Addressing the Old Believers’ Experience in the Discussion of Church Reforms of Worship at the turn of the XX century

Abstract

The article deals with cases of the Russian Church’s recourse to the Old Believer experience in the XIX and XX centuries, primarily in matters related to worship and correction of liturgical books. It considers the language archaization program by N. Ilminsky, the church calendar archaization program by N. Nikolsky, the procedure of canonization, the introduction of new types of service and a number of other innovations aimed at the experience of Old Believers. It is shown that the part of the Russian society that had adopted the reforms of Patriarch Nikon saw Old Believers as custodians of the ancient tradition and turned to their experience in addressing specific issues of church life.

Keywords

• russian church history
• old belief
• church reforms
• worship
• church singing
• church slavonic
• patriarchate
• canonization
• история русской церкви
• старообрядчество
• церковные реформы
• богослужение
• церковное пение
• церковнославянский язык
• патриаршество
• канонизация