Voices from Russia

Mid-19th century statue in Kiev by Klodt of Grand Prince Equal-to-the-Apostles St Vladimir (950-1015), the Baptiser of Russia in 988

Moscow, 11 July 2008 (Interfax):

Deacon Andrei Kuraev, a professor at the Moscow Theological Academy and a popular preacher, thinks that since Philaret Denisenko, the self-proclaimed “primate” of the so-called “Patriarchate of Kiev”, believes that Russia is not the successor of ancient Rus; the next logical step would be to question the holiness of Grand Prince St Vladimir, the Baptiser of Russia. “Since he (Philaret: Interfax) is a deposed cleric, his opinions are of no consequence for the MP. However, if his proposal finds a response [in Orange circles] in Kiev, then, the next logical question for this so-called ‘patriarch’ to raise would be the revocation of the canonisation of Grand Prince St Vladimir”, stated Fr Andrei in an article published Friday in the newspaper Komsolmoskaya Pravda (Komsomol Truth). “This very same person was an occupier and aggressor [in the Soviet period], for he brought troops into Novogorod to ‘restore order’ (this same Philaret who does not consider Rus Russia)”, noted Deacon Andrei.

He expressed regret à propos the fact that “numerous semi-educated ‘historians’ and ‘philologists’” have popped up in the Ukraine “who manipulate the historical evidence any which way they please. They pump up minor episodes such as the Battle of Konotop into major events, because the Cossacks supposedly defeated the Russians. However, they attempt to erase the memory of all the battles where Russians and Ukrainians fought together against external enemies”.

As was reported recently, the “church” headed by Philaret Denisenko held a “Local Council” as part of the celebration of the 900^th anniversary of the St Mikhail of the Golden Domes Monastery and the 1,020^th anniversary of the Baptism of Russia. At this “council”, Mr Denisenko declared that “Today, Moscow is trying to say that Rus refers to Russia and not the Ukraine”. He claims that the “correction” shall be introduced on the basis of old chronicles, particularly those of Nestor the Chronicler. “Ancient chronicles testify to the fact that in the 9th and 10th centuries Rus included the contemporary Ukraine, a part of Byelorussia, the States, and a part of Poland. There was no such city as Moscow then, but, and today, they (Russians: Interfax) consider themselves Rus, but, this is a perversion of history”, Mr Denisenko emphasised.

Interfax-Religion

http://www.interfax-religion.ru/?act=news&div=25424 (in Russian)

Editor’s Note:

Many are unaware that the demographic situations are reversed in the homeland and in the diaspora. In the homeland, Galicians make up only 2 percent of the population of Greater Russia; they are a tiny minority in an isolated (mainly rural) backwater. In the diaspora, they form a majority of the “Russian” emigration. This is due to many factors, many of which deserve more detailed treatment. Therefore, many are fooled as to the relative strength of their case and numbers. Also, the fanatical nature of the OUN (Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists) must be taken into account.

Be careful of any “Ukrainian nationalist” claims you hear. They are being issued forth by a tiny, but, dedicated and loud, minority within the people of Rus. Caveat auditor. 

His Holiness Aleksei Rediger (1929- ), Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia, First Hierarch of the Moscow Patriarchate

The Archpastoral Council that took place last week was a graphic demonstration of the unity of the Moscow Patriarchate. For the first time, a delegation from the ROCOR participated in the sessions. Not only intra-church affairs were on the agenda, for one of the main items of discussion was the theme that Patriarch Aleksei II already raised in his speech before the Deputies of the European Parliament in Strasbourg. This was the conflict of modern liberal values with traditional Christian morals. As an example of this, he spoke of the homosexual marriages now legalised in some countries, which forces society to no longer consider such behaviour sinful. As a result, the Council approved a document on the Orthodox understanding of human rights. The bishops know that this position shall be strongly condemned in Europe. However, both the Russian and foreign hierarchs all agreed on this together.

Twenty years ago, they couldn’t even pray together… even simple ordinary everyday conversation seemed impossible. For almost a century, clergy and laity on different sides of the borders of the then-USSR considered each other enemies and were hostile to one another… Soviet Russia versus the White emigration. Each side had its pain… the Civil War, the bloodshed, the foreign lands of exile. When they said “Holy Russia”, it seemed that they were talking of two very different countries.

All thought that a miracle would be needed for reconciliation. However, they united a year ago. Now, they speak about the miracle that happened, how they understand one another thoroughly now, and it seems as if there was never almost a hundred years of separation. This was an Archpastoral Council of the MP graced with the participation of the hierarchs of the foreign church, an event truly out of the ordinary. For the first time, Orthodox Americans, Australians, Kazakhs, Japanese, and Russians spoke, served, and lived together.

A little buffet in a small café in the centre of Moscow… here sits Metropolitan Hilarion of New York and Eastern America. He’s a little troubled by his accent, but, not when he’s praying. Modern Russian… he only learned that relatively recently. His parents emigrated to Canada from Volynia, their native language was Ukrainian, and their mother-church was Russian Orthodox. However, even then, in the middle of the last century, they did not recognise the Ukrainian Orthodox Church that had appeared in the diaspora.

Metropolitan HIlarion Kapral (1948- ), Metropolitan of New York and Eastern America, First Hierarch of the ROCOR

“We were Russian Orthodox because we considered that Russians, Byelorussians, and Ukrainians are one people. Therefore, my parents did not join the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which was a splinter group”, said Metropolitan Hilarion, who is the First Hierarch of the ROCOR. “Orthodoxy is so joined with Russian consciousness that only those people in the emigration who retained a sense of Russianness remained in the Church. Those who stayed outside of the Church were assimilated into the local culture in short order”, noted Archpriest Peter Kholodny, the Treasurer of the Holy Synod of the ROCOR.

Nikolai Sluchevsky, the great-grandson of Pyotr Stolypin was one of those who did not assimilate. Although he was born in California, he considers Russia his homeland. He started a story about parish life in San Francisco with the following words, “How many young people are coming to church! This is a new thing for us”.

Not only pleasant matters were discussed at the Archpastoral Council. There was the whole scandalous affair of Bishop Diomid of Anadyr and Chukotka, more precisely, he was a bishop two days ago, but, now he is deposed from his office. Some of his parishioners came to Moscow to support him outside the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour. They did not hide from the cameras, but, the priests amongst them appeared to be hiding from the photographers.

What does he trouble us with? If Diomid’s protests against passports and taxpayer identification numbers are nothing but simple obscurantism, his calls for conflict with other confessions and nationalities are direct incitements to religious and national hostility. This is a matter covered by the criminal statutes. The church sees this as nothing but schism. The Council called this schismatic to repentance, but, he refuses to answer.

The word “schism” was heard often enough in the Council sessions. “We know that any schism is a tragedy. They shall divide the saints and make them strangers; they shall cause nothing but chaos in the Church. Certainly, the true reason behind the schism is that there is a political scheme to foment a quarrel between the Ukrainian and Russian peoples”, stated Metropolitan Agafangel of Odessa and Izmail.

Metropolitan Vladimir Sabodan (1935- ) of Kiev and all the Ukraine, First Hierarch of the canonical Ukrainian Autonomous Orthodox Church of the MP

The Ukraine… Presidents changed, revolutions occurred, but, the attempts of the leadership in Kiev to separate the Ukrainian Autonomous Orthodox Church of the MP from its mother-church never ceased. The very words, “Moscow Patriarchate” were a red flag to the Ukrainian establishment, as if it were a political choice, for example, between canonical Orthodoxy and NATO.

