The Issue of Translation of Bishops in Its Consideration by the 1917–1918 Holy Council of the Orthodox Church of Russia.

Part 2

Abstract

In this article, the A. investigates the step-by-step consideration of the question of translation of bishops (metatheton) in the pre-Conciliar and Conciliar periods. The following stages are examined in this Part 2: Pre-Conciliar Conference, Pre-Conciliar Council (Soviet), Department of the Council on Diocesan Administration, Plenary Sessions of the Council, Bishops’ Conference. As the A. showed in Part 1, the desire to establish the principle of non-transferability of bishop in accordance with the Holy Canons has been universal in the ecclesiastical and social consciousness since the beginning of the 20th century. This was also recorded in the final documents of the Pre-Conciliar Presence. The further course of the question under the influence of the «reformist» group went in the direction of strengthening this desire in the form of a ban on the translations of bishops. The latter was accepted by all and the difference was seen only in the details. The difficulty lay in the fact that the question of the prohibition of translations of bishops was connected and discussed in conjunction with other reforms, which in the pre-Council and Council work caused many disagreements, such as the election of bishop. However, a careful study shows that while other problems of diocesan administration (the method of bishop election, the degree of participation of clergy and laity in governance, etc.) provoked heated discussions, the need to eliminate the practice of translations was clearly recognised by all and raised no objections at any stage. This is one of the rare cases when there was absolute unanimity at the Council. Thanks to this, a clause on the lifetime tenure of a bishop at his see was introduced into the definitions of the Council naturally and practically without discussion. However, due to historical circumstances, this clause has not been realised to date.