Discussion at local council of the Russian orthodox church 1917-18 about church court. Formulation of the problem

The article tells about the discussion that took place at Local Council of the Russian Orthodox Church 1917-18 in August, 1918 between its participants: P. D. Lapin, professor of the Kazan Theological Academy and A. G. Kulyashev, representative of the Perm eparchy. The essence of the discussion: Local Council proposed to arrange the foundation of the Church Court not on canonical, but on legal grounds. According to A. Kulyashev, legal ones replace the moral, canonical principles of the Church court. The article poses the following problems: 1) To what extent are the positions of the parties to the dispute canonically justified? How correctly do opponents use specific canonical rules? 2) How justified are the opposing positions of both opponents regarding the role of Roman law in the structure of the court of the Ancient Church? 3) How justified is the identification by A. G. Kulyashev of “moral” and “canonical”? Is it possible to speak on Kulyashev’s “moral argument”? Keywords: Local Council of the Russian Orthodox Church 1917-18, Pre-Council Presence 1906, Pre-Council Meeting 1912, Pre-Council Council 1917, S. G. Runkevich, P. D. Lapin, A. G. Kulyashev, report “On the structure of the Church Court”, principle of separation of Church Court from the administration, principle of ensuring the full episcopal authority.