“In general, the church relates to political boundaries as it does to any human fancy. Today, we have these boundaries. Tomorrow, we may have others. However, the Church has an entirely different concept of history. It recognises a united civilisational space, expressed in a common secular language. But, I would say that Church language follows spiritual-cultural space. Some are attempting to destroy this space, to reshape it. We ask, why? This is the first time this has been attempted in a thousand years”, said Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad, chairman of the MP Department of External Church Relations.   

This is not the first time… in the Ukraine, there have been repeated attempts to destroy Orthodoxy. Even in the 17th century, a Catholic Metropolitan proposed to create in Little Russia an independent Orthodox Church. Then, something happened. Those who grasped independence soon entered the Unia with the Catholics. In essence, they were absorbed by them.  

“Today, in the Ukraine, there is the so-called ‘Ukrainian independent church’ that is headed by the deposed and anathematised Philaret Denisenko. He has already stated several times that union with the Catholic Church is necessary. Why is this a requirement?” asked Archimandrite Tikhon Shevkunov, the superior of the Sretensky Monastery in Moscow.

In order to change the mentality of the people… what shall happen with those who refuse to change and stand for their faith and their conscience?

If there were any disputes regarding the Orthodox understanding of human rights, there are only indirect signs. The concept was approved unanimously, but, there were questions. Should the Church be involving itself in secular matters? Is it necessary to criticise secular laws? It was decided that if the secular law legalises sin, then, yes. In the human sense, homosexual marriage is against nature. In the church sense, it is sinful.

“We are posed the question, what do you want to do? Should we work within existing paradigms to attain certain rights? Or, do you want to change the world? But, I pose this question to homosexuals, what do you want? Do you wish to act within the existing law and tradition? Or, do you want to change the world? They wish to change the world, and they are changing it. If this is permitted for homosexuals, why is it not permitted for believers?” noted Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad.

A priest changes the world by his sermon and missions… in Orthodoxy, the tradition of mission is not as strong as it is amongst Catholics or Muslims. Should we change this attitude? Can we preach the Gospel only in the church?

Deacon Andrei Kuraev, Professor at the Moscow Theological Academy, great Orthodox preacher

“A group of priests from Moscow demanded that the Council forbid all non-traditional missions, that is, the only form that mission could take was that the priest would stand in church and speak in Church Slavonic… there would be no more sermons at rock concerts or at sporting events. They wanted to forbid everything. Well… the Council did not give in to these loudmouths. That is good”, said Deacon Andrei Kuraev, professor at the Moscow Theological Academy.

Orthodox priests on the streets of Moscow, Tallinn, Shanghai, or Toronto… you wouldn’t say they are a common sight. However, 20 years ago, there were only 42 churches in Moscow, today, there are over 600. Churches are popping up everywhere. You can buy everything you need for your parish in Sofrino. All the hierarchs from all over the world are buying “church utensils”. True… the word “utensils” does no justice to their splendour.

29 June 2008

Ilya Kanavin

Vesti-Nedeli (News Weekly)

Quoted in Interfax-Religion

http://www.interfax-religion.ru/?act=radio&div=891 (in Russian)

They’re going to support the teaching in school of the Bases of Orthodox Culture and serve missionary vigils and liturgies under the open sky on the shores of Lake Seliger. Last year, they helped to protect the Bronze Soldier in Estonia, and, this year, they stood in support of church unity against the Diomidovtsy (supporters of the schismatic bishop Diomid) outside the hall of the Archpastoral Council in Moscow. It’s only been one year since the Orthodox section of the youth group Nashi (Ours) was founded, and the head of the section, Boris Yakemenko, summed up his thoughts to Artur Priimak of Interfax-Religion.

Artur Priimak

What would you say are the prime goals of the Orthodox section of Nashi?

Boris Yakemenko

Our section is part of a larger organisation, one that has many sincere believers in it. We created it not so long ago to fulfil several tasks. We wished to draw young people into the church, we wished to describe in contemporary language that Orthodoxy is not a religion for oldsters and losers; rather, it is a faith for confident and successful young people who love their motherland, its culture, and its language. That is, our Orthodox section treasures both our church and our culture. In any case, we discussed all our plans with the church, and we are acting with its blessing. Last year, a lot of kids came to our camp on Lake Seliger, so, priests came and gave lectures, talked with the kids, and served missionary liturgies.

Artur Priimak

Did you find it difficult to write the textbook for the Bases of Orthodox Culture course? What goals did you set yourself?

Boris Yakemenko

The textbook for Bases of Orthodox Culture tells our young people in contemporary language about our native culture, about Orthodoxy, and about the role of the Church in our history. This course is already being taught in a number of regions, and young people who were unfamiliar with Orthodoxy took an interest and many went to church out of curiosity… I do not agree with those who say that, supposedly, “the leadership of Nashi will teach Bases of Orthodox Culture from their textbook”. Let me tell you, Bases was a joint project, and the only one from Nashi was me. As far as the accompanying CD is concerned, it is generally chants sing by the monks of the Holy Trinity-St Sergius Monastery. As for those who teach this course, almost no one refers to our group’s role.

Artur Priimak

Today, in your opinion, who is opposed to the general introduction of the Bases of Orthodox Culture? Is it individual officials at the Ministry of Education?

Boris Yakemenko

No, I wouldn’t agree. If we have opposition today, it comes from those who urge believers to not carry passports and shun taxpayer identification numbers. I reiterate; the teaching of Bases of Orthodox Culture is already carried out successfully in many regions. Fr Vsevolod Chaplin was right when he said at our press conference that most of the problems with the introduction of Bases are found in Moscow itself or in the Moscow oblast.

Yuri Shevchuk (1957- ), Russian rocker

Artur Priimak

When you were working on the chapter of the textbook entitled “Russian Rock and Orthodoxy” did you consult with the rockers Kinchev and Shevchuk, as is rumoured?

Boris Yakemenko

One of my graduate students at the Russian University of the Friendship of the Peoples who wrote a thesis on the theme “Orthodoxy and Russian Rock Culture” worked on this chapter. When we actually writing it, of course, we had the idea to assign it to Kinchev and Shevchuk, amongst others, but, in my view, they have said enough concerning it in their own interviews. Moreover, the numerous appearances of Hegumen Sergei Rybko and Deacon Andrei Kuraev are abundant evidence of the predominantly Orthodox nature of the Russian rock movement.

Artur Priimak

In recent years, in many Russian cities, informal Orthodox rock clubs began to pop up, such as Fakel (Torch) in Moscow in the Voikovsky neighbourhood. I understand that these clubs are having a difficult time staying open today. What sort of assistance can Nashi offer such clubs?

Boris Yakemenko

They would have to ask us! Yes, we know of such clubs, for Hegumen Sergei runs some of them. For example, if anyone attacks these clubs, we shall organise pickets and gather signatures on petitions. However, if the problem involves the lease on the present premises, there is not much one can do about it. Of course, we support all sorts of good projects, but, we do not give financial aid, nor do we involve ourselves in lobbying politicians or any other public figures. Everything we do must be honest and aboveboard.

Nashi members with posters of Dmitri Ganin (1987-2007), Russian hero-martyr killed by rampaging Estonian police

Artur Priimak

In the spring of 2007, Nashi conducted a series of protest demonstrations outside the Estonian embassy in Moscow. Now, there is an analogous situation in the Ukraine. Are you going to carry out protest actions against the Russophobic actions of the Orange fanatics, and in what form?

