The word is up to the people

The anniversary XV that ended last week

showed that the format of this international conference has finally taken shape: two days of plenary sessions, when the hierarchs, officials, politicians, scientists and educators familiar to the public alternate on the podium (although surprises also happen: this year, such a surprise was the appearance of Mikhail Leontyev with a report “ New elite and new values”, in which he broadly repeated

Stanislav Belkovsky three years ago). And then two more days of work in areas so numerous that it is impossible to cover them all (suffice it to say that 1,200 reports were read at the last conference), although islands of stability formed here: where Archpriest Vladimir Vorobyov is, there are debates about theology in higher education ; where abbot Peter (Meshcherinov) is, there is always a sharp and impartial conversation about the problems of church service; where the executive secretary of the "Church Bulletin" Sergei Chapnin - there is a heated discussion of the media and mass culture (this time, Professor of the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts, Archpriest Georgy Mitrofanov and art historian and teacher of the Faculty of Journalism of Moscow State University Anna Novikova analyzed the film "Island" - from the point of view of mass culture, on the one hand, and the tasks of the church mission, on the other); where is the press secretary of the Union of Orthodox Citizens Kirill Frolov - there is something no less than “Global aspects of the Orthodox mission” (well, if without angry petitions to the Pope, written right there on the knee); Well, where is Alla Valentinovna Borodina - there is open PR for her textbooks on the defense industry (and where to go? Alla Valentinovna is now the editor-in-chief of the publishing house "Fundamentals of Orthodox Culture", and 17 out of 24 positions in the publishing catalog are occupied by her manuals).

And, of course, the main question, as always, is precisely these very Foundations of Orthodox culture. Rarely did any of the speakers at the plenary sessions manage to do without mentioning the subject and stating its importance, literally indispensability for schoolchildren. However, the intensity of the struggle for the defense industry is clearly cooling. Even the appearance on the podium of the Minister of Science and Education Andrei Fursenko, who had until now evoked idiosyncrasy among the defenders of the defense industry, this time was met with almost sympathetic applause. And it would be strange if it didn’t cool down: defense-industrial complex is widely taught, a market for all kinds of manuals has already emerged (the Institute for Expertise of Educational Programs under the leadership of Hieromonk Cyprian (Yashchenko) alone has collected 800 developments and published 50 textbooks), and for teachers (with rare exceptions) one has to face not the opposition of officials, but completely different difficulties.

Their aspirations still lie not in the missionary, but in the educational plane. “The main thing is to sow the seed, to cultivate the core, then the children will watch the same TV and understand that this is good and this is bad. Will they go to church to bow and bow? This is the second question. But I would like a clean relationship,” Evgenia Viktorovna, the director of a school from Pereslavl-Zalessky, shared her thoughts. She is not a supporter of compulsory teaching of military-industrial complex, but believes that the “permitting” procedure should be simplified - there are too many conventions. “There are children at school who want to attend the OPK, but parents do not write applications. Previously, from the age of 14, when a child received a passport, he had the right to attend the subject without parental consent, but now even after 14 years of age, parental consent is required. Question: why don’t they ask for the same application for another elective course? What are you guys afraid of, what are you afraid of?” In general, if you listen to the conference participants, the main obstacle in the educational process is parents, and not only in general education, but also in parish schools and Orthodox gymnasiums.

Olga, a Sunday school teacher from Kazan, says (the school is 12 years old, she was one of its first students, then she studied at the Orenburg Theological School, she has been teaching for the 4th year):

— We now have about 60 children, 4 groups, many children come on their own and enjoy studying. And there’s a big problem with parents: no matter how many times we schedule parent-teacher meetings, sometimes we need to discuss something – very few people come.

A young teacher at an Orthodox gymnasium in one of the central regions (“Oh, don’t write my name, the director will execute me”; the gymnasium is funded by the regional Ministry of Education, parents pay a small amount extra for teachers’ meals):

“There are a lot of people who want to enroll, this year they even wanted to introduce two parallel first grades, but the dropout rate is large—students and parents can’t stand it.” At first it seems to them, oh, Orthodoxy, great, now they will have this and that, and when it turns out that they need to do something with themselves, learn many things, protests begin.

