Bishop of Perm and Solikamsk Irinarch (Grezin) sharply criticized the Interfaith Advisory Committee of the Perm Region

NEWSru.com, citing Blagovest-info, reports that Bishop Irinarkh (Gresin) of Perm and Solikamsk has sharply criticized the Interfaith Consultative Committee (ICC) of the Perm Region. The committee was established in 1998 with the active participation of the government of the Perm region and the administration of the city of Perm. It included the heads of the Perm Diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church, the Ural Deanery of the Russian Orthodox Church, the Parish of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary of the Roman Catholic Church, the Perm Provost of the ELC EP, the Regional Spiritual Spiritual Council of the Perm Region, and the Jewish Religious Society of Perm. As written in the charter of the IWC, its activity is to "coordinate actions to strengthen the spiritual and moral foundations of society, the development of mercy, patriotism, the fight against spiritual and moral extremism, the creation of a mechanism for the interaction of religious organizations with power structures."

However, according to Bishop Irinarkh, from the point of view of the regional administration, the committee was originally an "image organization for show", and "all the so-called work" of it consists in private friendly conversations, since the charter of the IWC does not allow serious discussion of "sick" issues. Thus, the bishop declared, it is impossible to raise the problem of Catholic "proselytism" or "proselytism" of NRM representatives among Orthodox, Jews and Muslims in the committee. In addition, according to Irinarkh, the local authorities are using the ICC to impose "tasks of the party and government" on religious associations. The bishop also considers it necessary to remove the definition "inter-confessional" from the name of the committee, since, in his opinion, this misleads ordinary parishioners who mistakenly associate the activities of the ICC with ecumenism. The head of the Perm diocese suggests discussing the issue of reforming the structure of the committee or its liquidation at the regional forum "Interreligious relations of traditional religions in the Kama region: from stagnation to a lively dialogue."

Members of the ICC reacted with surprise to the Bishop's remarks. On August 10, four members of the committee - representatives of the regional Spiritual Muslim Board, the Council of the Jewish Religious Society, the Old Believer parishes of the Urals and the ELC EP - circulated a joint statement in the media, which, in particular, reads: "We urge: let's do concrete things, not demonstrate ambitions. To this end, we propose to organize a regular meeting of the ICC in the coming days in order to discuss realistic and reasonable proposals for the further development of interreligious dialogue in the Kama region. We also express our unchanging desire to cooperate in this matter with the Perm diocese."

On August 30, a meeting of the IWC was held, at which the members of the committee agreed that it was necessary to increase the effectiveness of its activities. In particular, the proposal of Bishop Irinarkh to hold a regional forum "Inter-religious relations of traditional religions in the Kama region: from stagnation to a lively dialogue" was adopted.

At the same meeting, the Perm Parish of the Armenian Apostolic Church (with a voting right) and the Perm Union of Evangelical Christian Baptist Churches (with a deliberative vote) were admitted to the ICC.

responded to the criticism of Bishop Irinarkh in an interview with the Perm Internet publication NOVOSTI.PERM.RU On September 6, Mufti of the Perm Region Mukhammedgali Khuzin . “People are constantly changing the situation, the interior in their apartments: they need changes, this is a human need,” he said. “And in the work of our committee, perhaps, something also happened that some would call “stagnation”, but I would call it a “stereotype” "work, since we are talking about established foundations. We, members of the IWC, are already beginning to understand each other perfectly, we can make correct remarks - and we are not offended by each other. Such behavior among religious leaders representing various confessions is still rare, as in our country and abroad."

The mufti noted that the "great hype" around the ICC had a certain positive effect: "An attempt was made to measure the effectiveness of the committee. And it became clear that our society needs the ICC, first of all, the clergy and believers need it. Maybe it will be loud said, but I believe that the ICC has become a kind of beacon of stability for interreligious dialogue in the Kama region.In this sense, undoubtedly, the committee took place, and the situation that arose in August, its successful resolution, clearly demonstrated this. many people - believers of various faiths, teachers of schools and universities, journalists, are interested: how are things going in the Interfaith Advisory Committee?

This also suggests that the IWC is not a little-known abbreviation, the society shows a keen interest in our activities, "sicks" for the cause of the committee of like-minded religious figures who care about the good of the Perm Territory."

Answering a question about possible changes in the work of the ICC, the mufti said: "Probably there are no fundamental changes, and there will not be. But for us it is significant that we have lifted a six-year taboo on accepting new members. To the Orthodox, Muslims, Jews, Catholics and Lutherans, who were originally members of the ICC, were joined as a full member by the Armenian Apostolic Church.We also took a step, in fact, unprecedented in Russia - we accepted the Church of Evangelical Christians-Baptists into the committee, with a deliberative vote.For many other regions such a move would be unthinkable...

Yes, each of us perfectly understands what a tradition is for the Perm region, a traditional religion, whose word should be dominant on this earth. But this does not mean at all that we should call everyone who does not share our convictions "sectarians" and shy away from communicating with them. Today we are breaking this stereotype and demonstrating to society that each person can have his own belief, we say that it is necessary to learn to respect the spiritual choice of each person living next to us."

In the twentieth of November, the creation of the Interreligious Council of the Kama region was announced, which included representatives of the local diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church, as well as the Muslim and Jewish communities of the region.

The Interfaith Committee of the Perm Region intends to reform the organization // Blagovest-info. 2004. August 30.

Sources

• The head of the Perm diocese criticizes the Interfaith Committee of the region // NEWSru.com. 2004. 9 August.
• Perm region. Members of the IWC were surprised at the criticism of Bishop Irinarkh of Perm and Solikamsk // Regions.ru. 2004. August 10.
• Shumov K. Vladyka offers a dialogue // Star (Perm). 2004. August 12.
• Serov A. Mufti Mukhammedgali Khuzin: "The IWC has proved its viability" // NOVOSTI.PERM.RU. 2004. 6 September.
• The Interreligious Council of Prikamye was created in the Perm Region // Week.ru. 2004. November 25. (With reference to ITAR-TASS and IA REGNUM.)