Boris Yakemenko

With Estonia, it was fairly simple, as the Estonian leadership offered frank and open provocation. If it were simply a matter of moving the Bronze Soldier itself, that wouldn’t be so bad. However, there was another side to the story, one that the Estonian leadership knew full well. This was not simply a monument; it was a memorial graveyard for the mortal remains of Russian heroes. They carried out the exhumation in a completely disrespectful and barbarous way, when they reburied the remains on Tyinsmyagi Hill, they called the heroes “drunkards, marauders, and oppressors”. In response to these enormities, our section conducted a series of protest demonstrations. If something similar happens in the Ukraine, we shall intervene, but, only when it happens, and not before. The Orthodox section of Nashi is ready to heed the call.

Artur Priimak

What sort of work does the Orthodox section of Nashi do at your summer camp? What did you do last year, and what shall you do this year?

Deacon Andrei Kuraev, professor at the MDA, great popular preacher

Boris Yakemenko

Last year, our section was organised in two months here at Lake Seliger. Therefore, it was important that we bring the leadership together to work out our programme for the future. In the summer camp, we gathered several thousand signatures for the introduction of the Bases of Orthodox Culture, we celebrated the main Christian feastdays, and a missionary liturgy was served by Fr Vsevolod Chaplin, Deacon Andrei Kuraev, and monks from the Nilo-Stolbenskoy Pustyn. When we went to help out at the monastery, the monks talked with a lot of the kids and discussed all sorts of spiritual questions. You can rightly say that we organised a real spiritual life here at Lake Seliger.

This year, of course, we shall carry out those things we found that worked. Furthermore, since we use the Lake Seliger camp as a “testing lab” for new ideas, we shall try to come up with a general proposal for the organisation of the Orthodox youth movement and we shall present specific ideas to different dioceses, according to need, we shall develop contacts with them, and so on. Obviously, we shall serve the missionary liturgy again this year. Well-known Orthodox figures such as the theologian Aleksei Osipov from the MDA, Hegumen Sergei Rybko, who is “the apostle to the counterculture”, and Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin are coming to Lake Seliger. Besides these people, many clergy are going to spend the summer here. By doing this, we hope that those who are coming to our camp on Lake Seliger from 12 to 26 July shall see the meaning and essence of Orthodoxy embodied in fact.

Artur Priimak

So, the missionary liturgy at the Nashi camp is going to be served by Fr Vsevolod Chaplin and Fr Andrei?

Boris Yakemenko

Since this liturgy is served on a large scale, it requires much cooperation from various quarters. On the eve of the service, two hieromonks heard confessions from an enormous number of people, more than 400, I understand. I would like to emphasise that many of these people were confessing for the very first time. The next day, the liturgy was served with the help of the monks from the Nilo-Stolobenskoy Pustyn and the chorus of the Orthodox section of Nashi. Since this liturgy was served outdoors, in the open air, one could see all that occurs in the service. We did not have an iconostas. Fr Andrei Kuraev explained the readings from the Gospel and the Apostle, and he also explained the Eucharistic Canon from beginning to end.

After the liturgy, people came up to Fr Vsevolod and said that although they had been to church for quite some time, it was the first time that they found it so open and understandable. Indeed, Fr Vsevolod said in his book Loskutki (Scraps) that the missionary liturgy served at the Nashi summer camp on Lake Seliger strongly affected him and he found it of great value. This year, we hope to serve a missionary vigil as well as a liturgy.

In the camp chapel, Fr Vsevolod conducted baptisms and marriages. We recorded all the divine services on CDs, and we gave them to the bishops at the Archpastoral Council as an aid to them. This is profound experience, we should study it carefully.

Artur Priimak

How would you answer those clergymen who reject all of this and demand that we end serving missionary liturgies?

Counterculture person with a “Mohawk”

Boris Yakemenko

Before God, there are no useless people. It’s wrong to consider somebody sinful simply because they have a Mohawk, an earring, or a short skirt… only God knows who is righteous and who is not, and to prejudge this on our own is completely wrong. As Korovyov said, “You can be mistaken; moreover, you can be completely in the wrong”. Therefore, we say that external signs of rebellion in counterculture young people are their way of protecting themselves from a harsh world. Under the all that rebellion, one finds a person hiding a wounded and sensitive soul that must be opened up to the light. Fr Sergei, who works with all sorts of nonconformist and counterculture people, finds them completely normal in every respect. At Lake Seliger, we confessed almost 500 people, and you should have seen what people they were! Before the time of the camp, it seems, they had never darkened the door of the church. Clearly, they had much that they had to open up to the priest, in order to confess properly before God. I find this very important.  

1 July 2008

Interfax-Religion

http://www.interfax-religion.ru/?act=interview&div=186 (in Russian)

The Baptism of Grand Princess St Olga (Sergei Kirillov, 1992) (Part 1 of the triptych, Holy Rus)

Why are we noting the 1,020^th anniversary of the Baptism of Russia this year? What is so special about this date? Possibly, the way to find the simple and obvious answer shall be paradoxically complex, but, the answer is there. True, it is no so much connected with a concrete date as it is with church and public events and those who initiated them. A shared historical journey and economic collaboration are not the reasons for, but, rather, the consequences of the unity of Russia and the Ukraine. The baptism of Prince St Vladimir’s realm became the basis for the spiritual centre of Kievan Russia. Today, for Russia, the Ukraine, and Byelorussia, this is not simply a memory; this is a reality, which must be proclaimed as widely as possible, including in the language of the contemporary youth culture.

“The 1,020^th anniversary of the Baptism of Russia is a joint church/state celebration in which we send up prayers of thanksgiving to Almighty God for the fact that our motherland was enlightened by Orthodoxy, first, in Kievan Russia, and, then, to the farthest corners of the Russian land”, noted His Holiness Patriarch Aleksei of Moscow and all Russia. Those working on the various activities of the international public project “The Day of the Baptism of Russia” take these well-spoken words as their guideposts.

In 2006, the proposal that the Day of the Baptism of Russia become an annual public holiday in Russia and the Ukraine united well-known people prominent in the fields of culture, business, the church, and the general community. It was such a brilliant and obvious idea that the Presidents of Russia and the Ukraine supported it, as did Patriarch Aleksei of Moscow and all Russia and Metropolitan Vladimir of Kiev and all the Ukraine, the First Hierarch of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church under the MP.

The first event of the festival project attracted some 100,000 people. A concert on the Pevcheskom Pole (Singer’s Field) in Kiev was opened by Metropolitan Vladimir of Kiev and all the Ukraine in his office as president of the organising committee of the festival. Amongst the participants were the chorus of the Kievo-Perchersky Lavra, the jazz singer Nino Katamadze, and the rock bands Bratya Karamazovy (Brothers Karamazov) and DDT. In the intermissions between the musical offerings, the crowd was addressed by Academician Pyotr Tolochko, Archpriest Andrei Tkachev, and Deacon Andrei Kuraev. Other festival activities were divine services, the laying of the cornerstone of the Church of Prince St Vladimir, and the blessing of a complex of bath-houses on the banks of the Dnepr River, not far from the Assumption Kievo-Pechersky Lavra.

“The Baptism of Russia, the Embrace of the Faith by Holy Prince Vladimir, became a turning-point in our civilisation. I wish to draw your attention to that action from which everything began. This celebration should proclaim the message that we possess ancient and common roots, spiritual, historical, and cultural, and all of that is due to our common baptism in the font of the Dnepr. We desire to unite the efforts of prominent people in cultural life, including contemporary musicians, historians, and clergy around this central objective of our project”, said Yuri Molchanov, deputy chairman of “The Day of the Baptism of Russia”. Mr Molchanov went on to say that “The Day of the Baptism of Russia” is a charitable project. “No commercial or political advertisement of any sort was allowed at any of our festival presentations. We are staging a large and colourful holiday event, which we hope shall be interesting and well-liked by all who come”.

