Determinations of the Local Council of the Orthodox Church of Russia, 1917–1918
The decisions of the council of bishops, clergy and laity of the Russian Orthodox Church that met in Moscow in 1917 and 1918, printed by the council itself. They restore the patriarchate and set out how the church is to be governed.
The Council published its decisions in four parts in 1918 as a supplement to its Acts. The first determination, dated 4 November 1917 in the Julian calendar, declares that the highest authority in the Russian church belongs to a local council of bishops, clergy and laity, and restores the patriarchate. Later ones define the rights and duties of the patriarch, the synod and the supreme church council, the diocese and the parish, and respond to the measures of the Soviet government on marriage, schools and church property.
These are the church’s own acts, adopted while the events described in the Russian Church under the Bolsheviks were taking place. They are cited there for what the Council decided.
Cited in
- 25 January 1721 (Old Style), firm date
- 1917 to 1918, firm date