Translated material
Moscow Trinity
The rector of the Sechenov Academy will represent the capital at the Local Council of the Russian Orthodox Church
The Moscow diocese has decided on who will represent the capital's clergy and laity at the Local Council of the Russian Orthodox Church, which will meet in 11 days to elect a new patriarch. At the diocesan meeting, which was held on Thursday in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior under the chairmanship of Metropolitan Juvenaly of Krutitsy and Kolomna (after the death of Patriarch Alexy II, he took over the management of Moscow parishes), it was decided that three representatives would be delegated to the council - from priests, monks and laity capitals.“Out of millions, three had to be chosen,” Bishop Juvenaly addressed the audience. “We wanted to choose those about whom we had never heard any negative criticism or comments, so that they could adequately represent everyone.”
In the meeting, called to determine the most worthy, not millions, but 420 people took part - rectors of churches and abbots of Moscow monasteries, as well as elders of the capital's parishes. During an open vote, the three candidates proposed by Metropolitan Juvenal were supported by the clergy and laity almost unanimously.
As a result, Archpriest Leonid Roldugin, one of the oldest clergy in Moscow, was elected rector of the Church of the Nativity in Izmailovo from the priesthood. The monastics will be represented by Abbot Damascene (Orlovsky), a cleric of the Church of the Intercession of the Virgin Mary on Lyshchikova Hill, a member of the Synodal Commission for the Canonization of Saints. The “secular” delegate was the rector of the Moscow Medical Academy. Sechenov, head of the Church of the Archangel Michael at the clinics on Devichye Pole, Professor Mikhail Paltsev. The head of the Sechenov Academy, Bishop Yuvenaly emphasized, “is known as an active Christian who helps in the treatment of many who turn to him from the patriarchy and from the clergy.” Professor Paltsev took an active part in the restoration of the destroyed Church of the Archangel Michael, helps with its maintenance, and for his ascetic activities was repeatedly awarded the personal attention and awards of Patriarch Alexy II. “It is worthy and correct for such people to participate at the Local Council in the election of the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church,” Metropolitan Yuvenaly admonished the delegate.
The Moscow diocese was one of the last to nominate its representatives to the council: January 15 is the deadline set by the Holy Synod for presenting delegates. The fact that not only the clergy, but also the laity should participate in the council is enshrined in the statutes of the Russian Orthodox Church, adopted in 2000. A special feature of the upcoming all-church congress is that among the secular delegates a considerable percentage are representatives of large businesses and officials at various levels. For example, the Barnaul diocese delegated the chairman of the board of the pharmaceutical company Unipharm, Yuri Nizhegorodtsev. The Donetsk and Mariupol diocese of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church will be represented by the owner of Donetskstal, Viktor Nusenkis; the Tiraspol and Dubossary diocese sent businessman Oleg Smirnov, the son of the president of the unrecognized Transnistrian Moldavian Republic, Igor Smirnov, to the cathedral. The Rostov diocese sent State Duma deputy, member of the International Affairs Committee Ivan Savvidi, and the Kursk diocese sent the deputy head of one of the departments of the regional administration, Alexander Shapovalov.
“Still, there are not so many such lay delegates. It is quite possible that there will be more of them at the next council,” said Deacon Andrei Kuraev, a professor at the Moscow Theological Academy and a famous Orthodox publicist, in a conversation with Vremya Novostey. “Roughly speaking, there are three groups of lay delegates,” explains the newspaper’s interlocutor. - Firstly, those laity who depend on the bishop (diocesan accountant, cell attendant, etc.), there were many of them at the previous councils of 1980, 1988, 1990. The second circle is those on whom the bishop himself depends, this is either a sponsor or a major official. For example, the Omsk diocese initially nominated the regional governor, Leonid Polezhaev ( then he was replaced by the executive director of the Foundation for the Reconstruction of the Historical and Cultural Monument of the Omsk Region, the Assumption Cathedral, Viktor Bazhenov - Ed) , in another case, the head of the tax inspectorate became the delegate.” The third group, according to Fr. Andrei, “the most interesting” - she, in particular, includes delegates from the Saratov and Moscow diocese. In these cases, the local clergy realized that believers are not only “professional Orthodox”, but also a huge national resource, and therefore delegated truly independent people. “For example, the rector of the Moscow Medical Academy or the rector of the Agricultural Academy in Saratov,” Fr. Andrey. “These are Orthodox people, but by the nature of their activities they are in no way connected with the church; they seriously cannot help the church or control it.”
According to Andrei Kuraev, it is precisely such people who will make up “the healthiest part of the laity.” As for the “Orthodox sponsors and oligarchs,” they too, as Fr. Andrey, they can play a positive role at the council. “Firstly, there are not so many of them - for 150 places there are only about 15 lay people,” our interlocutor emphasizes. “This kind of people, socially successful and accomplished, will be needed by the cathedral, since they are alien to alarmist-apocalyptic sentiments, and someone, especially the monks, will most likely bring these sentiments to the cathedral.”