Permanent pan-Orthodox Synod idea in the Russian orthodox tradition from the late XIX to early XXI centuries

The lack of a single administrative center in the Orthodox world is one of the acute problems at least since the late 19 century. Today on the issue of primacy at the universal level there is no consensus among the local Churches, and this was the reason for the appearance in 2013 of an official document of the Russian Orthodox Church on this subject. In the 20 century, Constantinople made unsuccessful efforts to hold a pan-Orthodox Council. After the Second World War, Moscow made such an attempt. In 2016, another attempt to hold the pan-Orthodox Council on Crete again proved unsuccessful. This Council was held in incomplete composition and actually proposed to establish under the Patriarch of Constantinople a permanent all-Orthodox synod consisting of representatives of all Autocephalous Orthodox Churches. This idea is not new to Russian Orthodoxy. The idea of creating a permanent pan-Orthodox synod was expressed by prominent Russian Orthodox figures of various political and jurisdictional orientations. The article deals with the development of the idea of a permanent all-Orthodox synod in the notes of Count Ignatiev, the works of the canonists N. Suvorov, N. Zaozersky, S. Troitsky, theologians A. Kartashev, prot. N. Afanasyev, I. Meyendorff, Archbishop Basil (Krivoshein), in the work of the Moscow Conference of the Heads and representatives of the Autocephalous Orthodox Churches of 1948, in the draft documents prepared by the Commission at the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church for the development of the catalog of themes for the Pan-Orthodox Council of 1968. Based on the review, the author summarizes the conclusions and assesses the problems and prospects for translating the idea of a permanent all-Orthodox synod in the life of the Orthodox Church.