To the Question of Missionary Importance of the Church’s Charter Piety in Overcoming the Old Believer Schism

On the Example of Service of the Belogorsky St. Nicholas Missionary Monastery of the Perm Diocese

Abstract

The theme of this study is under-researched and is partly reflected in some works devoted to the pre-revolutionary anti-schismatic mission of the Russian Church. To identify the importance of the reverent and most complete execution of the orders of the Church Charter with regard to engage the Old Believers from the schism to Orthodoxy, the author refers to the missionary experience of Orthodox monasteries of the common rite, which, along with Orthodox Old Believer (edinoverie) monasteries, tried to overcome the church schism. In particular, the content and practical implementation of the charter-norms of the Belogorsky St. Nicholas Orthodox Missionary Monastery in the Perm diocese, which successfully converted Old Believers to Orthodoxy at the turn of the 19^th and 20^th centuries, is considered. The research uses methods of comparative analysis, inductive generalization and establishing cause and effect link. The author notes, that the charter prescriptions of the Belogorsky monastery were drawn up on the basis of patristic precepts and on the charters of exemplary monasteries. Their execution in practice was carried out with strict accuracy and with reverence. In this connection, the attention is paid on the central role of the abbot of the monastery — the Monk Martyr Archimandrite Varlaam (Konoplev). Relying on the extant numerous evidences about the goodness of the Belogorsky charter services, which contributed to the restoration of church unity, the author of the article concludes about the high missionary significance of reverent and complete fulfilment of the prescriptions of the Church Charter and the secondary importance of ritual forms.