Foreword by the Editor-in-Chief

Abstract

FOREWORD BY THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

One of the most important events for the Russian Orthodox Church, as well as for our entire Fatherland, was the meeting of Bishops held under the shadow of St. Sergius in the Trinity-St. Sergius Lavra in July 2023. It was then that words of rebuke were uttered against the Church, which today takes seriously its privilege of honor, given to it through historical circumstances of one and a half thousand years ago, as "primacy without equals," as the right to judge and interfere in the internal order of other Orthodox Local Churches without any regard for the will of the people of God and the episcopate of these Churches.

Again and again, the providential circumstances of the time put each of us before the choice: to remain in the Church, created by Christ in collaboration with generations of representatives of Russian holiness, or to withdraw to a country far away, tempted by momentary gain or tormented by imaginary or obvious offenses that infringe on the ego.

It is our duty as Orthodox Christians to study the foundations and manifestations of living Church life in these circumstances. In this issue of Praxis the publication of articles on the philosophy and history of the study of canon law continues, the reader can familiarize himself with the first part of the materials of the IV Justinian Readings, the works of master's and postgraduate students of the Department of Church-Practical Disciplines of the Moscow Theological Academy.

This work cannot but be relevant against the background of the importance that church-legal disciplines are acquiring in our days.

Archpriest Alexander Zadornov,

Head at the Department of Ecclesiastical and Practical Disciplines at the Moscow Theological Academy

Moscow Theological Academy