Living Church - Leadership and Administration

Leadership and Administration

The central administrative body of the Renovationist Church, as well as its entire administration, was in a state of constant flux and changed names several times in the 28-year period of its existence. Initially it was called the Higher Church Administration (Высшее церковное управление), then Higher Church Council (1922–23). Thereafter it assumed a more traditional style: The Holy Synod of the Orthodox Church in the USSR (1923–1933). Its President was usually considered a chief hierarch of the church, regardless of the see which he occupied.

In its later years, the Renovationist administration started to lean more toward more “traditionalist” titles. In 1933, the position of the First Hierarch (Первоиерарх) was introduced, in opposition to the “Tikhonite” Church, which was not to have a Patriarch until 1943. The position was given to the then-President of Synod Vitaly Vvedensky, however since mid-1920s all power in the Renovationist Church had consolidated in the hands of its actual leader, Metropolitan Alexander Vvedensky. Toward the latter part of 1930s, A. Vvedensky bore a very peculiar conglomerate of titles, invented specially for him: Metropolitan - Apologete- Evangelizer and Deputy First Hierarch. In the fall of 1941 he himself assumed the title of the First Hierarch and made an abortive attempt to declare himself a Patriarch of all Orthodox Churches in the USSR. The attempt was not received well by his fellow clergy and in December 1941 he reverted to his previous titles.