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This exodus was in reaction to Met. Sergius having removed, on 10 June, 1930, Met. Evlogy as the head of the Russian Orthodox Church in Western Europe (since Met. Evlogy had continually refused to agree to the 30 June, 1927 Declaration of Loyalty to the Soviet government) and named Elevtherii as his replacement. In late 1935, Met. Evlogii appointed a commission to look into the charges of heresy levelled against Bulgakov.
The commission quickly broke into factions. In June of 1936 the majority report (prepared by Vasilii Zenkovskii, Anton Kartashev and others) rejected the charge of heresy but had serious objections about Sophiology. The minority report of 6 July, 1936 was prepared by Fr Sergei Chetverikov and reluctantly signed by Fr [[Georges Florovsky ]], who had only joined the commission when Met. Evlogy had insisted so that it would not be viewed as a whitewash. (Florovsky had a very close relationship with Bulgakov despite their theological differenceshis personal respect for Fr. Some Sergius, remained an ardent critic of this closeness was no doubt due to the fact that Bulgakov was Sophianism for at least a spell in the early 20’s the confessor/spiritual father remainder of Florovsky)his life. Meanwhile, the Church Abroad formally accused Bulgakov of heresy in 1935.
[[Sophianism#Decree_of_ROCOR|The 1935 decision of the Church Abroad]] was based on Archbishop Seraphim (Sobolev) of Boguchar’s Novoe uchenie o Sofii (Sofia, 1935), as well as on the arguments of St. [[[John Maximovitch|John (Maximovitch)]].<ref>Protopresbyter George Grabbe, ''Toward a History of the Ecclesiastical Divisions Within the Russian Diaspora'', Living Orthodoxy, Vol. XIV, No. 4, July-August, 1992, p. 38</ref> St. John, in his book ''The Orthodox Veneration of the Mother of God'', discusses at length why the [[sophianism]] of Sergius Bulgakov is [[heresy]], specifically one as destructive as [[Nestorianism]]. Speaking of those who attempt to deify the Theotokos, he wrote: