http://en.rian.ru/russia/20080513/107229547.html
Archbishop Hilarion expected to deepen ties with Orthodox Church
12:41 | 13/ 05/ 2008
MOSCOW, May 13 (RIA Novosti) - Moscow's 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
Russia's Orthodox Church.
Nine out of the 11 members of the Pontific Synod in New York elected
the Archbishop of Sydney, Australia and New Zealand on Monday to
replace Metropolitan Laurus, who was found dead at a seminary in
Jordanville, New York, U.S. in March at the age of 80.
"We are confident that Archbishop Hilarion will continue leading the
Orthodox Church Outside of Russia along the same path as Metropolitan
Laurus," said Bishop Nikolai Balashov, a spokesman for the Moscow
Patriarchate.
Hilarion, 60, was elected by secret ballot and will be inaugurated on May
18.
"Witnesses [at the Synod in New York] said it took bishops less than
10 minutes to elect the archbishop," Balashov said, describing
Hilarion as a "wise, experienced, reasonable and cautious archbishop."
Metropolitan Laurus proposed Hilarion as ROCOR head in 2001, but the
Pontifical Synod unanimously favored Laurus.
Laurus and Alexy II, Patriarch of Moscow and all-Russia, signed a
church unification act reestabli****ng canonical ties between the two
churches in Moscow on May 17. The do***ent was widely seen as a
milestone on the way toward overcoming a decades-long rift with the
foreign-based branch.
ROCOR was formed soon after the Russian Revolution of 1917, and split
from the Russian Church of the Moscow Patriarchate in 1927 in
response to the latter's pledge of loyalty to the atheist Soviet state.
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