Sobornost

1) A Russian theological term indicating a conciliar and ecumenical ideal of the church, based on a spiritual unity of freedom and love. This interior communion of the church is contrasted with Protestant individualism and the external ordering of the Roman Catholic Church. The term is a neologism, or new word, based on the Russian for catholic, assembly. It is associated with the nineteenth-century Slavophile movement and the writings of Alexis S. Khomyakov (1806-1860). Russian Orthodox claim sobornost as a special attribute of their church. The term does not have an exact English translation. 2) Title of the journal of the Anglican-Orthodox Fellowship of St. Alban and St. Sergius. This ecumenical fellowship was founded in 1928, and its journal was renamed Sobornost in 1935. The title reflects the ecumenical ideals of the fellowship.