In 2008, the project widened its scope considerably whilst retaining its original form. This first wide-spread celebration of the Day of the Baptism of Russia happened to coincide with the 1,020^th anniversary, and, unexpectedly, this date resonated loudly. Many young people saw it in a symbolic sense, for the 1,020^th anniversary is a combination of the numbers 1,000 and 20. The present generations in their 20s were too young to participate in the celebrations in 1988 of the Millennium of Russia, so, they wished that the holiday would be repeated for them.

Deacon Andrei Kuraev, great contemporary Orthodox preacher

The first part of this year’s tour was completed on 29 May in Chernigov. The Russian rock group DDT, the band Bratya Karamazovy from Kiev, and the young rockers of Skay from Ternopol performed in the squares, parks, and stadiums of 18 Ukrainian cities. Along with the rockers, church choruses, folk ensembles, and Orthodox missionaries and preachers appeared. The most-well known Orthodox preacher was Deacon Andrei Kuraev, who accompanied the musicians for the entire trip.

“We are trying to combine the word of the preacher with contemporary art”, explained Yuri Molchanov, before the tour began. “The clergy can take advantage of the fact that we can gather a large crowd of people together, so that they can reach them with the word of the church, which sometimes seems ineffective in the midst of today’s world”. All possible means of contemporary multi-media technology were employed in this missionary effort. All the concerts were opened with a video welcome by Metropolitan Vladimir of Kiev and all the Ukraine, which were transmitted on large monitors on the sides of the stage, and during the intermissions computer animations of the Baptism of Russia were shown.

Deacon Andrei Kuraev shared his impressions. “Ten years ago, when I first starting going to rock concerts, of course, many said nothing, but, they pointed their fingers at me in church. Oh, there were so many who posted on the Internet about the sorry behaviour of Deacon Andrei.

Today, my work has the blessing of the church, and, indeed, some of our metropolitans give sermons at rock concerts. Metropolitan Vladimir of Kiev did so at our rehearsals in Kiev last year. During our tour, Metropolitan Nifont of Lutsk, Metropolitan Iriney of Dnepropetrovsk, and Bishop Panteleimon of Ivanovo-Frankovsk preached from our rock stage. In all the other cities, the bishops sent their priests to give a message to the audience at the concert.

This means that there are changes happening in the church. In one city, I shared the stage with a local priest, but, I said nothing, for it was simple to look from the stage to the audience. We were standing quietly in the corner, and I whispered in his ear, “Father… THIS is your flock”. You know, it seemed to me that he shuddered. Could it be…? This was the first time in his life that he realised that his flock was not only the grannies at services, but, all the people in town. Here were young people, perhaps, even with a glass of beer in hand. This change is very important for the church itself. It is a reshaping of its pastoral and missionary vision, which, I hope, shall result in many clergy going beyond the curtain that separates parish life from the ordinary life of our cities surrounding our churches”.

Who can restore our memory of the past? This is a difficult question, and not only do historians, politicians, and public figures search for answers, but, the Russian Orthodox Church is also involved in the search for the evidence of the spiritual heritage and history of Rus-Russia. The experience of missionaries shows that any conversation about the past that is not reinforced with a firm and obvious connection to the present is never convincing. Preaching is only successful when we turn to the needs and problems of contemporary mankind and answer its questions and incomprehension concerning the spiritual life. This is why we must recognise that the experience gained by the organisers of the 1,020^th anniversary of the Baptism of Russia tour is important and relevant.

22 June 2008

Sergei Chapnin

Senior Editor, Tserkovnogo Vestnika (Herald of the Church)

Arkhiereisky Sobor Russkoi Pravoslavnoi Tserkvi 2008

Official website of the Archpastoral Council of the MP 2008

http://www.sobor2008.ru/425299/index.html (in Russian)

Fr Vsevolod Chaplin (1968- ), Zamglavy of the MP DECR

The 12^th International Economic Forum was held in St Petersburg at the beginning of June. Seemingly, what relation does such an event have to the Church? Interestingly, one of the attendees of the conference was Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, Zamglavy (assistant head) of the MP Department of External Church Relations. His observations are reported by different media outlets, particularly Interfax-Religion. His following statement has particular resonance for us today. “The political system currently dominant in the world boasts of its multi-confessional and multi-party make-up, separation of powers, competition, and conflict management, but, we Orthodox Christians view it only as the sign of a sinful disintegration of both individual people and mankind in general and a symptom of spiritual corruption”.

In the following interview with Nezavisimaya Gazeta-Religii, Fr Vsevolod expressed his viewpoints as regards the interrelation of the Church and contemporary society.

Dmitri Khaustov

Fr Vsevolod, what reaction did you receive to your statement that multi-confessional and multi-party ideologies and the separation of powers are symptoms of spiritual corruption? Does this mean that the Orthodox Church considers such as “evil”, a lesser evil, perhaps, but, still evil? What shall this do to the interreligious and interchurch dialogue of the MP, how shall it affect its nature and practise?

Fr Vsevolod Chaplin

I have voiced my viewpoints on the contemporary state of society many times, and I stated it yet again at the forum in St Petersburg. The Church can exist in a society that lives according to the ideology expressed in my quote. Indeed, many of these things are found in the Russian state, as well. The Orthodox ideal of society is one where the faith unites both the government and the people. Any separation is the fruit of human sinfulness. Separations are the direct result of the sin of Adam and the Fall of Man, it shall not be so in the Heavenly Kingdom, and we are called to emulate such in our earthly life.

By the way, there are tendencies in our Russian political life that correspond to the Orthodox ideal of unity. For example, the Public Chamber unites not the representatives of political parties, but, of natural social groups drawn from all levels of society. In any case, the standing of political parties [in Russia] is low. The people do not view their political bickering or the unbridled competition of businesses as positive forces. However, the idea of strengthening the unity of our society is very popular.

We participate in dialogue with other churches and religions, in fact, we do so with unbelievers. In union with all people of good will, we meet to discuss general problems and their possible solutions. However, we know that in the life of the age to come, the faith shall be one, all pluralism shall fall away, and only the truth shall stand victorious… the Truth of Christ.

Dmitri Khaustov

Why did you attend the economic forum in St Petersburg?

Fr Vsevolod

At first, the organisers of economic conferences did not invite official representatives of the Church to their forums. Recently, I was in Rome at the “Europe-Russia” forum. Then, I attended the Crane Mountain Forum and the Moscow sessions of the World Economic Forum. Today, the organisers of such conferences are interested in having people from the Church as participants. Probably, this is because both businessmen and politicians wish to learn more about religion and its increasing role in society.

Dmitri Khaustov

Is the Orthodox Church interested in attending these forums for its own reasons? Or, is it because the organisers wish to hear the viewpoint of the Church?

Fr Vsevolod

Whenever Orthodox Christians are asked questions about their beliefs, they must give a decent answer. The first Epistle of the Holy Apostle Peter says so.

Dmitri Khaustov

Recently, you attended the presentation of the textbook The Bases of Orthodox Culture, which was written by Boris Yakemenko, the leader of the youth group Nashi (Ours). Do you think that it was proper for a political figure to have written the textbook? Can it affect politics, the choice of who teaches The Bases of Orthodox Culture… and who doesn’t?

Fr Vsevolod

In any event, such things shall be determined by the public and by the schoolchildren. To speak honestly, I did not notice any attempts by Nashi to impose a particular political viewpoint on Orthodoxy. For a long time, I have been friendly with the Orthodox members of Nashi, I have associated much with them, in particular, this past summer, I visited their summer camp on Lake Seliger. These are sincerely-believing people, I say. When they carried out actions of an Orthodox nature, for example, some of the kids were handing out small crosses, I advised them to avoid any hint of political influence or entanglement. I would say that they listened to my advice.

