Patriarch Sergius (Stragorodsky) on the Difficulties of Restoring Communion with the Georgian Church in the Light of Overcoming the Renovationist Schism (1944)

Abstract

Written in early 1944, a letter of confidence from Patriarch Sergius (Stragorodsky) to bishop Dimitri (Gradusov) reveals the nature of the friction between the head of the Moscow Patriarchate and the Georgian Catholicos-Patriarch Kallistratus (Tsintsadze). The solemn announcement at the end of 1943 of the overcoming of the division between the Russian and Georgian Orthodox Churches, which had lasted since 1917, did not put an end to the mutual perplexities. The difficulty arose due to the fact that in 1927–1943 the Georgian Catholicosate was officially in ecclesiastical communion with the Russian schismatics, also known as Renovationists. But in the changed circumstances, the head of the Georgian Church preferred to keep in secret this historical fact, so as not to raise doubts about the Orthodoxy of the Georgians. The embarrassment of Catholicos Kallistratus led to the fact that the documents on the restoration of canonical communion between the Russian and Georgian Churches, which had already been prepared for publication in the Journal of the Moscow Patriarchate in December 1943, were removed from the almost finished issue and replaced with other materials. However, for Patriarch Sergius, the canonical aspect of the problem was crucial. The break of the Georgian Catholicosate with the Russian schismatic Renovationists was required to be documented and made public. Otherwise, according to Patriarch Sergius, the Russian Church itself could be schismatic. As a result, the head of the Moscow Patriarchate was able to convincingly argue his position and achieve the official publication of the necessary documents in the Journal of the Moscow Patriarchate in March 1944. Such persistence of Patriarch Sergius did not harm the further positive development of relations between the Russian and Georgian Churches.