Translated material
"Feast of faith" during the plague
How the quarantine Easter has passed
This trick can be given different definitions. Better - with a “folklore” language: “The severity of Russian laws is softened by the optionality of their implementation ...”; “Friends - all, the rest - the law ...”; "What is allowed to Jupiter is not allowed to the bull ...". So far, millions of Orthodox Russians were forced to celebrate Easter home, in self-isolation, content with television and reading on a prayer book, in the very center of Moscow, opposite the Kremlin, VIP guards gathered for a closed party. That is, for Easter service for the elect, secretly authorized by the authorities.
An exception to the most stringent rules was made for the Church of Sofia the Wisdom of God in the Middle Gardeners, next to the main office of Rosneft. Its abbot - Archpriest Vladimir Volgin - has a reputation as the confessor of the Medvedev family and the favorite of the deceased Alexy II. Once the “star decoration” of the temple was the lice priest Ivan Okhlobystin-until he himself asked to ban him in the ministry so that the san did not interfere with the main vocation. Actually, Ivan headed the company of approximately 50 star guests, many of which arrived on the representatives of the representative class and carefully hid their faces from the Baza Telegram channel correspondent, who was at the scene.
It is noteworthy that one of the daughters of Okhlobystin recently had coronavirus. It was possible to get into the temple by special transactions, under the reinforced police cordons.
At this time, Patriarch Kirill served in the empty Cathedral of Christ the Savior. This has become a certain feat for him, because many clergy from the closest encirclement of the Patriarch already picked up the virus. The day before the temple was subjected to the most thorough disinfection. But none of the VIP Person appeared there: only four priests and four deacons served the Patriarch. Plus security and several shooting journalists. Usually, his vicar bishops participate in the Easter service along with the Patriarch, but their fate is unclear in this troubled time.
One has a bishop of Zvenigorodsky Pitirim (Clygov), the rector of the Moscow Theological Academy - the coronavirus was officially confirmed, he was self -isolated with his sister in Sergiev Posad and writes on the blog that he became infected in the service. The first vicar of Patriarch Metropolitan Dionysius (Vorobai), who used to replace Cyril at solemn services, was self -isolated in the Novospassky monastery, where there are already three confirmed cases of coronavirus. There are rumors about the infection of the head of the synodal department for the affairs of the monasteries of Archbishop Feognost and Vicar in the western district of Moscow, Bishop Foma, who served until passionate Friday in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. The coronavirus was officially confirmed by the rector of the Elokhov Cathedral of Moscow Archpriest Alexander Agnikin and the head of the Protocol Service, Patriarch Archpriest Andrei Bondarenko.
In total, the virus disabled about 50 priests of the Russian Orthodox Church in Moscow, which exceeds 4% of their total.
The head of the church shop of one of the central churches of Moscow, on a strict anonymity, informed the “New” that on Friday, April 17, from the Patriarchate entered the parishes of “foggy” and the secret “signal”:
As if the police will turn a blind eye to the appearance of parishioners at the temples on an Easter night.
In many clergy and laity, this directly instilled Easter joy ahead of schedule. But a few hours before the Easter service (April 18, at 17.00), the opposite signal was already received from the Moscow City Hall:
The authorities will not allow people's penetration into temples, it is allowed to serve only clergy and singer.
The Orthodox movement “Forty forties” in Moscow managed to collect 44 thousand signatures under the petition on the admission of the Orthodox to the background on Easter night in compliance with the social distance.
The "Easter problem" shared approximately equally the regions of Russia. Absolutely free was access to temples in the Yaroslavl, Tver, Kostroma, Leningrad, Belgorod and Ivanovo regions and even in the Krasnodar Territory, generally known for its strict quarantine. With certain restrictions, they were allowed to serve in 44 regions. But Metropolitan Saratov Longin in Easter circulation honestly admitted that he could not agree with the authorities, and called for counting
"What is happening ... a lesson showing the true attitude of the authorities towards the Church and their people."
The Yelets Bishop Maxim (Lipetsk region), whose cathedral literally sealed the Cathedral, remembered how the Jews sealed the coffin of Christ, which did not prevent him from resurrecting. He felt a particularly painful attitude of the authorities towards visiting churches with people against the backdrop of the work of local beer or shops where the queues gather. Having shown a delicate approach and willingness to look for a compromise, it would be easier for the authorities to agree on the same social distance or strict disinfection with church authorities than with the owners of shops and stalls.
If we take the “canonical territory” of the Russian Orthodox Church as a whole, then the most dramatic situation in Ukraine. After 120 monks were infected at once in her spiritual center-the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, the monastery was closed to strict quarantine. Among the first infected were the governor of the Lavra Metropolitan Pavel (Lybid) and the governor of the Trinity Ioninsky monastery of Kyiv by the Archbishop of Ion (Cherepanov). Closed quarantine and the second Ukrainian Lavra - Pochaevskaya. On a passionate Friday, the news came about the infection of the Primate of the Ukrainian Church of the Moscow Patriarchate of Metropolitan Onufry (Berezovsky) and the administrations of the Church of Metropolitan Anthony (Pakanich). "In order not to spoil the perpeter to people," official sources have not yet confirmed this,
But Easter Onufry served in the house temple of the residence in Feofania, which simultaneously performs the function of the hospital.
On April 14, he received a large batch of gum forces from a billionaire and deputy Vadim Novinsky, who the next day officially recognized himself as an infected coronavirus ...
Such a semi -catacomb easter was obtained by the Orthodox this year. Of course, they are looking, first of all, the spiritual reasons for what happened, re -reading the apocalypse and the prophecies of the saints. But the announcement of secular power, which has flirted with the Church for the last years, and at the “hour of testing” did not go with it even for negotiations, and growing. After the “prohibition of Easter” in this format and with such rhetoric, it will not soon be possible to return to the topic “spiritual bastards” and “symphony of the church and the state”. The fierce phrase was replaced by a severe reality in a white coat.