Dmitri Khaustov

Recently, one hears more, both from clergy and active lay circles, that the church should reform the language of the divine services. What is your viewpoint on this? Is it necessary to make the language of the liturgy more contemporary or is the question irrelevant?

Fr Vsevolod

You have stated the two most extreme positions concerning this question. I do not support the radical reformers who wish to change the liturgical language. However, it is possible to change some of the details of the Church Slavonic text. For instance, the Greek grammar that is used in Church Slavonic is confusing to the average Russian-speaker. Some of the words are now incomprehensible to most people. I must note that this language shall remain the usage in the Church, for contemporary Orthodox believers are perfectly capable of understanding the Church Slavonic language with a bit of study, both intellectual and spiritual.

There is no doubt that the liturgical texts are complex. Fr Andrei Kuraev is completely correct in stating that it would very difficult to express the deep meaning of the services in the contemporary Russian language. We should pay more attention in the celebration of the services to the clearness of our enunciation of the prayers and responses, and to ensure that there is a sufficiency of moderately-priced popular guides to the liturgy so that people can learn and understand the services.

18 June 2008

Nezavisimaya Gazeta-Religii

Quoted in Interfax-Religion

http://www.interfax-religion.ru/?act=print&div=8518 (in Russian)

The Baptism of Russia [Viktor Vasnetsov, 1898]

Editor’s Foreword:

This is not a short piece, but, it is by one of the most prominent laymen in Russia, the journalist Kirill Frolov, the head of the Union of Orthodox Citizens. The first five paragraphs can be skipped by those unfamiliar with current Russian-Ukrainian relations, and the part dealing with mission per se begins in the sixth paragraph. Mr Frolov pulls no punches, and he is no pantywaist. A bracing read, I say.

**********

The Ukrainian Autonomous Orthodox Church of the MP (UOC-MP), the largest Christian confession in the Ukraine, has learned how to act independently of the state for it has no illusions regarding the “Orange” leadership. The “Orange” position is clear to all, by hook or crook they are trying to detach the Ukrainian church from the Russian church, they wish to tear away the last barrier that interferes with their intention to attempt to transform the Ukraine into an anti-Russian state.

One of the latest actions of President Yushchenko was an invitation to Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew to visit the Ukraine. As all know, the EP has very few faithful [on its legitimate canonical territory] and it is totally dependent on the USA. The strategy of the “Orange” cabal is to bring the EP into the church situation in the Ukraine in support of the so-called “Kiev Patriarchate” (UOC-KP) and the so-called “Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church” (UAOC). A delegation of the EP headed by Metropolitan Emmanuel of France visited the Ukraine at the invitation of the Ukrainian president, and it met with the anathematised outlaw Filaret Denisenko. Earlier, the representatives of the EP made uncanonical statements to the effect that they were going to intervene in matters concerning the canonical territory of the MP (e.g., the Ukraine), but, they denied then that they were going to meet with Denisenko. Their dissimulation does not fool us. There is another aspect to this meeting; it is a call for all Orthodox to join a proposed Unia with the Roman Catholics.

After all this, Yushchenko invited Patriarch Bartholomew to come to the Ukraine at the same time that His Holiness Patriarch Aleksei is scheduled to visit. However, Bartholomew does not have the right to visit the Ukraine without the permission of Patriarch Aleksei. What is more, one must see this in the context of the EP delegation meeting with Filaret Denisenko. 

Shall the recognition of the UOC-KP and the UAOC by the EP undermine the sole canonical and legitimate church of the Ukraine, the UOC-MP? Shall the uncanonical invasion of the Ukraine by the EP shake the UOC-MP? It shall have no real effect. In the 1920s, the EP and the Patriarchate of Jerusalem recognised the Bolshevik-inspired Renovationist (obnovlentvo) schism. At that time, Turkey was the ally of the Reds and it put pressure on the EP. Patriarch St Tikhon of Moscow was not troubled at all by this. The Metropolia of Kiev had been given autonomous status by the 1917-18 Sobor, it rejected the recognition of the Renovationists by the EP (as everyone in the canonical MP did), and, in the end, it conquered. The flock was loyal and remained in the canonical church.

Besides a general refusal to compromise on the main matters such as dogmas, canons, and the general unity of the MP on its legitimate canonical territory, it is logical for the UOC-MP to answer the EP incursion by launching a “missionary counterattack”. Indeed, today, this “missionary counterattack” should be the main theme of Russian church life. For example, look at the action taken by the Sretensky Monastery during the Lent in passing out copies of the Gospels in the Moscow Metro. Also, there is the “human rights manifesto” of the MP, which shall be voted on by the Archbishop’s Council of the MP to be held from 25 to 29 June. This manifesto proclaims that Russia is autonomous in deciding what is covered by the term of “human rights”; it is not slavishly tied to Western definitions of this important term.

Another example of this is the successful conclusion of the first half of the “missionary tour” of Russian and Ukrainian rock musicians along with Deacon Andrei Kuraev, a professor of theology at the MDA. Firstly, Deacon Andrei and the rockers went to the western Ukraine, the most contentious area in Russian church life, where schismatics and Uniates seized thousands of Orthodox churches. It was said that the young people there were, more or less, spiritually-deficient and anti-Russian, the area was overrun with Russophobic propaganda… all they shall do is boo and hiss and not listen to an Orthodox preacher. Yet, nevertheless…

The Protection  of the Most Holy Mother of God (old Russian)

The appearances of the Russian rocker Yuri Shevchuk, front-man of the group DDT, the rock groups Bratya Karamazovy (The Brothers Karamazov) and Skay, along with the well-known Orthodox missionary Fr Andrei Kuraev, met with nothing but great success in the western Ukrainian cities of Lvov, Lutsk, and Rovno. In Rovno, the stadium in which the Russian rockers and Fr Andrei appeared could not accommodate all of those who wanted to attend. In Lutsk, Metropolitan Nifont attended the concert, and the crowd was immense. In Lvov, the police estimated that over 15,000 people showed up to see the Russian rockers and Fr Andrei.  

Fr Andrei was struck by the impressions that the concerts gave him. “In Lutsk, the kids gave me flowers after the concert. They didn’t punch me in the nose and call me a ‘moskal’ (a derogatory term in the western Ukrainian dialect for Russians) priest. In Lvov, when Yuri Shevchuk said enthusiastically, ‘Russians and Ukrainians are brothers forever’, the crowd applauded”.

The mayor of Ivanovo-Frankovsk banned the appearance of Shevchuk and Fr Andrei in the city, using as an excuse the pretext that the front-man of the band Bratya Karamazovy had made statements critical of Yushchenko and NATO. After this, the city of Kalush in Ivanovo-Frankovsk oblast made available a venue for the concert. On 8 May, a concert with DDT and Bratya Karamazovy took place, and Fr Andrei spoke from the stage to the audience.

All the announcements at the concert were made in the Russian language, and no adverse reaction was seen to this. Besides appearing on stage with Yuri Shevchuk and the rockers, Deacon Andrei would lecture in every city, and religious books were sold at every concert. These books were aimed at a general secular audience, they explained the differences between Orthodoxy and the schismatic bodies and the heterodox confessions, and they stressed the unique nature of the Church. Priests from the western Ukrainian dioceses were also part of the concerts; they went amongst the young people to tell them that the parishes of the canonical Orthodox Church await them eagerly and they welcome them.

In every city where Shevchuk and Fr Andrei went, there were religious processions with a portion of the relics of Grand Prince Equal-to-the-Apostles St Vladimir, the true patron of all missionaries. He baptised Russia without delay, without empty prattle saying that “preaching to the crowd isn’t Orthodox” or “the number of Orthodox isn’t important to me”. If he had listened to voices such as we hear in our time, that we should not “give offence” to others, he would have banned the few Orthodox missionaries that there were in Russia at the time and there would have been no Baptism of Russia.

