Quiet, the rebellion is going on

Why did not the Russian Orthodox Church show off their intermediary services during Prigozhinsky march

A blow to mystical reputation

“I did not see our Orthodox priests on the frames either in Rostov-on-Don, or during the passage of the rebel of the rebels to Moscow,” the regimental priest of the 287th separate motorized rifle brigade named after Alexander Peresvet the RF Armed Forces of the Russian Federation Fr. Roman hare . It seems that Prigozhinsky rebellion found the leadership of the Russian Orthodox Church by surprise-neither the Patriarch nor any of the highest holiness still gave an intelligible assessment of the incident. Cyril, who was on informal leave on the territory of the monastery of the Skit object carefully guarded Moscow Region, published his appeal only on the second half of Saturday - a few hours after Putin’s broadcast .

The tonality of the patriarchal text is even more formal than the presidential. Calling "to store popular unity, pray to God, with all means to support warriors and each other," Cyril approves "the efforts of the head of state of the Russian, aimed at preventing troubles in our country." By name, Prigozhin or PMC “Wagner” in the document is not mentioned, only streamlined is said about enemies seeking to “sow the discord”. The Patriarch mentions “insults and personal ambitions”, but does not specify who and why they arose.

Obviously, it was especially unpleasant for him to encounter such a “challenge” in those days when, with such difficulty, we could say - with the battles of the patriarchy, it was possible to extend the stay of the Rublevo “Trinity” in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. But all church argument in favor of this risky experiment with a 600-year-old national shrine, fraught with its destruction, boils down to the expectation of a miracle-an imminent victory over Ukraine.

But zealous prayers in front of her not only did not lead to a turning at the front, but also marked by the beginning of an internal confrontation.

This is a sensitive blow to the “mystical reputation” of the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, who was immediately recalled the outbreak of coronavirus in Moscow in April 2020, exactly after his “procession on the limousine” with a miraculous icon around Moscow.

On June 24, the Patriarch survived the stress - his sermon was devoted to this after the Sunday Liturgy in the XXS, which Cyril served, forcedly interrupting his vacation.

“We know,” the Patriarch began , “that a large number of diseases, up to the oncological, have precisely the cause of their stress, that is, the deepest shock of the nervous system.” He recognizes the permissibility of the use of “various kinds of drugs” to combat stress, but still considers patience the best tool. “Of course, everyone has their own limit to patience, and, unfortunately, modern people spoiled by a high level of consumption and comfort due to scientific and technical development, these abilities are undoubtedly decreasing,” the Patriarch summed up. The words about the "rebellion" and its genuine reasons did not sound again, everything was limited to psychosamoanalysis.

"They promise to rain at night ..."

Among Cyril's closest encirclement there is a metropolitan with an iron administrative grip - Leonid (Gorbachev). True, in world Orthodoxy they do not particularly recognize its status, since the synod of the Alexandrian Patriarchate, whose jurisdiction includes the Orthodox dioceses of Africa, deprived Leonid San for "invasion of African territory."

According to the Orthodox canons, each local church has the right to create dioceses and parishes only on its canonical territory, and the invasion of foreign limits is interpreted as a split. A year and a half ago, Patriarch Kirill appointed Leonid his “exarch of Africa”, having made such an invasion, the initiator of which, however, was not the patriarchy, but the political leadership of the country and the special services. The “missionary” parishes of the Russian Orthodox Church began to appear in those countries that were somehow controlled by Wagner PMCs-for example, in the Central African Republic. Metropolitan Leonid began to act with loud political statements increasingly, demonstrating his independence from the Patriarch and serious ambitions. On the sidelines of the Patriarchate, such a front was explained precisely with close ties with the Wagner PMC and personally Evgeny Prigozhin.

When everything was just twisted, on Friday in the evening, Leonid wrote in his telegram channel: “It is hot and stuffy in Moscow, but they promise rain at night. Someone was already waiting ”... Leonid did not wait-now let's see how this will affect his church career.

