Ten thousand parishes ...

What is hidden behind the ceremonial statistics to the anniversary of the intronization of Patriarch Kirill

In the throne rooms of Patriarch Kirill (Gundyaev) are the flags of Ukraine - among the flags of states to which, according to the Moscow Patriarchate, its “canonical territory” extends. These days, when Cyril celebrates the decade of his intronization (erecting to the patriarchal throne), the yellow-blue banner should be put in the most honorable place. The anniversary celebrations in Moscow almost completely passed under the sign of Ukraine, leaving the hospitable "canonical territory" of the Russian Orthodox Church ...

Ten years is a historical term, although the time with Putin’s long rule, it seems, flows slower. In the days of anniversaries, it is customary to take stock and report on successes, which, of course, was engaged in different services of the Moscow Patriarchate. The most beautiful result is as follows: "Over 10 years, 10 thousand new parishes appeared in the Russian Orthodox Church." And, of course, an increase in the number of clergy by 30%, and a fantastic increase in the number of studying the “Fundamentals of Orthodox Culture” ...

The main achievement of the patriarchate of Cyril Assistant Chairman of the Department of External Church Relations of the Patriarchate, Director of the Foundation of St. Gregory the Theologian Leonid Sevastyanov considers the “recognition” of the Russian Orthodox Church and the Patriarch personally in society, in the media space. True, it admits that it has been achieved mainly by the cost of scandals. It also admits that

Russian society, having better learned the Russian Orthodox Church, prefers to stay from it at a distance - even on Easter temples visits 1-2% of the population of the "most Orthodox" country of the world.

Minsk priest Alexander Shramko believes that Cyril went to patriarchate with good intentions, believing that all his predecessors showed failure in the missionary sphere, in working with youth and modernization of the church. Having spent most of his life in Geneva and high offices of church institutions, Cyril did not know the real, folk Russian Orthodoxy well, was “terribly far from the people”. “He has the illusion of absolute power,” says about. Alexander, - but with its help in the church it can not do almost anything. It can change the bishop, force him to “take measures” ... Circular or very fundamental cathedral “documents” can produce, but ... they will multiply a piece of paper, disperse the parishes, and they will be laid out and will live as an upward. ”

"Point of no return"

The patriarchate of Cyril began in December 2008, amid the mysterious death of Alexy II. A lot is said about the versions of this death - we will not be repeated. The fact is that the official ballot about its causes has not yet been published, as well as the posthumous photo of the patriarch. But everyone in the church was well remembered by the “reckless” statement by Metropolitan Cyril in the program “Word of the shepherd” on Channel One that Alexy II “left” on time, “saving the church from the time of the test”. Then there was a fleeting election campaign, where Cyril Fr. Andrei Kuraev “wet” the main competitor - Metropolitan Clement (Kapalina) by the methods of black PR. The outcome of the elections was predetermined at the Congress of the United Russia party in the 20th of January 2009, which made an official statement in support of Cyril.

Nevertheless - a sensation! - The Bishop Cathedral of the Russian Orthodox Church, held on the eve of the local, did not give Cyril 50% of the vote. The fate of the elections decided well-chosen delegates at the local cathedral, among which, in the spirit of the times, political and business elite (the wife of the governor of Primorye, deputies, vice-governors and vice-speakers of regional parliaments, the head of the European Chief, Unifarm, Donetskstal, etc., etc.) were widely represented. After all, Cyril himself positioned himself as a successful businessman, an “effective manager”, who owned aircraft and shares of highly profitable companies.

The Cathedral of Christ the Savior, where the cathedral was held, was surrounded by 12 thousand special forces, and voting ballots were instantly destroyed after the announcement of the results of the elections.

The newly elected patriarch immediately closed the cathedral, which did not have time to consider half of the issues of his agenda.

All this left the first bitter precipitate from the new patriarchate of the liberal intelligentsia. The Annals entered the exclamation of “Asphalt -layer!”, Blinding from the delegate of the cathedral from the Yakut diocese, Igumen Agafangel (Belykh). “To have a patriarch on which lies a shadow of participation in corruption schemes is terrible,” Boris Nemtsov said on the election day.

