Renovationism

In 1919-1920, the Cheka officials began actively seeking contacts with those representatives of the Orthodox clergy who, in their opinion, were suitable for the role of destroyers of the unity of the Russian Orthodox Church. The first attempts to introduce an element of disorganization into the church environment, acting through hierarchs (or former hierarchs) from the patriarch's entourage, were not crowned with success. Therefore, the Cheka decided to act through the young white parish clergy, who are revolutionary in relation to possible intra-church transformations, leading the case to eventually quarrel between "the priests and the episcopate", married ("white") and monastic ("black") clergy. The special VI branch of the GPU became the coordinating center of all efforts to split the Church through the GPU/OGPU headed by Yevgeny Tuchkov. The general management of the process of the split of the Church was concentrated (although not immediately) in the hands of the Politburo of the Central Committee (personally responsible - Leon Trotsky). By the spring of 1922, the necessary organizational preparations for striking the Church were completed. The right moment to start was needed.

Such an opportune moment soon presented itself on the occasion of the launch of a campaign to seize church valuables. As a special representative of the Council of People's Commissars, Leon Trotsky headed the work of the Commission on Accounting and Concentration of Values. On January 23, 1922, the members of the Commission agreed that work on the removal of valuables from existing religious institutions should begin in the near future in the two or three most important regions of the country (Moscow, Petrograd, Novgorod). Among the preparatory activities included work with representatives of the Church: "If necessary, individual representatives of the clergy may be involved, who, contrary to the anti-Soviet clergy, would sharply defend the government's measures, thus introducing a split among the clergy." After the events in Shuya on March 15, 1922, where the commission for the seizure of valuables faced massive and stubborn resistance of believers, Leon Trotsky on March 17, 1922, in a letter to Lev Kamenev, Vyacheslav Molotov and Timofei Sapronov, formulated 17 theses containing detailed instructions to the party-Soviet and Chekist bodies regarding the forms and methods of expropriation of church valuables (the leadership of the campaign henceforth focused on in the hands of party organs). Among other things, it was proposed to "decisively split the clergy" by taking under the protection of state power those clergy who openly advocate the transfer of church wealth to the state.

In the same month, the so-called "Petrograd Group of Progressive Clergy" was formed. The first program document of the group was the declaration on famine relief dated March 24, 1922, was signed by 12 clergymen. The participants of the Petrograd group immediately launched an active activity: Alexander Vvedensky and Alexander Boyarsky made reports almost daily, urging them to give away church values. Vladimir Krasnitsky did not make reports, but he tied ties with various institutions, in particular with the Cheka, which was then located on Gorokhovaya Street, 2. It was Krasnitsky who became the main organizer among the participants of the Petrograd group. Under his leadership, which, however, was disputed by Vvedensky and Boyarsky, the Petrograd group became the center of the nascent renovationist movement.

This move was quickly (18 June 1922) denounced by Agathangel as unlawful and uncanonical. However, for a brief time it seemed that the Renovationists had gotten the upper hand. The Renovationists, with full support of Soviet authorities, seized many church buildings and monasteries, including the famous Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow. In many dioceses, the "white" (married) clergy was encouraged to take church government into their own hands, without approval of their diocesan bishops. Simultaneously, these bishops were often threatened and pressed to recognize the authority of the HCA. In effect, this resulted in "parallel" church administrations existing in one diocese and one city, one supporting the HCA and the other supporting the canonical bishop.

This campaign of terror had its effects: by the summer of 1922, more than 20 hierarchs had recognized the canonical authority of HCA, the most notorious of whom was Metropolitan Sergius (Stragorodsky) of Nizhny Novgorod, the future Patriarch. In many large cities, all of Orthodox church properties were in the hands of Renovationists. Before convening any general council to discuss their measures, the Renovationists began to implement radical reforms aimed at what they perceived to be the interests of the married clergy. Among the measures, changing the traditional order of ecclesiastic life were:

• Permission for monastics (including bishops) to marry, while retaining their episcopal and clerical ranks;
• Permission for the Clergy to marry after their ordination, to remarry or to marry widows;
• Permission for the married priests to be consecrated as bishops (Christian Orthodox tradition is that only monastics may be Bishops).

