Community Union of the Old Apostolic Church

In the book "Essays on the History of Russian Church Troubles" it is noted that the association with this name appeared in Moscow in the summer of 1922. At the same time, it is noted there that “the name was a pure fiction, if only because there were no“ communities ”, and therefore, there could be no union, but there were just a few religiously minded intellectuals who decided to combine Christianity with the idea of ​​labor cooperation , there was an attempt to open an artel on these principles - similar to the workshop of Vera Pavlovna in Chernyshevsky’s novel “ What to do ?”. Nothing came of this whole undertaking, and by the fall of 1922 the Union eke out a miserable existence, being on the eve of collapse ” ^[2] .

Alexander Vvedensky in 1924

At the end of October 1922, Alexander Vvedensky joined and became its head Alexander Sveats ^[3] . As indicated in the book "Essays on the History of Russian Church Troubles": "He was attracted to this group by intelligence, lack of inertness, the" priestly element ", as he later expressed it." Following him, the entire Petrograd committee of the “Union of Church Revival”, headed by Alexander Boyarsky, also joins SODAC ^[4] .

In November of that year, Moscow renovationists who departed from the head of the Living Church, Vladimir Krasnitsky, joined SODAC. As noted in "Essays on the History of Russian Church Troubles", "The Union begins to grow like a snowball, by the end of the year its branches are present in all dioceses. He has at his disposal several magazines, in terms of the number of members he surpasses the Living Church group - from a small fraction of 10 people, he turns over two months into a powerful church party, led by the most popular figure in the renovation movement. " At the same time, according to Krasnov-Levitin and Shavrov, the popularity of SODAC was due “not so much to the special sympathies that he arouses in the clergy, but to the disgust that the Living Church causes in everyone. The clergy and laity cling to SODAC, seeing in it a lesser evil compared to living churchmen ” ^[5] .

Despite the numerical superiority over the Living Church, SODAC was unable to push it away from the leadership of Renovationism, as “Krasnitsky managed to maintain a number of his positions in the capital and the province thanks to strict centralization, organization and iron discipline, which unites all his supporters. SODAC, on the contrary, was always a loose intellectual organization - with a weak connection between members, an uncertain program, with an ideological leader at the head, who was completely incapable of administrative leadership ” ^[6] . In addition, the leaders of SODAC could not convince a single bishop to join them, in connection with which Alexander Vvedensky turned to the VTsU with a request “to give them a bishop”. The head of the Living Church, Vladimir Krasnitsky, imposed his supporter John Albinsky on SODAC, but according to Krasnov-Levitin and Shavrov: “the archbishop hardly lived up to his hopes: he was just as colorless here as in Living Church.” All his “activities” were limited to the fact that he signed various documents and served a prayer service before the opening of the meetings ” ^[7] .

SODAC communities held spiritual talks, introduced akathist singing, introduced harmonium , attracted women to worship, and organized religious brotherhoods and sisterhoods ^[8] .

By January 1923, the Central Committee of the SODAC was organized in the Troitsky Compound, which included 6 people: Archbishop of Nizhny Novgorod John Albinsky , Archpriest: Vvedensky, Endeka , Vdovin , Fedorovsky, layman A. I. Novikov ^[9] .

Immediately after the organization of the Central Committee, a declaration was published ^[7] . In addition, in preparation for the renovation of the local council, the Central Committee of SODAC adopts the “Draft of Church Reforms in the Council, put forward by the Central Committee of the Union of Communities of the Ancient Apostolic Church” ^[10] .

The congress of the new renovation organization opened March 15, 1923 in the second House of Soviets, where the First Congress of the Living Church took place. As noted in "Essays on the History of Russian Church Troubles": "the delegates to the congress were significantly different from the living churches. First of all, there were absolutely no former Black Hundreds, but there were many priests with academic and university badges. An intelligent, liberal city priest - such is the prevailing type among SODAC members ” ^[8] .

In the spring of 1923, on the eve of the renovational local cathedral, the Sodac joined the opposition “left wing” of the Living Church, which emerged in late 1922, which included representatives of the Siberian, Voronezh, Tula and Kuban clergy, significantly weakening the position of the Living Church ^{[11 ]} .

On August 8, 1923, the plenum of the Supreme Church Council adopted resolutions on the dissolution of all renovationist movements, including SODAC, and the renaming of the Supreme Church Council as the “Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church” led by Evdokim (Meshchersky) ^[12] . Unlike other renovation associations that existed at that time (the Living Church, the Union of Church Revival, the Union of Religious Labor Communities, the Free Labor Church), SODAC obeyed this decision, completely dissolving in updating ^[13] .

• Krasnov-Levitin A. E. , Shavrov V. M. Essays on the history of Russian church unrest . - M .: Krutitsky Patriarchal Compound, 1996 .-- 672 p. - (Materials on the history of the Church. Book 9). - ISBN is missing.
• Lavrinov Valery, archpriest. The renovationist schism in the portraits of his figures. - M .: Society of Church History Fans, 2016. - P. 309. - 736 p. - (Materials on the history of the Church. Book 54). - ISBN 978-5-9906510-7-4 .