Living Church - Evaluation

Evaluation

While it had among its ranks many sincere and faithful clerics, the Renovationist movement from the very start revealed its major weaknesses, which effectively undermined its entire appeal for the church “renovation”. Its support by the Soviet government did not help advancing its cause. On the contrary, Renovationists met with the massive “grass-roots” resistance from “Tikhonite” churchmen and laity, who regarded the “Living Church” as agents of Soviet secret services. Likewise, relaxation of canonical restrictions with respect to clerical marriage led many to regard the entire movement as driven mainly by the unsatisfied ambition of married priests. The dubious moral stature of many Renovationist leaders – such as Vvedensky (thrice married, with many extramarital affairs) or Platonov (a GPU agent and, eventually, an apostate) – certainly tarnished the image of the “Renovationist Church” in the eyes of the faithful.

Modern church historians generally regard the Renovationist movement as a deviation from more sincere and well-founded attempts at ecclesiastical reforms in the beginning of the 20th century. While initially the reforms were indeed at the heart of at least some Renovationism, later it was the issue of unending loyalty “at all cost” to the Soviet regime which became the major point of separation. When, eventually, the Patriarchal Church had found ways for some rapprochement with the Soviet power, the raison-d’être for the schism ceased to exist and it went into decline.