Metropolitan Nifont of Lutsk and Volynia said that Deacon Andrei “is an outstanding person, who always responds to any question”. Metropolitan Nifont is no modernist. He is a man firmly rooted in the spiritual tradition of Russian monasticism; he absorbed the fervent zeal of the Holy Trinity-St Sergius Monastery and of the famous monastery of Pochaev. Vladyki Nifont is a firm defender of the Orthodox dogma and he is a confessor.

At the beginning of the 1990s, when President Kravchuk ginned up the so-called UOC-KP, the followers of this schismatic body committed nasty atrocities in Volynia, acting like the Banderovtsy and Melnikovtsy (Ukrainian bandit bands: editor’s note) during World War II. In the ‘40s, 10 priests of the UOC-MP in Volynia were killed by radical nationalists because they refused to reject the Russian church. In the ‘90s, such thuggish behaviour was repeated in Volynia by supporters of the UOC-KP, they assaulted both priests and laymen of the canonical church. The authorities in Kiev refused to condemn these attacks; they were a part of the political beau monde of the time. The UOC-KP schismatics then attacked Metropolitan Nifont and then they dragged him into court. However, the Volynia diocese of the UOC-MP won a judgement against the schismatics; the court ordered the return of the cathedral seized illegally by the UOC-KP. Unfortunately, these crooks refused to carry out the court order. 

The Baptism of Russia (Mikhail Shankov, 2003)

An acquaintance with these facts, no doubt, has been useful and enlightening for the front-man of DDT, Yuri Shevchuk, to see “Orange democracy” in action. Certainly, some have asked why the “dissident” Shevchuk rather than Konstantin Kinchev (another Russian rocker: editor’s note) is appearing on stage in this tour. I shall attempt to answer this. Since Russia is strong and vigorous, it does not fear the individual political opinions of Yuri Shevchuk. In Russia, one can express dislike of the government; some even express a noisome hatred of Russia itself. Yuri Shevchuk cannot be reproached in this. Therefore, Shevchuk’s appearance in the western Ukraine is an obvious reproach to the supporters of “Bandera democracy” (Stepan Bandera was a leader of the notorious OUN terrorist organisation, a Ukrainian al-Qaeda: editor’s note), people who did not scruple at beating priests and attacking bishops.

After the concert in Lutsk, there was the appearance in Lvov. In a city known to be the epicentre of Uniatism and the stronghold of anti-Russian sentiment, 15,000 people attentively listened to Yuri Shevchuk’s songs and to Fr Andrei’s preaching. Before the concert, there was a joint press conference with the only canonical Orthodox bishop of Lvov, Vladyki Avgustin. He is an amazing man who is the head of the military department of the UOC-MP as well as the head of the Lvov diocese. Would you believe it? He jumps out of airplanes together with the paratroopers! Vladyki thinks that prayer helps him when he is driving very fast, so fast, that some in the diocese are nervous. Archbishop Avgustin opened in Lvov a branch of the St Tikhon Orthodox University. Despite what some thought, “the hand of Moscow” was not behind the founding of the school, rather, it was quite the contrary. However… we’ll talk about this problem later.

In Carpatho-Russia, the rockers and the missionaries held an informal meeting with the national élite, along with Fr Dmitri Sidor, who is the rector of the cathedral in Uzhgorod, the spiritual leader of the Carpatho-Russians, and the head of “The Ark of Carpatho-Russia”. Carpatho-Russians, in marked contrast to Galicians, are faithful to the canonical church. In Carpatho-Russia, there are over 600 parishes of the MP.

In the 1990s, the Uniates demanded the “return” of the majority of churches in Uzhgorod. Fr Dmitri established a new parish, he designed the building himself, and he built a new cathedral in the centre of Uzhgorod. It is able to accommodate some 6,000 worshippers, and there is also a social outreach complex alongside consisting of a Carpatho-Russian museum, a charity dining room, a TV and radio broadcasting centre, and the editorial offices of the newspaper Khristianskaya Semya (The Christian Family). On Easter, the crowd can exceed 60,000 people. This shows the influence a single personality can have on history. If it were not for priests such as Fr Dmitri, Uzhgorod would be a totally Uniate city. If all priests were like Fr Dmitri, we would be living in a truly Orthodox country now. 

In Vinnitsa, the concert and Fr Andrei’s preaching drew an audience of about 50,000. In Dnepropetrovsk, a wonderful bishop stepped out onto the stage, Metropolitan Irinei, who called on the crowd to join the army of Orthodox missionaries. Then, appearances in Zaporozhe, Donetsk, Lugansk, Poltava, Kharkov, and Chernigov followed swiftly. Everywhere, there were 20,000 to 30,000 spectators, and in Chernigov, there were about 50,000.

In Chernigov, Archbishop Amvrosy sprinkled holy water over the crowd from a hot-air balloon. Tens of thousands of people gathered to listen to the rockers Shevchuk and Oleg Karamazov, and to hear Deacon Andrei’s message. When Deacon Andrei stepped out on stage, the crowd broke into loud cheering. Whilst he was preaching his sermon, there was dead silence. When he was finished, the audience gave him as loud a round of applause as they gave to the rocker Shevchuk. If you wish to see how skilfully Fr Andrei interacts with his audience, you can see a videotape of the sermon on his website www.kuraev.ru Deacon Andrei commented on his activity in the newspaper Gazeta po-Donetski (The Newspaper for Donetsk) on 2 June.

“Our missionary tour is evidence of great changes in the Church. It received the blessings of the patriarch, Metropolitan Vladimir of Kiev and all Ukraine, the local bishops, and the local clergy. This means that the combination of a rock concert and a sermon is no longer outré; it is no longer the simple eccentricity of Deacon Andrei. The Church no longer views missionary experimentation with suspicion; it is ready to reach beyond the limits of the parish to reach out to its children.

The Protection of the Most Holy Mother of God (Mikhail Nesterov, 1914)

Also, because of such concerts, many church people are changing the way they view the world. Look at how the thousands of young children in the crowd respond to the preaching of Christ and His love. They begin to understand that the contemporary world is not a soul-less apocalypse, that there are reasons for smiling, for optimism, and for creating. They see that our society is not a place where one fears the end of the world.

Thirdly, we see our concert tour as “people’s diplomacy”. For instance, Yuri Shevchuk, before the performance of the song The Bandits by his band DDT, explained that ‘bandits’ are not merely those who are in the underworld, but they are also the sectarians who have dollars instead of God in their heads, who try to embroil our fraternal peoples in strife… I think that our tour is a response to the Galician deputy who stated that Russian was ‘the language of gangsters and grifters’. Clearly, Yuri Shevchuk isn’t a Mafioso, and I hope that I’m not part of the underworld, either.

Finally, our main objective, we try to explain to the kids that if they love rock music, it is not a reason to hate Christianity. Being young and loving rock can be Orthodox, and the Church is not only for pensioners and fools”.

Deacon Andrei does not hide his political views. Along with Yuri Shevchuk, he called on everyone to boycott the concerts of the rock group Okeana Elzy (Ocean Elsa) because the father of the front-man of the band, which is popular in both the Ukraine and Russia, is the Minister of Education in the Ukraine and is trying to ban the use of the Russian language in VUZs (Institutes of Higher Education) within three years. Fr Andrei’s message is simple. “Atheism is the opium of the people”. In the Ukraine, the irreligion of the eastern parts is supine before the passionate clamour of the Galician Uniates. In another excerpt from the newspaper interview quoted above, he made the following observations.