The last decision sparked a number of consecrations of "married bishops" throughout the country, especially in Siberia. As a result of its promulgation, of 67 bishops that arrived to the Second Moscow Council in April 1923, only 20 had been ordained before the schism. The consecration of the "married bishops" without waiting for a conciliar decision on changing appropriate Canons met with opposition even among many Renovationist leaders and those "married bishops" later received a second laying on of hands before the Council opened.

The I Renovationist or "II All-Russian" Council met in Moscow between 29 April and 8 May 1923. It mostly confirmed the decisions concerning changes in the canonical rules of ordinations and clerical marriage, which had already been implemented in many dioceses. Its most controversial and infamous decision was to put Patriarch Tikhon (who was under house arrest, awaiting trial) on ecclesiastic trial in absentia for his opposition to Communism, and to strip him of his episcopacy, priesthood and monastic status. The Council then resolved to abolish the Patriarchate altogether and to return to the "collegial" form of church government. Considering Russian historical practices, this would have made the Church officially a department of the government. Patriarch Tikhon refused to recognize the authority of this Council and the validity of the "court" decision, due to many irregularities in canonical procedure: essentially, the decision had no effect on the life of the Patriarchal or "Tikhonite" Church.

The telling blow against Renovationism was the return of Patriarch Tikhon to active duty in June 1923 when, under international pressure, he was released from house arrest. Already by that time, large passive resistance to the Renovationists, especially in rural areas, had undermined their efforts to "take over" the Russian Church. On 15 July 1923, the Patriarch declared all Renovationist decrees, as well as all their sacramental actions (including ordinations) to be without grace, due to the "trickery" by which they tried to seize power in the Church and to their complete disregard for the canons. In August 1923, the council of Russian Orthodox bishops, returned from exile and imprisonment, confirmed Tikhon’s decision, proclaiming the Renovationist hierarchy as "unlawful and without grace". Some of the churches were returned to the "Tikhonites" (as Renovationists called the "Patriarchal" Church at that time), and many bishops and priests who had been pressed to support the schism, repented and were received back into communion.

In August 1923, a power struggle among the factions of the Renovationist Synod resulted in the forced resignation of Metropolitan Antonin Granovsky. Antonin retired to the church in Moscow that was occupied by his group ("Union of Church Renewal") and, reverting to his previous title of "bishop", engaged in a series of radical liturgical experiments: e.g., moving the altar table to the middle of the church, etc. He made one of the first translations of the Divine Liturgy into modern Russian. Eventually, he broke communion with the Renovationist church at large and died unreconciled with both sides of the schism. His group disintegrated after his death in 1927.

In addition to ecclesiological experimentation, the 1920s, the Renovationist Church had some activity in the fields of education and apologetics. Particularly, in 1924 the church was allowed to open two institutions of higher learning: the Moscow Theological Academy and the Theological Institute in Leningrad. Some contacts were made with other portions of the Christian East: thus, the II Renovationist Council (a.k.a. III All-Russian Council), convened in Moscow in 1–9 October 1925, was marked by the presence of the representatives from the Patriarchates of Constantinople and Alexandria who concelebrated the eucharist with other members of the Renovationist Synod.

In the second half of the 1920s, the canonical Russian Orthodox Church started making steps toward some form of rapprochement with the Soviet regime. Significantly, in 1927, the Deputy Patriarchal Locum Tenens, Metropolitan Sergius Stragorodsky issued a "Declaration" proclaiming absolute loyalty of the Church to the Soviet government and its interests. Subsequently, a Synod formed by Sergius, received recognition from the Soviets. This had effectively put the Renovationist Synod out of place as the chief spokesman for the alliance between the Church and the Soviet state, and it was then that the Renovationist movement began its rapid decline.

