SERGIYEV POSAD, October 7. /TASS/. The reunification of the Archdiocese of the West European Parishes of the Russian Tradition with the Russian Orthodox Church is a result of fundamental changes both in Western Europe and in the ROC, Patriarch Kirill, of Moscow and All Russia, said on Monday after a meeting of the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church, which made a decision to accept the clergy of the Archdiocese of the West European Parishes of the Russian Tradition in the ROC jurisdiction.
"The church emigration in Paris has made a long way from confrontation with the Russian Orthodox Church, stemming from political circumstances, towards accession to the Moscow Patriarchate. All of us made our part of the way. This became possible because a great deal has changed in Western Europe and because very much has changed in the life of our country and our church," he said.
Patriarch Kirill described the Holy Synod’s decision in favor of reunification as historic.
"This Archdiocese was part and parcel of the Russian Orthodox emigration community, which emerged as a result of the revolution and civil war… I would like to congratulate our brothers and sisters in Western Europe and all of us upon the reunification of the until recently separated part of the Russian Orthodox Church with its mother," Patriarch Kirill noted.