with a wide range of sources based on situation reports from the Fund of the Political office of the Chairperson of the special Meeting of the Volunteer army, and documentation of the Temporary higher Church administration and the periodicals of the South of Russia. Despite the wide participation of the clergy in political life, the organs of ecclesiastical administration studiously avoided politicization of the Church that would draw it into the political struggle. The Church saw its task only in national unity while preserving the balance of political forces under the authority of the Commander-in-chief as representative of the legitimate government-an ally of the Church in the face of Bolshevism.
The article examines the congresses of clergy and laity that took place after the February Revolution of 1917 in the South of Russia — on the Don, Stavropol and Kuban, which were the part of the movement propagated throughout the country. It marked the broad inclusion of clergy and laity in the reform of the synodal system of relations and the solution of accumulated intra-church problems. The author examines the nature of the expansion of the participation of parish clergy and laity in church administration, the participation of diocesan bishops in these processes, the question of how the participants of the congresses imagined combining these ideas with the traditional hierarchical structure of the Church. The study is based on the protocols of the congresses of the clergy and laity and the discussion of their decisions on the pages of the periodical press of that time. The author comes to the conclusion that the congresses of the South of Russia have shown a desire to unite all members of the church community, without violating the traditional right of diocesan bishops to church governance. The revolt against the episcopal authority has passed the Cossack territories. In the inclusion of lower clergy and laity in the church administration, their participants saw the implementation of the principles of conciliarity. The most important component of the reform was the inclusion of laypeople in the church administration bodies of different levels, which took place at the initiative of the clergy as a whole.
In this publication, the reader is offered a note compiled by a well-known participant in the White Movement in the South of Russia, Priest Vladimir Vostokov, in connection with the decision of the Supreme Church Administration Abroad on August 19, 1922 to execute Decree No. 348 of His Holiness Patriarch Tikhon and the united presence of the Holy Synod and the Supreme Church Council on the abolition of this very Administration. The decree became a turning point in the history of the Russian Church Abroad in the direction of its separation from the Moscow Patriarchate and the violation of its internal unity. In addition to discussing the decree, Father Vladimir makes a lengthy digression into history, describing the events of the Russian Revolution and the Civil War, assessing the leaders and participants of the White Movement, inevitably touching on the Jewish question, as well as the reasons for the defeat of the White Movement.
The article examines the problem of the status of the clergy of the southern dioceses of Russia, traces its change in connection with the revolutionary events of 1917, transformations in the field of state-church relations and changes in public consciousness. The forms in which the attitude of the laity to the clergy was expressed and the factors by which it was determined are considered. The main sources for the analysis were the materials of the public-church discussion of the problem of the situation and material support of the clergy of the periodical press. The materials of the congresses of the clergy and laity and the records of the Provisional Supreme Church Administration in the South of Russia are also involved. The author comes to the conclusion that the most important component of the reforms of this period was the inclusion of laypeople in the church administration bodies of different levels, in the solution of all categories of issues — managerial, legal and financial, which occurred at the initiative of the clergy as a whole. However, the economic dependence of the clergy on the laity, who often fell under the influence of secular authorities, against the background of the growth of individualistic sentiments, the fading of the communal spirit and the rapid flowering of the people, further aggravated the situation of the clergy, who saw a way out of the situation in a radical change in the system of material support for pastoral activities. They outlined some programs for overcoming the crisis.
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