“So far, Prigozhin was in alliance with the Foreign Ministry and the Kremlin,” writes the disgraced Moscow theologian Andrei Kuraev, “Leonid felt like a member of a strong alliance ... But this alliance was grunting.”

Weak nourishment

Evgeny Prigozhin itself is not known about the religiosity of the actual. The media -imperia created by him promoted the “traditional values”, appealing to Russian Orthodoxy, and in his videos he quoted the Bible a couple of times. This is perhaps all.

Not far from the training base and the main cemetery of Wagner in a hot man near Krasnodar, Prigozhin built a chapel crowned with an Orthodox cross in 2018. However, it is not included in the local diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church, and the diocese is not invited there. Eyewitnesses who managed to visit this “black chapel” assure that she makes a difficult impression, more recalling the ritual hall at the crematorium than the Orthodox temple. Only one large icon decorates the interior of the chapel - it depicts the military armor in military armor.

Prigozhin also financed the construction of the Temple of the Russian Orthodox Church in the village of Godenovo, Yaroslavl region, but left this project with the beginning of his own.

If at the “African Theater” with the Wagner PMC, people of Metropolitan Leonid interacted, then in Syria or Ukraine its fighters were fed by priests of the “military department” of the Russian Orthodox Church (the Moscow Patriarchate Department for interaction with the armed forces and law enforcement agencies), which is headed by the Stavropol Metropolitan Cyril (Pokrovsky) - one of the most hot supporters "War to the victorious end" in the Russian episcopate.

On the official website of the department there is no information about the clergy specially assigned to PMCs, however, from the stories of individual military priests it is known that they baptized, professed and communed the “musicians” near Bakhmut.

This was probably given to Metropolitan Kirill to the reason to appeal directly to the “participants of the rebellion”, which his brothers did not dare:

QUOTE
“I turn to Evgeny Prigozhin, to all the fighters of the Wagner group and all the military on behalf of the military priests of our church,” he wrote on Saturday afternoon. - From the first days, our military priests have been together ... with Wagner fighters. Therefore, I have every right on behalf of the military clergy and to say on my own: stop. The armed rebellion, betrayal, hit in the back will not forgive God or the people. Many sins say goodbye to man, but these sins - treason, betrayal, coup - sometimes do not say goodbye. ”

It’s a pity that I did not explain what the time is now - whether it is or not ...

Rostov Metropolitan Mercury (Ivanov), the only hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church, from whom the “musicians” entered the city stood in the temple, literally scattered in front of them in compliments , not forgetting, of course, about the supreme commander. In general, Cujus regio, eius religio (“whose power is that faith”).

Turbo-Orthodox

Creativity was expected from the only hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church, known for informal, almost friendly relations with Putin, - Pskov Metropolitan Tikhon (Shevkunova). But, alas: his appeal on June 24 sounded almost as formally ritual as the patriarchal. Tikhon reminded of the “riddle of Russian history” - supposedly “launch the mechanisms of the defeat of Russia” can only from the inside, in the process of civil strife. And he urged “to be in unity with the one whom the Providence of God set to manage Russia,” and, of course, Vladimir Vladimirovich is such.

Only surviving Orthodox social activists can afford to go beyond the protocol in the current situation - and they are now mainly in the camp of "angry patriots." Literally at the last moment, the union of Orthodox citizens and the Association of Orthodox experts of the Russian Orthodox Church managed to change - in the afternoon on Friday they moved from Prigogine’s promotion to calls to judge him for “Gosizman”.

“Prigogine is part of the project of the liberal coup,” Kirill Frolov diagnosed the main “Orthodox expert”.

***

In general, the Russian Orthodox Church in these vague hours looked inexpressive. It is only a pity that due to the rebellion was the arrival of the special representative of the Roman pope to resolve the Cardinal Matteo Dzuppy in Ukraine. They say that he did a lot during a recent trip to Kiev, and the Russian Foreign Ministry changed his usual tough rhetoric to diplomatic goodwill. However, after Moscow, the papal legate’s visit can be even more comforted.