Moscow, 31 January 2008
On 30 January, as a part of the 16th annual Christmas Readings, Archbishop Zosima of Yelets and Kalmykia headed the session Totalitarian Sects in States with the Rule of Law, as reported by the website Patriarkhiya.ru. Vladyki Zosima introduced Professor Aleksandr Leonidovich Dvorkin of St Tikhon Orthodox University in Moscow, head of the Russian Association for the Study of Religions and Sects (RATsIRS). Professor Dvorkin called last year “the year of the court trials”. This was because of the cases that were unsuccessfully directed at the RATsIRS. In particular, the courts did not satisfy an action taken against Professor Dvorkin by Sergei Ryakhovsky, a leader in the Russian neo-Pentecostalist movement. Mr Ryakhovsky objected to the phrase “Sergei Ryakhovsky, who plans an ‘Orange revolution’” used by Professor Dvorkin in the magazine Natsional’ny interes (National Interest). The court rejected the plaintiff’s argument, saying that Professor Dvorkin had the right to express his opinion in that form in that venue.
Other speakers touched on the topics of the general tendencies inherent in sectarianism and the activity of specific totalitarian sects. Fr Aleksandr Novopashin, the vice president of the RATsIRS, delivered an address on the propaganda activities of such sects using the example of Scientology. Ksenia Kirillova, a jurist and representative of RATsIRS from the Sverdlovsk oblast, spoke of the problem of the attempts of ESP advocates and pseudo-healers to gain legal registration and recognition. An interesting diversion from the usual topic was given by Fr Aleksandr Pikalev, representative of RATsIRS from Northern Osetia, who gave his opinion concerning the spiritual danger contained in the works of the popular writer Yuliya Voznesenskaya. Fr Aleksandr believes her works are dangerous because people think they are “Orthodox missionary literature”, whereas, in reality, she substitutes her own crude fabrications and notions in place of Orthodox teaching, and her books are filled with her fantasies concerning the themes of the Church and the Gospel.
(Editor’s Note: It seems that Russians are just as bedevilled by the spiritually immature (and downright jumped-up frauds) writing books and calling them “Orthodox” as we are in America. Fr Aleksandr, let me tell you about some of the dodgy sorts we have here in America… oh… you’ve seen that yourself… I guess that ignorance isn’t creative after all!)
Pravoslavie.Ru
http://www.pravoslavie.ru/news/080131164719 (in Russian)