Cyril tried to start his rule vigorously. True, all his initiatives concerned external construction, “building muscles”, but not an internal spiritual life. As a result of the “administrative reform” he turned the old dioceses that coincided with the borders of the constituent entities of the Federation, into the metropolis, inside which new dioceses appeared, uniting several areas. Thus, the number of bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church increased to 400, but the quality of the “bishop material” has decreased significantly. The Patriarch started aggressive “temple construction”, promising to build 600 temples in Moscow alone. This led to a protracted confrontation with local residents, defending their yards and parks. Finally, inspired by the example of the Pope, Cyril began to gather at the stadiums youth and perform in front of her with “progressive” sermons. True, this case turned out to be compromised when it turned out that young people are driven to the stadiums to order the administrations of educational institutions, and the issues of the Patriarch are consistent with the Synodal Information Department in advance. In the age of the Internet you will not conceal anything!

But the “point of no return” came in 2012, when what went down in history as “PR catastrophe Patriarch Kirill”.

At first there was a story with an apartment in a Moscow house on an embankment belonging to the Patriarch, but put to the disposal of a certain Lydia Leonova. Later, the Patriarch called her either a cousin, then a second cousin. Having decided to increase the still not small penthouse, Leonova accused her neighbor from below, the former Minister of Health of the Russian Federation, Yuri Shevchenko, who became a priest, in the clogging of the Patriarchal apartment “Nanopoli”, demanding compensation that accurately corresponded to the cost of the apartment. The Kafkian process began, during which it turned out that Shevchenko was hopelessly sick with cancer, but to forgive him, according to the patriarch, "it would be incorrect." Leonova did not provide the court with any documents reflecting her right to occupy an apartment, but she won the process, and Shevchenko expelled from the apartment. Society seriously thought about the "Christianity of Patriarch Kirill."

Then there was an epic case of Pussy Riot, as a result of which Kuraev finally spread with Gundyaev. “Punk-Moleben” with an appeal to the Mother of God on the Amvon of the Temple, as it turned out, belonging to the government of Moscow, on the eve of the Great Post, revealed the new depths of the spiritual life of the Patriarch. That was a very unusual great post: the presidential election for the third term for the accompaniment of sermons about the need to “punish the blasphemy”, about the “Christian non -core”. On the bright week, the Patriarch gathered a long -term rally from the XXS, where he demanded retaliation. It became completely clear that

The gospel, where Christ meals the prisoner of the breed, and the “Christianity of Patriarch Kirill”, which requires punishing, prohibiting, and to prevent,-two things are inconvenient.

The cherries on the cake were the “disappearing” Breguet clock on the patriarch’s wrist, who was completely confused in his inventions regarding their being or non -being, the godless abuse of “Photoshop” on the official website of the Patriarchate, where they began to “draw” the prayers on the patriarchal services, where there were fewer people ... Finally, the appearance of their own power division - the movement of “because of the“ forty Sorokov ”(SS) as part of pumped up young people who willingly entered the hand -to -handing people with civilians who protect their yards and squares from development.

According to the results of 2012, when a criminal punishment was introduced for “insulting the feelings of believers”, the thoughtful Russians generally disappeared the desire to seriously talk about the Russian Orthodox Church and Orthodoxy. After all, almost every non-canonical word could cause (and caused) a hysteria of some other “offended believer”, followed by the exhausting trial.

Along the way, the “competitive environment” was cleaned: the “alternative” Orthodox, not part of the Russian Orthodox Church, took away the last historical temples, the Protestants were intimidated, and Jehovah's witnesses were completely banned by the decision of the Supreme Court, having begun to arrest simple prayers and reading the Bible (and the Bible in their translation was recognized as “extremist literature”).

Fear of repression is not the most effective method to attract people to temples, so, while you can still not go there, people chose not to do this.

Speaking

After the 2012 disaster, the Patriarchate of Cyril flowed “by inertia”, as much in modern Russia with its ubiquitous “anti -extremist legislation”. And no one was particularly surprised that the Russian Orthodox Church could not make any contribution to peace in the Donbass, where her “faithful children” began to kill each other from all types of heavy weapons. We still do not know whether the Moscow Patriarchate condemns any of the parties to this conflict or believes that one of them is fighting for a just cause, or it is indifferent at all. Complete moral helplessness!

