CWN- In a statement concluding a recent two-day meeting in Moscow, the bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church emphasized the immutability of doctrine.
The bishops cited Archbishop Seraphim Sobolev (1881-1950), whom they canonized, stating that he emphasized the necessity to zealously preserve the Orthodox faith: “an important characteristic of the Church is immutability in her dogmatic and moral and canonical teaching which comes from God Himself, Our Lord Jesus Christ … It is this immutability of the teaching of the Orthodox Church which has preserved the apostolic faith in all its purity that distinguishes her from all other Christian confessions.”
“It is by this awareness that the Russian Orthodox Church has been and always will be guided,” the bishops added.
The bishops also
- approved the churchwide veneration of Eugene Botkin (1865-1918), the murdered physician of the Russian royal family
- prayed for peace in Ukraine
- rued the situation of Ukrainian Orthodox who are in communion with the Moscow patriarchate, and
- decried the persecution of the Middle East’s Christians
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