Teacher of defense and industrial complex in one of the schools in Nizhny Tagil (he has been teaching since 2001 according to the program of A. Kamkin and I. Kuzmin “Origins”, by the way, judging by the reviews, perhaps the most popular among teachers: the cultural studies course covers from 1st to 8th grades). th class and well supported methodologically):

“When at a parent meeting I invite dads and moms to name the virtues that we should together instill in our children, they will sweat a lot before they even remember anything.” And our difficulties are mainly with parents, not with children. In high school they rebelled and said: we don’t want “Origins”, it’s no longer part of the curriculum! We had to organize active activities for them: like children, we sat them at a desk, taught them a lesson, some then even cried and said, thank you. As a result, we continue the program. But these are absolutely natural protests; parents are people raised by a certain system. Let's say we touch on the topic of foul language. The child comes home and says: Dad, but you can’t swear. What dad would like this? If we remember Tolstoy, raising children is also self-education. And this is now a very large deficit among our adults. We easily follow the lead of mass culture, mass sentiments, and deep work on ourselves is the lot of a few. Mass consciousness protests against inner work and against changing oneself.

Teachers, of course, are maximalists; one could object to them that “deep work on oneself” is always the lot of the few, but don’t their complaints indicate that society today is not ready to perceive any values? Or maybe the perception of Orthodoxy as a value is hampered by its systemic imposition as an ideology? After all, no matter how Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad persuades the public that we live in a postmodern era, characterized by the complete disappearance of ideologies, when children appear on the stage before the presentation of the church-state (!) program “Spiritual and moral culture of the younger generation of Russia” and instead of “ Rise like fires” they hesitantly sang “Heavenly King”, no other associations arise.

The speech of Deputy Prosecutor General Alexander Zvyagintsev, however, clearly indicated that the church cannot lay claim to big politics. Unlike the former Prosecutor General Vladimir Ustinov (who was still present at the first plenary session, but did not make any speeches), Alexander Zvyagintsev quoted not the Gospel, but the philosopher Ivan Ilyin, and did not rely on conscience, which seeks support outside the limits of earthly existence, but on complete observance earthly law, complaining that legal awareness in Russia is at zero. That is, he made it quite clear who would follow whom.

But what politics! If you believe the representatives of the Patriarchate, this is not a church matter. Much more important is that the Christmas readings left no doubt - the church can firmly count on government support. A lot spoke about this: the looming compromise between the Ministry of Education and the Orthodox community (Fursenko promised to preserve the right of regions to include spiritual and moral subjects in the school curriculum, moreover, he promised to take into account the opinion of religious organizations when creating new humanitarian state standards), and the already mentioned church- state program “Spiritual and moral culture of the younger generation of Russia”, which is led by Archbishop Evgeniy of Vereisky (rector of the Moscow Theological Academy) and Minister of Culture Alexander Sokolov. The program, the presentation of which took place in the building of the Academy of Sciences, includes scientific, educational, cinematic, information and publishing, cultural and social projects - a serious ambition. In the field of information and publishing, the Ministry has already taken upon itself the financing of the portal “Religion and Media”; within the framework of the program, the film festival “Radiant Angel” (November 2006) and the exhibition “God’s World through the Eyes of a Child” were held; courses for teachers of Orthodox culture were organized at the MDA (in All announcements about courses, however, say that they are held on donations from students), but further plans are still very vague. In any case, specifics were avoided at the presentation.

Students of the Moscow Law Academy, brought in as assistants, wandered around the Great Hall of the Academy of Sciences (at the Readings this time there were a lot of young people, and not only all kinds of servants, but simply students who came out of curiosity, or brought by friends who had already integrated into the Orthodox system education). I asked how the younger generation evaluates the prospects of the spiritual and moral program. “We need to develop our traditions,” Alexander said decisively. “We have forgotten many good holidays, many celebrate the same holiday on February 14, St. Valentine’s Day, which is Catholic, not Orthodox. This means we need to revive our own. Now even some foreigners come to Russia because they want something originally Russian, they are just happy to get to Maslenitsa, for example, but, in general, they don’t see anything else, there are only nesting dolls all around.” Maxim does not believe in the effectiveness of the program: “I think this program will be useful only for those who came here, for officials and clergy. We need to discuss such projects with all the people, and not just inside, we gathered and talked, the opinion of the people is the most important thing.”

The word is up to the people.