Metropolitan Areas in the Pre-Council Discussion

Abstract

This article considers the pre-council discussion of the beginning of the XX century about metropolitan areas, their place in the system of church administration, their role and significance for the life of the Church. The analysis discussion reveals the coexistence of 2 main types of regional church organization: church areas arranged according to the regional principle, and areas formed according to the principle of reasonability and authority. The choice of one or another form of metropolitan areas was supposed to solve the urgent tasks facing the Russian Church at that time – firstly, to promote the development of church life at the regional level, as well as conciliarity, and secondly, to transfer part of the powers from the central church level to the regional level in order to relieve the Holy Synod, overwhelmed with a lot of local affairs, and thirdly, to promote the internal consolidation of the Church on the outskirts, to prevent possible centrifugal processes. In the decisions of the Pre-Council Presence, priority was given to metropolitan areas as pastoral and missionary centers. This was due to the practicability of this model of church life organization at the regional level, to its low cost. At the same time, this model did not solve the urgent task of transferring part of the administrative and judicial powers from the center to the periphery, and conciliarity was limited only to the pastoral and missionary spheres. The topic of the powers of metropolitans and area councils was not developed in the draft сhurch documents, which made the entire project of creating metropolitan areas in the Russian Church vulnerable. A significant amount of work was transferred to the All-Russian Church Council, which had to decide on the creation of church areas in one form or another.