The year 2016 introduced some revival to the patriarchal routine, when the “historical meeting” of Cyril and Pope in Havana took place. Following the covenants of his spiritual father, Metropolitan Nicodemus (Rotov), ​​Cyril, of course, sought to bring Orthodoxy closer to Catholicism, but it is still not clear what specific fruits that the meeting brought. Unless a wave of indignation of monasticism and conservative laity forced the Patriarch in the same year to refuse to participate in the All -Orthodox Cathedral in Crete. And this was one of the factors that influenced the deterioration of relations between the Patriarchate of Constantinople with the Moscow and, in the end, to grant the autocephaly of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine. It turns out that even his tactical victories Patriarch manages to turn into strategic defeats.

The final came in 2018, with the loss of Ukraine.

The unstable "bicapolarness" of world Orthodoxy between Constantinople and Moscow was replaced by a trend to the gradual isolation of Moscow. As in big world politics. Only for the Russian Orthodox Church is it fraught with disaster, because

Ukraine is not only 20,000 Orthodox parishes, but also the entire “symbolic capital” of the Russian Orthodox Church: the baptism of Rus', the “second Jerusalem”, the Metropolis of All Rus', the most important holy places ...

But after Ukraine, according to the logic of Constantinople, Moldova, Belarus, Lithuania, Latvia should follow ... And then - it’s scary to imagine. This process of "new autocephas" will sooner or later spread to Russia itself.

Will only save the crusade?

And then we have to return to what we started. In such an atmosphere of the triumph of the decade of intronization, they are doomed to take place under the sign of Ukraine. Already on January 30, in a large anniversary interview, Cyril promised that he would definitely return to Kyiv, and hinted that the current geopolitical choice of Ukraine is “a skillful”. It seems that the Patriarch continues to grab the straw of faith in the upcoming defeat of Poroshenko in the presidential election and the turn of Ukraine to Moscow. President Putin spoke of Ukraine the next day, speaking at a solemn act in the Kremlin. In his warlike manner, he condemned the Patriarchate of Constantinople and promised to “react and do everything to protect” believers of the Moscow Patriarchate in Ukraine.

In Kyiv, this was perceived as an announcement of a new crusade. According to Metropolitan Alexander (Draunkko), the former secretary of the Primate of the UOC MP, who has now transferred to the Autocephalous Orthodox Church of Ukraine, “these are the words of direct political blackmail and a military threat. The threats of the invasion, still expected by the preachers of the "Russian world", created by Russian bayonets and caterpillars of Russian tanks. There were already historical attempts to free the Orthodox Constantinople in this way. But what about Kyiv, how is it without a new crusade, which is obliged to free the shrine from the "infidels" Bandera? "

A decade of intronization was conceived by Moscow as an occasion to demonstrate the consolidation of the Orthodox world against Constantinople. But only two patriarchs came to the celebrations: Antioch (his residence in Damascus, he could not help but come) and Serbian. Even such traditional allies of Moscow as the Primate of the Alexandria, Georgian, Bulgarian and Polish churches, ignored the anniversary. There were no patriarchs of Jerusalem, Romanian, heads of Cyprus, Elladsky, Albanian churches in Moscow.

The veteran of church St. Petersburg, the philosopher in Soviet education, Ilya Zavzhinsky revealed in his blog, as I think, the main reason for the historical defeat of Patriarch Kirill.

“Today our patriarch is in the State Duma and says that the situation with the social inequality in the country is difficult. That the gap between the rich and the poor in society is colossal. And he calls for deputies and society to work on overcoming this abyss. And I understand what he actually talks about. That he, the patriarch, is concerned about the abyss that lies between the level of wealth of himself and the level of poverty of ordinary rural priests. That he will give his expensive residence with multimillion -dollar furniture in Peredelkin and no less luxurious in Divnomorsk with a personal beach near Gelendzhik to create a sanatorium or a dispensary for the rest of poor priestly families. He will refuse personal aircraft, armored vehicles, personal choles, expensive techniques, will sell a collection of watches and MITR, everything that he had not given before, will now give a special fund from the funds of the patriarchate - and all this will direct to support the poor clergy, to the opening and maintenance of parishes, where they themselves cannot contain themselves, in the Russian hinterland ...

And so I love our patriarch - for the fact that his words never diverge from deeds. "