Is it true?
I have heard on the grapevine that the Holy Synod of Milan, as of yesterday, is part of the Moldovan Orthodox Church under the omophor of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, its bishops have been received as bishops, and it is now in full communion with the rest of the Orthodox Church.
However, I have so far been unable to find anything in any of the usual places online to confirm this. Does anybody have further news?
Many thanks.
Last year, I posted this, wondering what had become of the excitement surrounding the supposedly imminent restoration of communion between the Holy Synod of Milan and the Russian Orthodox Church (Milan was once in communion with ROCOR, whence it acquired its hierarchy). I had welcomed the rumours, which I had heard from two independent and reliable sources, so could only conclude that whatever discussions had taken place had come to nothing. There was no public news about this, to my knowledge. I did, however, wonder at how this could ever have gone ahead with such public and vociferous opposition to the Russian Church from certain quarters within the Milan Synod. Other individuals aside, it is no secret that Archbishop John of New York is no fan of the Moscow Patriarchate.
Over the past few days, things have taken an interesting turn. Archbishop John has been elevated to the rank of Metropolitan and appointed leader of a new metropolis of North and South America, and the British Isles, formerly the American dioceses of the Milan Synod, along with its deanery of two priests in the British Isles. Remaining in communion with Milan, this new metropolis has been granted autonomous status.
At the same time, the Milan Synod issued a statement, reproduced on the news blog of Bishop Abbondio of Como, to the effect that it is not engaged in fraternal relations with any Russian breakaway group but only the Moscow Patriarchate. To my knowledge, this is the first public acknowledgement of any movement of Milan in the direction of Moscow, and I wonder whether it may be a sign of things to come.
Could it be that the release of Archbishop, now Metropolitan, John into his own autonomous synod was simply Milan's way of "trimming the fat", unburdening itself and thus allowing itself to move more freely to pursue what it had seemingly tried to pursue a little over a year ago? It seems curious that, a mere few days after all of this transpired, this document of the new metropolis was posted for public consumption.
Let's see where this goes. I, for one, shall continue to pray for communion with Milan under its head, Metropolitan Evloghios. I have long sympathised with this particular Old Calendar synod, if not for its stability then certainly for its resistance to some of the ecclesiological heresies that seem to be plaguing much of the Church today, and hoped for its restoration to the Orthodox Church. I do believe that it will be a healthful presence within the Moscow Patriarchate should this result in communion. It only seems unfortunate that any such good news will not apply to the former Milan clergy here in Britain, at least for now.
May God bless their efforts.
Last year there was talk of reconciliation discussions between the Church of Russia and the Holy Synod of Milan. I heard about this from two sources, independently of each other. At one time I was told it looked likely that this would all be resolved by the end of last year and that Milan would be similar to ROCOR - an autonomous/semi-autonomous part of the Russian Orthodox Church.
I was very much looking forward to that. I have considerable respect for the Milan Synod and am acquainted with their "local" priest (these terms are relative, after all), with whom I was quietly hoping my parish could establish good relations.
So what happened?
