Abstract
The acknowledgment of autocephaly represents a historical moment for the Romanian Orthodox Church, it means full freedom in organizing and administering internal affairs, without any interference or control of any church authority from outside. This church act did not remove the Romanian Orthodox Church from the unity of ecumenical Orthodoxy, but, on the contrary, was such as to preserve and ensure good relations with the Ecumenical Patriarchate and all other SisterOrthodoxChurches, and promote a dogmatic, cult, canonical and work unity. The Orthodox Church in the Romanian territories, organized by the foundation of the Metropolis of Ungro-Wallachia (1359) and the Metropolis of Moldavia and Suceava (1401), became one of the fundamental institutions of the state, supporting the strengthening of the ruling power, to which it conferred spiritual legitimacy. The action of formal recognition of autocephaly culminated in the Ad Hoc Divan Assembly’s 1857 vote of desiderata calling for “recognition of the independence of the Eastern Orthodox Church, from the United Principalities, of any Diocesan Bishop, but maintaining unity of faith with the EcumenicalChurch of the East with regard to the dogmas”. The efforts of the Romanian Orthodox Church for autocephaly were long and difficult, knowing a new stage after the Unification of the Principalities in 1859 and the unification of their state life (1862), which made it necessary to organize the NationalChurch. This was strongly supported by the metropolitans Nyphon of Ungro-Wallachia (1850-1875) and Calinic of Moldavia (1865-1875) and warmly embraced by the ruler Alexandru Ioan Cuza (1859-1866) and by the political class of that time. The efforts for autocephaly did not cease on Cuza’s abdication, but they also continued under King Carol I, who supported the efforts of the Orthodox Church in Romania to fulfil its aspirations, in accordance with the will of the Romanian clergy and believers, while acknowledging that the institution of the Church “has always been closely bound to the destinies of the country.” It was a long, yet so impressive way that the Romanian Orthodox Church has come, from centuries of brilliant history to a period of over two decades of the nineteenth century, at the end of which the status of Romanian Orthodoxy as autocephalous church was definitively sanctioned.
Highlights
The second half of the nineteenth century witnessed a series of events that were crucial for the history of Romania: the Unification of the Principalities (1859), the War of Independence (1877-1878), the proclamation of the Kingdom of Romania (1881) were the premises and the framework of the aspirations for http://ijasos.ocerintjournals.org 790
A church organization on a higher level which naturally led to the achievement in 1885 of the autocephaly of the Romanian Orthodox Church.[1]
The acknowledgment endeavours and the recognition itself represents a historical moment for the Romanian Orthodox Church, it implying complete freedom in organizing and administering internal affairs, without any interference or control of any church from outside
Summary
The second half of the nineteenth century witnessed a series of events that were crucial for the history of Romania: the Unification of the Principalities (1859), the War of Independence (1877-1878), the proclamation of the Kingdom of Romania (1881) were the premises and the framework of the aspirations for http://ijasos.ocerintjournals.org 790. Dimitrie Sturdza, the Minister of the Cults, presented the Patriarchal Tomos of Autocephaly from April 25, 1885, drafted in Greek, and which states the following: “(...) after we have deliberated with the Holy Synod of our Beloved Brothers in the Holy Spirit and co-liturgy officiants, we declare that the Orthodox Church in Romania is to be said and recognized by all as independent and autocephalous, being administered by its own Holy Synod, having as President the High and Most Honourable Metropolitan of Ungro-Wallachia and Primate of Romania, one by one, not recognizing in his own internal administration any other church authority, other than on the head of the Orthodox Church, the holy, Catholic, and apostolic, one, the Saviour God-Man, which is the only foundation and corner stone of the angle and the first and supreme and eternal Everlasting Arch and Shepherd”[25] After this blissful moment in the life of our Church on May 30, 1885, Metropolitan Calinic Miclescu sent a thankful letter 26 to the Ecumenical Patriarch, in which he assured the latter that “The Romanian Orthodox Church will draw from this blessing a new power to fulfil its holy mission”[27]. If this communion is manifested especially at the level of commemoration during the Liturgy officiated by the Primate of an autocephalous Church, of the mutual information concerning the enthronement of the new primates and of the counsels on church issues, a more intense collaboration in the pastoral life in the diaspora, today the mission and the common Orthodox testimony in the world could further contribute to the belief that the freedom of self-censorship does not manifest in isolation or autarchy, but in the dynamics of church life in cooperative and fraternal aid
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