This week in Christian history: All-Russian Church Council opens, James Strong born

By Michael Gryboski, Mainline Church Editor Sunday, August 11, 2024

All Russian Church Council opens – Aug. 15, 1917

Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch Tikhon of Moscow (1865-1925), a former monk who became head of the denomination amid the Bolshevik Revolution. | Public Domain

This week marks the anniversary of the All-Russian Church Council, also known as the Local Council of the Orthodox Church of Russia, opening its official meeting in Moscow.

Launched in response to calls for reform within the church and ongoing external issues like the February Revolution and World War I, the council was attended by hundreds of clergy and laity.

A significant development was the reestablishment of the patriarchate as the ruling office of the denomination. For the past 200 years, a synodal body had overseen church affairs instead.

Days before the Bolsheviks took power in St. Petersburg that November, the council would elect Patriarch Tikhon as the new head of the Russian Orthodox Church.

“During the late tsarist era, authorities had blocked the Church’s reform efforts,” noted The Moscow Times in 2017. “It was the February Revolution that finally cleared the way for the local council to meet in August 1917.”

“The local council quickly took steps to devolve decision-making authority to local levels, hoping to promote greater spiritual vitality, which Russia’s former autocrats, wary of any form of independent social activity, had hampered.”

Ultimately, the council would be shut down by the ruling Bolsheviks.