What to do?

The ideas of unlimited freedom, freedom in Christ live in man, are looking for their incarnation. But inside the church fence, they have less and less places.

The real interest in Orthodoxy is falling. Media wars and scandalous courts, an increase in the abyss between religion and culture, cleansing from the information field of sane clerics, and even a ban on their priesthood, the growth of phobias and mania - all this in general does not contribute to the growth of authority of the largest denomination in Russia. Moreover, the authoritarianism of the secular authorities becomes the property of the spiritual authorities, sometimes not embarrassed to reformat the religious life of the region under their far -reaching plans.

Among the bishops, priests and laity, there are groups of people who very differently imagine the future of the Russian Orthodox Church. This spectrum of opinions is the norm, which was also mentioned in the apostolic messages: “There must be diversity between you”, and where an honest dispute and dialogue is possible, such a variety gives rise to a fullness of life. It was precisely that the Arkhangelsk diocese was distinguished until recently. However, under the new ruling bishop, Metropolitan Daniel (Dorovsky), the variety quickly disappeared, and many pulsating communities were destroyed by the hands of a retreating top manager.

The last in this row was the Konostrovsky parish of Fr. John Privalova, like -minded about. George Kochetkov.

The parish was interesting in the intra -church aspect (here they carefully prepared people for baptism), and in the aspect of the public. Now, after the removal of Fr. John from the post of rector and transfer of the fifth or sixth priest to the Cathedral of Arkhangelsk “under supervision”, all this remains in the past. The fact that it was built for twenty years by the efforts of many people, in just two weeks, several “jealouss” were destroyed, among which the head of the missionary (!) Diocesan department of Fr. Evgeny Sokolov. The fruit of his “missionary” activity was not only the destruction of the parish, from where the parishioners went from after their confessor (including many “grandmothers”). Arkhangelsk Regional Dobrolyubov library, in the walls of which the efforts of Fr. John Privalova and his assistants for residents of the city organized meetings with Nikita Struve, Sergey Yursky, Georges Niva, Elena Chukovskaya and many others, announced that after the scandalous performance of the protodiacon Andrei Kuraev, who was solidarized with the “zealots”, “was forced to declare the moratorium on the implementation of open public events of religious orientation”.

Olga Sedakova recently published on her website thoughts about the Kosostrovsky phenomenon. She notes: “This amazing work of the real churching (at the same time humanization) of a person who has already brought so many fruits throughout the country - is this not the most important thing for our church now? Are those who developed this system, relying on the experience of early Christian times, are not worthy of deeper gratitude? They would have to study. But they receive from their Orthodox counterparts (which it would be nice to go through at least the beginning of this introductory course) only the charges and anger. ”

Medium war with Fr. John Pravalov began a week before the New Year on the website of the Russian People's Line and continued in the republics on the portal Orthodoxy.ru, controlled by Fr. Tikhon Shevkunov. This time, the ideological supporters of the former bishop Diomid did not accuse the church leadership of "heresy of ecumenism", but followed the path of "sealing in the toilet" and creating a wide coalition of all the forces dissatisfied with the "liberalism" of Patriarch Kirill. Probably, Metropolitan Daniel is not assigned to her the last role. Among the participants in the coalition, we see “new Old Believers” who are ready to kill for a single az, and countermissions, followers of Alexander Dvorkin. (There are such wonderful people who, in the fight against the dissenters, turned to the methods of detecting and denunciation, and then decided to use it inside the church fence.)

What to do with the woe-missionaries is not very clear yet: they gained a huge weight and you can’t dismiss them so simply. One thing is clear: the scenario of the defeat of the Kosostrovsky temple can be applied in other places. For example, in Moscow and St. Petersburg, where there are many pulsating parishes.

Understanding this, some moderately thinking church figures, for example, prot. Alexy Uminsky, offers to start a dialogue. However, what to do the dialogue about, to whom and with whom, on which site - this is the question. Is there a dialogue between the "investigator" and the "defendant"? Is a calm and thoughtful conversation possible (which can only be called a dialogue) in a situation of shilming, bullying, distortion. Let's say about. Andrei Kuraev wrote a frank lie in his blog. In his presentation, a stupid wolf from an amateur performance, throwing an alphabet into the stove so as not to study, turned into ominous children - followers of Fr. George Kochetkov, - Slavic letters throwing in the stove. And this lie (as well as another: as if parishioners were taken out of the parish premises “all the furniture” - easily refuted by the act of transferring property) with pleasure began to replicate the site claiming to become a platform for such discussions.

It would be good if those who advocate the dialogue publicly stood up for about. John Privalova, spoke out for his returning rector to the Kosostrovsky temple. And then it turns out somehow not very correctly: “Kochetkovtsev” is expelled to the street, and “they want to talk”.

Alas, the era of Sedakova, with its flowering complexity, came to an end. The time has come for clear, simple mental constructions, radical formulations. Authoritarianism in the church fence gradually replaces the universalness in its Khomyakovsky sense. And Chernyshevsky question arises before the thinking reed: what to do?

In the photo O. John Privalov with parishioners of the temple