Bishop Sergius (Stragorodsky) at the Religious and Philosophical Meetings of 1901–1903: defending Church Truth

In 1901–1903, while serving as a vicar of the Saint Petersburg diocese and as the Bishop of Yamburg, Sergius (Stragorodsky), with the blessing of the church authorities, chaired the Religious and Philosophical Assemblies in Saint Petersburg. These assemblies became a significant chapter in the history of both church-state relations and religious thought in Russia. The Church participated in these assemblies in hopes of finding common ground with the intelligentsia. However, the initiators of the assemblies aimed to exert influence on the Church that would lead to a radical transformation of the church-state and church-society relations. In fact, during the assemblies, there were demands for the Church to sever ties with the autocratic state authorities and instead rely on the new non-estate layer of the intelligentsia. The latter was proclaimed as the most progressive social force, the bearer of Western ideas. It was assumed that the Church’s reorientation to support the intelligentsia would lead to a shift in the church ideal from the “otherworldly” to the “earthly”, meaning the blessing of socialist changes in the society. However, the organizers of the assemblies, primarily D. S. Merezhkovsky and Z. N. Gippius, as well as representatives of their circle, sought much deeper transformations. They considered the existing Russian Church “historical”, meaning outdated and incomplete, and sought to establish their new “Third Covenant” church. They anticipated a new revelation from the Holy Spirit, ultimately leading to the idea of an apocalyptic revolution aimed at changing the entire world. A central concept in the “new religious consciousness” of the assembly initiators was the idea of the “holy flesh”, which envisaged, on the one hand, the active involvement of secular culture in the church and the justification of the culture renewed by the church and, on the other hand, a fundamentally different view of the family, emphasizing the sanctity not of the sacrament of marriage but of physical cohabitation itself This approach implied a blurring of the church’s teachings on marriage and a transformation of moral theology. The creation of a new church also entailed a radical renewal of dogma. The possibility of “dogmatic development”, i.e., the transformation of the very foundation of church dogmas, was raised for discussion during the Religious and Philosophical Assemblies. Overall, the ideas developed at the assemblies can be characterized as revolutionary. In the face of all these challenges, Bishop Sergius (Stragorodsky) not only steadfastly defended the church’s political, social, moral, and dogmatic teaching but also showed great tact and restraint towards the participants of the assemblies. However, he did not fully overcome the circle of religious-revolutionary ideas that had formed at the assemblies. In fact, many of the same ideas were prevalent in the church renewal movement, which Metropolitan Sergius (Stragorodsky) had to contend with two decades later. The experience gained in the confrontation with destructive ideas at the Religious and Philosophical Assemblies greatly aided Metropolitan Sergius in his struggle against the church renewal movement.

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