Sobor rule

Sobor rule (соборноправність; sobornopravnist'). The principle under which church policy or decisions affecting a church are made at sobors by its lay membership together with the ecclesiastical church hierarchy. The concept of sobor rule in Ukraine was adhered to until the absorption of the Ukrainian Orthodox church by the Russian Orthodox church and its subjugation to the decrees of the Russian Holy Synod. The principle was revived in the 20th century with the re-establishment of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox church in Ukraine and the creation of Ukrainian jurisdictions in the West.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 4 (1993).]