Orthodox Church Leaders End 80-Year Rift

MOSCOW — Church bells pealed as leaders of the Russian Orthodox faith signed a pact yesterday healing a historic, 80-year schism between the church in Russia and an offshoot set up abroad after the Bolshevik Revolution.

After a choir sang hymns, Patriarch Alexy II, leader of the main Russian Orthodox Church, led the ceremony with a sermon praising the end of the formal division.

"Joy illuminates our hearts," Alexy said, addressing worshippers in the vast Christ the Savior Cathedral. "A historic event awaited for long, long years has occurred. The unity of the Russian church is restored."

Alexy later signed the reunion agreement with Metropolitan Laurus, head of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia. Worshippers wept and incense wafted up into the cathedral's cupola.

Later in the ceremony, also attended by leaders of church and state, Alexy formally signed the reunion agreement with Metropolitan Laurus, head of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia.

President Putin joined the celebration, broadcast live on television. Alexy thanked him for helping end the split by meeting with leaders of the church abroad.

"They saw in you a man devoted to Russia, and it was very important to them after decades of repression," Alexy said. The patriarch presented Mr. Putin with a set of icons.

In remarks reflecting centuries of pre-Soviet tradition of a close relationship between the dominant Orthodox Church and Russia's rulers, Mr. Putin told the congregation that the agreement was "a nationwide event of an historic scale and of vast moral importance."

"The church division resulted from a deep political split of the Russian society," and ending the rift was a step toward healing society's divisions, he said.

Worshippers and clergy packed the Christ the Savior Cathedral, symbolic of Russia's rejection of its communist past, when atheism was state doctrine and many believers were imprisoned.

"We came to celebrate the holiday, and because our church is finally reunited," said Zinaida Yushinskaya, 70, a retired geologist who said she was reprimanded for wearing a cross in the Soviet era and would have been fired for worshipping openly.