By the mid-1930s the general failure of the movement had become evident. Having failed to attract the majority of the faithful, the movement ceased to be useful for the Soviet regime and, consequently, both the "Patriarchal" Church and the Renovationists suffered fierce persecution at the hands of Soviet secret services: church buildings were closed down and often destroyed; active clergy and laity were imprisoned and sometimes executed. At the same time, trying to "win back" more traditional Russian Orthodox, the church had abandoned all attempts at ecclesiastical or liturgical reform, with the exception of the concessions previously made to married clergy. Instead, the Renovationist Church made attempts at imitating external liturgical and organizational forms of their opponents from the "Patriarchal" Church.

In 1934, the Renovationist Synod issued an infamous decision declaring the "allegiance to the old church" (староцерковничество), i.e., the Patriarchal Church, to be a "heresy" and a "schism". The mastermind behind that decision, Metropolitan Nikolai (Platonov) of Leningrad resigned from episcopacy in 1938, publicly denounced the faith and became an infamous propagator of atheism. The Renovationist church continued to dwindle in numbers; the process intensified starting in 1939, when the Synod forbade the diocesan bishops to do any priestly ordinations without its approval.

The final blow to the movement came with the beginning of the Second World War in 1941. The Metropolitan’s residence had to be relocated due to evacuation. Therefore, the Synod had difficulties contacting and controlling its clergy in the parishes. More importantly, in its efforts to seek moral and financial support from the Eastern Orthodox Church, Joseph Stalin decided to turn to the more popular and traditional Russian Orthodox Church led by Sergius, rather than to its largely unsuccessful rivals. On 8 September 1943, Stalin met with three chief hierarchs of the "Patriarchal" Church and promised to make concessions to the Church and religion in general in exchange for its allegiance and support.

One of the effects of this unlikely concordat was that the days of the Renovationist movement were numbered. What followed was a deluge of Renovationist clerics seeking reconciliation with Sergius. As a general rule, the Patriarchal Church considered all sacraments celebrated by Renovationists "null and void", hence these receiving clergy were received in those orders in which they happened to be upon the moment when they joined the schism (i.e. 1922). The only exception was made for Metropolitan Alexander Vvedensky, who was regarded as the ‘father-founder’ of the schism. Vvedensky refused to come into the Moscow Patriarchy as a layman, and died unreconciled.

In 1943, the Renovationist church had 13 active hierarchs and 10 more bishops, retired or in exile. By 1945 only three bishops remained, one of whom was retired. In Moscow, only one church remained under Renovationist control; the rest of the church properties had been returned by the Soviet government to the Moscow Patriarchy while Vvedensky was in evacuation. Vvedensky died of a stroke on July 8, 1946, with his church in complete disarray. This date is generally considered to be the end of the Renovationist schism.

The hierarchs in the position of official leaders of the Renovationist Church in 1922–1946 were:

Chairman of Supreme Church Administration

• Metropolitan Antonin (Granovsky) (15 May 1922 – 25 June 1923)

Chairman of the Supreme Church Council

• Metropolitan Yevdokim (Meschersky) (13 April – 8 August 1923)

President of the Holy Synod

• Metropolitan Yevdokim (Meschersky) (8 August 1923 – 9 April 1925)
• Metropolitan Benjamin (Muratovsky) (February 1925 – 6 May 1930)
• Metropolitan Vitaly (Vvedensky) (10 May 1930 – 29 April 1935)

First Hierarchs

• Metropolitan Vitaly (Vvedensky) (5 May 1933 - 6 October 1941)
• Metropolitan Alexander (Vvedensky) (10 October 1941 – 8 August 1946) "Patriarch" (?) October–December 1941
• Metropolitan Philaret (Yatsenko) (1946-1951) de facto