“Every time there is an election in the Ukraine, it ends the same way. When the fiery rhetoric of the election campaign calms down, the deputies from either side of the country meet in the parliament, and, since they have to work together, they search for reasonable compromises. When one compromises, one sacrifices secondary matters for the sake of primary concerns. The Galicians from the west are concerned with ideology and nationalism, whereas the people from the east are more concerned with practical matters and business. Therefore, the victim of such compromises is usually the Russian language”. Deacon Andrei does not rely on second-hand observation. He frankly observed the scene all over the Donbass, and he states clearly that until the Orthodox show the same intensity as do the Galician Uniates, they shall not defeat them.

The tour shall resume in July and it shall go through the Crimea, the Black Sea coast, and up to Kiev, where three concerts are planned for the main square on 28 July, the feast day of St Vladimir. It was not surprising that the concert tour was banned in Ivanovo-Frankovsk. However, the planned appearance in Sevastopol for 13 July is open to question. The leaders of the city government are appointed from Kiev, and the people of this Russian hero-city are deprived of basic rights and they are not allowed to elect their mayor. The two main officials, S. Kunitsyn and V. Kazarin are uncooperative. The latter is supposedly a “pro-Russian politician”, but, in an interview he gave to Novomu Regionu (The New Region), he cynically alleged that he invited Shevchuk and Fr Andrei to come on Easter, but, they refused to come then, and he claimed they refused “any other date than 13 July”. But, everyone knows that Orthodox Christians are supposed to be in church on Easter, and, by the way, Deacon Andrei was serving in his assigned parish, St Mikhail the Archangel in Troparevo.

Get Behind Me, Satan! (Ilya Repin, 1895)

External enemies are understandable, but, they are not the only foes to contend with. In July, the missionary tour must defend its back from those who attempt to compromise Deacon Andrei, cast doubts upon his Orthodoxy and service to the church, call for this tour to be cancelled, and propose that Fr Andrei be sent to Solovki (a remote monastery in the far north, in the White Sea: editor’s note). Interestingly, they often work through supporters of the separation of the UOC-MP from the Mother Church.

It is obvious that the external enemies of the Russian Orthodox Church (including its political foes abroad) study the internal life of the Church in Russia in order to hinder those who are doing Christ’s business in Russia. The Bolsheviks knew that. To recall a sorry memory, the Deputy of the Council for Religious Affairs in Brezhnev’s time was Furov, a stalwart atheist, who noted that the attraction of the church for young people was one of the most critical dangers to the policy of state atheism.

The attack against the collaboration of church, state, and society is conducted on several fronts. Furov’s method was to use people in the church in order to drive young people away from it. The secular enemies of religious education in the schools use similar tactics. They say how dangerous it is to allow the church to approach impressionable children, “who shall be converted into backward and ignorant church-goers”.

This has a reaction in certain church circles. So, one hears of how immoral the young people are, that they are insubordinate to their elders, we don’t need them in church, all they do is bring in a liberal anti-church spirit, they don’t respect the established rules, they want a Vatican II in the Russian church, they want to reconcile the church with Protestants and Eastern religions, and they attempt to destroy the church with the aid of foreign missionaries. We’re not finished… there’s more still. Some say that it is wrong to have anything to do with the godless state, that society is incurably ill and degenerate, and there are extremists who refuse to carry a “satanic” RF passport, who refuse to vote in the “devilish elections”. Of course, Orthodox must not be successful in the world… oh, the horror!… nor can they be well-off and happy, for this is “a manifestation of globalisation”.

Is it surprising that those who would “save the church from the young people” unwittingly make common cause with those who wish to “save young people from the church?” Today, there are those, like the “Orange” emigrant Artyom Troitsky, who are enraged because the church is “poaching on their territory”, it upsets them that the church is now talking to “their” young people, commenting on “their” politics, and using “their” rock music.

Personally, I remember that in the communist days everything possible was done to prevent young people from going to church. At Christmas and Easter, the cordon of Komsomol activists who blocked the entrances to the churches were strengthened, and the TV showed programmes such as Klubnichu, which were banned at other times. Don’t some church people realise that they are nothing but “guardians of Soviet morals” when they say “we must save the church from the young people?”

I say that many evils are on the consciences of the “rescuers of the church from the young people” and the “fighters of flattery of the young”. They are part of the blame for barren families and unborn children (included those killed in abortions) because they would not let the priests go out to the young people so that the kids would learn. Such sorts have killed countless souls drawn to Christ because the seekers didn’t dress in a “churchly manner” or they “didn’t look right”. There are many who are ignorant of what Orthodoxy is because their priests and other people didn’t teach them, then, they read some trashy little tract that convinces them that it is unnecessary to reach out to young people and bring them to Christ. I tell you that the number of souls killed by such “super-Orthodox” is not one, not ten, not hundreds, not thousands, but… in the millions. This is a crime against the future.  

There are weighty scholarly tomes that claim that the church had too many “Catholic” influences because of its history and policy, so… the church helped prepare the February Revolution so that it could restore the patriarchate, for without it, it was not fully “canonical”… “Revolutionary” and “Catholic”, all at the same time! Objective researchers note that things actually ran quite well in the so-called “Synodal captivity” of the church, why, most of the bishops were relieved of much red-tape.

For us as Orthodox Christians, the church is the source of the sense and legitimacy of the state and public morals… but, not vice-versa. In reality, this is what is useful for society and the state. There must be a force that reminds us of the contrast between good and evil without encroaching on the freedom of the personality. It was Christianity that brought into the world the idea of the uniqueness of the God-created personality, its personal freedom, and its personal responsibility. As Archbishop St Hilarion Troitsky the New Martyr wrote, “If we take away Christ, people just murder each other”.  

Some publications appeared that alleged that there were “petitions of the clergy to the Archbishop’s Council” that exposed “insidious internal enemies” that were plotting to stage a “Second Vatican Council” in the Russian church. In similar texts we see “protests against proposed liturgical reform”. However, the council is not assembled to examine this question; indeed, it is not even on the agenda. Therefore, the “fight against the liturgical reform” is a conflict with a non-existent enemy. It means that the non-existent threat is used to cover well-defined purposes.

What is this liturgical reform that these authors rail against so harshly? It is the “explanation in the Russian language of the divine services”, the so-called “missionary liturgy”, developed by the missionary division of the Moscow Patriarchate. These complaints are sheer absurdity! We must explain the services in modern language, for their meaning is unclear to the overwhelming majority of the parishioners. There are those who assert that such an explanation shall destroy the “prayerful atmosphere of the liturgy”. However, according to this logic, the sermon, WHICH IS REQUIRED BY THE RULES, disrupts a “prayerful atmosphere”. According to present rules, it is assumed that a sermon shall be preached several times in the course of a vigil service, for instance.

Amongst these letters is one condemning “advances towards contemporary youth sub-cultures”. This is nothing less than an attack on the successful missionary projects of Fr Andrei Kuraev. As far as it is possible to make out, the text of “the petition” rejects the Protestant and Catholic models of utilising elements of the “contemporary youth sub-culture” in divine services. However, not one Orthodox missionary, not even amongst the most liberal and Renovationist-influenced people in the Russian church, ever proposed such a move. We have to assume that the true targets of the rant, “the threat posed by liberalism and Renovationism”, are contemporary Orthodox missionaries.

Priests such as Fr Sergei Rybko and Deacon Andrei Kuraev, who preach at rock concerts, bring tens of thousands of people into the church; this was proven during the tour of Fr Andrei with the rock group DDT in the Ukraine. Furthermore, contacts with youth culture are encouraged by the letter of the regulations, and it is manifested by such things as Internet activism and the spiritual care of sports teams. In a word, all activity beyond the parish gates, any contact with contemporary society, is encouraged, since that is how we can most conveniently spread the word widely.

