Leaders of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia, which separated from its Moscow-based parent after the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution, have voted to fully reconcile with the Russian church next May 2007. Bishops of the US-based church chose the date during a meeting in the second week of December 2006.

Moscow church leaders agreed on the timing, announcing its approval on 28 December 2006.

The first common service will be a short prayer service led by the two church leaders Patriarch Alexii of Moscow and Metropolitan Laurus of New York on 17 May 2007 in the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, Moscow, followed immediately by the signing of the Act of Canonical Union by the two leaders on behalf of their respective divisions.

Two days later on 19 May 2007 the first common divine liturgy will be celebrated by the two hierarchs, plus other bishops and clergy from the two autonomous divisions, in the Cathedral of the Assumption within the Kremlin walls, Moscow.

On 20 May 2007, the seventh Sunday after Easter, Patriarch Alexy, Metropolitan Laurus, bishops and clergymen from Russia and abroad will consecrate the Church of the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia in Butovo, Russia, and celebrate the Divine Liturgy in the newly consecrated church whose foundation was laid when Metropolitan Laurus was paying his first official visit to Russia in 2004.

The Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia has nearly 400 parishes worldwide, including in Australia, Europe, North and South America, and Russia itself.

The emigre church separated from the Moscow patriarchate three years after the Bolshevik Revolution and cut all ties in 1927, after Patriarch Sergiy of Moscow declared the Russian Church's loyalty to the Soviet Union's communist government.

Reconciliation talks between the divided churches intensified about three years ago.

The Russian Orthodox Church recently disavowed Sergiy's declaration of loyalty to the communist government, saying it had been aimed at saving the church within Russia.

The US-based church will continue to oversee its own affairs, but elections of bishops will have to be confirmed by the Little Synod in Moscow. The Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia will have a permanent seat on the Little Synod.

source: Associated Press http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061213/ap_on_re_as/exiled_russian_church

source: http://www.interfax-religion.com/?act=news&div=2442

ROCOR website: http://www.russianorthodoxchurch.ws/english/