Act of the Local Council of the Russian Orthodox Church on Lifting the Anathemas on the Old Rites
The decision of the council of the Russian Orthodox Church that met at the Trinity-Sergius Lavra in 1971. It recognises the old Russian rites as salvific and equal in honour to the new, and declares the anathemas of 1656 and 1667 void.
The Act confirms three resolutions that the Patriarchal Synod had passed on 23 April 1929: that the old Russian rites are salvific, like the new, and equal in honour to them; that the condemnatory expressions used of the old rites, and of the two-finger sign in particular, are rejected and regarded as if they had not been uttered; and that the anathemas which the Moscow councils of 1656 and 1667 laid on the old rites and on those who keep them are abolished and regarded as if they had not been.
It is evidence of how the Moscow Patriarchate itself judged the measures of the seventeenth century three hundred years later. It dates the patriarchate of Nikon to 1652–1666. See Nikon’s Reforms and the Old Believer Schism.
Cited in
- 1652 to 1667, firm date