian Orthodox Church. Archbishop Evdokim (Mescheriakov) of the Aleutians and North America was appointed head of this department. On September 4/17, 1918, the Department prepared a draft of a resolution to be issued by the Council: