Abstract
By the late nineteenth century, the agenda for reform in the Russian Orthodox Church had come to encompass a broad array of issues – its relationship to the state, re-establishment of the patriarchate, liberalization of divorce, vernacularization of services, and a plethora of other problems. In the view of many, however, the most critical issues concerned the parish – that nuclear unit of the Church beset with farreaching difficulties and problems. As lay and clerical contemporaries argued, in modern times the parish had suffered a corrosive decline in its identity, role and authority, especially in two vital matters: disposition of church funds and appointment of the local priest.1 The issue of parish funds was most sensitive, especially in the mass of poor parishes, which were forced to divert scarce resources to finance diocesan administration and the ecclesiastical schools that served primarily the clergy’s own progeny. As a result, the parish ceased to be the nucleus of community life or even to hold the status of a juridical entity (iuridicheskoe litso); it could not take up modern social functions (for example, open almshouses or parish schools) and sometimes even had difficulty maintaining the local church and providing traditional religious services.