RELATIONS OF THE RUSSIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH WITH THE ARMENIAN APOSTOLIC AND MALANKARA ORTHODOX SYRIAN CHURCHES: THE CONTRIBUTION OF MOSCOW CHURCH DIPLOMACY LED BY METROPOLITAN NIKODIM (ROTOV)

Sergey Leonidovich Zvonarev

Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, Church-wide postgraduate and doctoral studies named after Saints Equal to the Apostles Cyril and Methodius, Moscow, Russia,

Email: zvonariov@rambler.ru

ORCID: 0009–0008–6785–4090

Issue: № 4 (28), 2024

Pages: 73–84

Annotation

The article is intended to acquaint the reader with the pages of the Moscow Patriarchate's relations with the Armenian Catholicosate and the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church in the 1960s and early 1970s. The Department for External Church Relations headed by Metropolitan Nikodim (Rotov) made a great contribution to the development of inter-c hurch relations. The author conducts his research on the basis of official church documents stored in church and state archives, published on the pages of the Journal of the Moscow Patriarchate, testimonies and assessments of contemporaries of those years, as well as using the works of church scholars of later times. The documents from the Archive of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate are published for the first time and, thus, are introduced into the scientific use. The author of the article makes a conclusion about the close relations of the Moscow Patriarchate with the Armenian Catholicosate and the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church, manifested in the cause of Christian unity and the struggle for peace, academic ties and mutual assistance. Inter-church contacts contributed a lot to the strengthening of ties between the nations. The study of archival church documents allows us to draw a conclusion about the rare but friendly contacts between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Syro- Jacobite Church.

Keywords

Oriental Orthodox Churches, Armenian Catholicosate, Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church, Syro- Jacobite Church, Echmiadzin, Kottayam Theological Seminary, World Council of Churches, Christian Peace Conference, Department for External Church Relations, Metropolitan Nikodim

For citation

Zvonarev S., archpriest. Relations of the Russian Orthodox Church with the Armenian Apostolic and Malankara Orthodox Syrian Churches: the contribution of Moscow church diplomacy led by Metropolitan Nikodim (Rotov) // Ipatievsky Vestnik. 2024. № 4. С. 73–84. https:// doi.org/10.24412/2309–5164–2024–4–73–84