Archbishop Hilarion likely to replace Metropolitan Laurus
Moscow, 18 March 2008 (RIA Novosti):
Archbishop Hilarion of Sydney, Australia, and New Zealand is the most likely candidate to replace the late head of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia (ROCOR), a ROCOR spokesman said on Tuesday. Metropolitan Laurus, the ROCOR head who signed the historic unification act with the Russian Orthodox Church in Moscow last May, was found dead at the monastery in Jordanville NY in the USA on Sunday. He had complained of feeling ill over the last few days. He was 80 years old.
“His Eminence Hilarion is the next most-respected hierarch after Archbishop Laurus”, said Fr Seraphim Gan, the late metropolitan’s private secretary. Laurus shall be replaced by one of the 11 bishops from the Holy Synod. The body is likely to hold elections after Orthodox Easter on 27 April. The exact date of elections will be fixed in the next few days. Metropolitan Laurus proposed Hilarion as ROCOR head in 2001, but, the Holy Synod unanimously favoured Laurus.
Sources at the ROCOR and the Moscow patriarchate said they did not rule out the possibility of the canonisation of Metropolitan Laurus. While admitting that it was too early to speak of canonisation, Rev Gan said, “We have lost a unique man. He was a living saint”. Laurus will be buried on Friday at Holy Trinity Monastery in Jordanville.
Metropolitan Laurus and Patriarch Aleksei II of Moscow and all Russia signed a church unification act re-establishing canonical ties between the two churches in Moscow on 17 May 2007. The document was widely seen as a milestone on the way toward overcoming a decades-long rift with the foreign-based branch. The ROCOR is a archdiocese within Eastern Orthodoxy that was formed in response to the Bolshevik policy towards religion in the Soviet Union soon after the Russian Revolution of 1917.
http://en.rian.ru/russia/20080318/101562298.html (in English)
Archbishop Hilarion expected to deepen ties with Moscow Patriarchate
Moscow, 13 May 2008 (RIA Novosti):
The Moscow Patriarchate said on Tuesday it expected Archbishop Hilarion, the new head of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia (ROCOR), to continue the course of the late Metropolitan Laurus, who signed a historic unification act with the Moscow Patriarchate. Nine out of the 11 members of the Holy Synod in New York elected Archbishop Hilarion Kapral of Sydney, Australia, and New Zealand on Monday to replace Metropolitan Laurus, who was found dead at the monastery in Jordanville NY in the USA in March at the age of 80.
“We are confident that Archbishop Hilarion shall continue leading the ROCOR along the same path as Metropolitan Laurus”, said Fr Nikolai Balashov, a spokesman for the Moscow Patriarchate. Hilarion, 60, was elected by secret ballot and shall be inaugurated on 18 May. “Witnesses [at the Synod in New York] said it took the bishops less than 10 minutes to elect the archbishop”, Rev Balashov said, describing Vladyki Hilarion as a “wise, experienced, reasonable, and cautious archbishop”. Metropolitan Laurus proposed Hilarion as the ROCOR head in 2001, but, the Holy Synod unanimously favoured Laurus.
Metropolitan Laurus and Patriarch Aleksei II of Moscow and all Russia signed a church unification act re-establishing canonical ties between the two churches in Moscow on 17 May 2007. The document was widely seen as a milestone on the way toward overcoming a decades-long rift with the foreign-based branch. The ROCOR was formed soon after the Russian Revolution of 1917, and split from the Moscow Patriarchate in 1927 in response to the latter’s pledge of loyalty to the atheist Soviet state.
http://en.rian.ru/russia/20080513/107229547.html (in English)
RIA-Novosti