The anti-Kuraev “spokesmen” only agreed on the fact that they think that there is a new anthropological heresy of the “special sin” of the present generation, in an attempt to justify their apologetic insolvency. All campaigns of this sort are directed against Orthodox missionary work as such. Remember, for the longest time, the church “knocked itself out voluntarily” by using the “super-Orthodox” style insinuated by Furov, as he put it, “to take anti-church measures by using the church’s own hands”.

We hope that the Archbishop’s council ignores such talk, that it shall protect all Orthodox missionaries, and support them in their efforts to reach contemporary society. The bishops should free the missionaries from the fear of having to justify their every move, and should refute all false accusations against them.

We need many missionaries like Fr Andrei inside Russia, where Protestant communities in the east breathe down the neck of the Orthodox. However, we must watch any change of religious identity in the Far East, for it can lead to separatism. Shall the Orthodox learn the bitter lesson of the mayoral election in Kiev? In the city that was the cradle of Russian Orthodoxy, the two top vote-getters were Protestants. Moreover, both were Russian-speakers from the eastern provinces, and according to logic, they should be true sons of the UOC-MP. Simply put, the missionary paralysis of the church left a void that was filled by Protestant sectarians.

The so-called fighters against “clericalism” wish the church to “voluntarily” flee the world, cease to interact with the youth culture or intellectuals, renounce TV and the schools, reject cell phones and computers, and wish the Orthodox to burn their sinful passports. If such happens, the church in Russia shall die. However, this shall never happen to the Russian church or to the Russian state.

The Kuraev missionary tour was important, but, it is not the only component of the fight for the unity of the Russian church. Generally, the present problems in the Ukrainian church are an accusation against both our Orthodox church and our state. Who interfered in this situation last year, and not only in the Ukraine? To top it all, the general situation for Russia was good. What “freemasons” interfered with the publishing of the writings of the Ukrainian intellectuals of the 17^th through the 19^th centuries, who considered themselves Russian, and stood for the unity of Russia at the risk of their lives and freedoms?

I have read of the Carpatho-Russian Russophiles and confessors of Orthodoxy, who suffered the first genocide of the 20^th century (according to the UN, genocide is killing carried out on religious and national grounds). They suffered in Europe’s first concentration camp, Talerhof in Austria, set up by the Hapsburgs to persecute the Orthodox Russophiles. Why don’t we mobilise bright Orthodox intellectuals such as archpriest Nikolai Donenko from the Crimea, who studied the New Martyrs who suffered in the Ukraine, from the viewpoint of whether the Ukrainian church should be separate from the Russian, and found out that the saints were irreconcilably opposed to such a move?

We complain about the Americans, who opened hundreds of non-government organisations in the Ukraine, who search for and are “purchasing” talented students through the study of school compositions and student abstracts, whose offers are seriously considered by our young people. We complain about the Uniates, who arrange immense youth pilgrimages to the false-Pochaev Monastery in Zarvanitse, who held a “patriarchal sobor” in Kiev dedicated to the youth mission, and their plot to convert the Donbass, the Crimea, and Novorossiya to the Uniate faith and to the “Orange” ideology.

What prevents us from doing more and doing it better?

MISSION… is vital, it is the banner of our faith, as is our fully-informed participation in the liturgy, since Apostolicity is not the “hobby of the clergy”, it is the property of the entire church.

If we have the will to do mission work, we shall have the will to live. Mission or death… this is a fact of life, it is harsh reality.

5 June 2008

Kirill Frolov

Russki Zhurnal (Russian Journal)

As quoted in Interfax-Religion

http://www.interfax-religion.ru/?act=radio&div=878 (in Russian)

Deacon Andrei Kuraev gave an interview “on the fly” to Interfax-Religion correspondent Yelena Zhosul at the airport in Moscow whilst he was on his way to board a flight for Kharkov in the Ukraine.  As the rumble of jet engines sounded in the background, he shared his impressions of his participation in the all-Ukrainian rock music tour in honour of the 1020^th anniversary of the Baptism of Russia.

Yelena Zhosul

Your missionary rock music tour has already visited some 15 cities in the Ukraine. What are your first impressions of this?

Deacon Andrei Kuraev

Actually, we were all over the entire western Ukraine and received a very warm welcome there. It surprised us that we were accepted so nicely. We observed a sharp difference in how the people treated us and how we were treated in the media. On the one hand, there were nasty press conferences, with insulting questions, and what commentary they published along with it! The crown jewel of them all came from a chippie at one of the Ivanovo-Frankovsk TV stations. They said, “Shevchuk and Kuraev are a part of a geopolitical plot cooked up in the Kremlin, and they are being used instead of tanks to take away our land”. So, one has the dirty commentaries in the media and the Internet concerning our visit, but, the mood of the ordinary people was completely different.

When the mayor of Ivanovo-Frankovsk banned our concert and my lecture, all the thousands of people who wished to hear us went over to the next town we were appearing in. Wherever we went, we received a warm welcome. The people in Lvov applauded when Yuri Shevchuk said that Ukrainians and Russians are brothers, that we must be united. I never heard anyone yell out, “Moscow is a den of gangsters”, during any of my lectures, although that’s what they reported. Well, I’ll tell you that in Lvov the kids came up and gave me roses after my talk. The next day, a group of students stopped me on the street and said, “It doesn’t make sense to us that, if we’re from Lvov, we have to hate Russians. This just ain’t so”.

Generally speaking, our rock tour was able to convey its spirit. It’s our answer to the provocative remarks of some Ukrainian “intellectuals” who declared that the Russian language was the speech of gangsters and crime. (In 2004, 12 Ukrainian authors wrote a collective letter in support of presidential candidate Viktor Yushchenko saying that that Russian was “the language of gangsters and grifters”: Interfax) We decided not to argue with such sorts and we didn’t let anybody harass us, but, we just came and put on our show. Clearly, Yuri Shevchuk isn’t a Mafioso, and I hope that I’m not part of the underworld, either.

Yuri Shevchuk (1957- ), Russian rock star, leader of the band DDT. A personal friend of Deacon Andrei and a good Orthodox Christian.

Yelena Zhosul

How do you explain this vast difference in the attitudes of the officials and media, on the one hand, and the reactions of simple Ukrainians, on the other?

Deacon Andrei

Thank God, most people have good-sense. Normal people react in a straightforward way. If you’re good to them, they’re good to you. Because they don’t have an ideological programme, they lack bias. If there was a concert or lecture containing hatred, they would certainly respond in kind. However, since we stayed away from such, we always received a good word in response, which is normal. But, the journalists were different. They considered themselves soldiers defending an invisible front line, and that caused us some problems. In the end, though, it turned out to be unimportant.

Yelena Zhosul

Can I assume that people in the eastern Ukraine accepted you with more understanding?

Deacon Andrei

I must admit that was an interesting contrast in the welcome we received in the western Ukraine as compared with our welcome in the eastern part. There were more protestors and more embittered eyes in the crowds in the east. I should mention that there were many more drunks, especially in Dnepropetrovsk, where the entire concert area was simply encircled by beer tents. We also encountered Satanists and pagans amongst the audience.

For example, here’s something that happened on the day we left the western Ukraine to go to Vinnitsa. At the end of the concert, Yuri Molchanov, one of the main producers of the “Enter” musical TV channel, spoke glowingly of Grand Prince St Vladimir and the Baptism of Russia. Well, some shaven-headed skinhead punk faced the crowd, with his back to the stage, and he gave an indecent gesture… he demonstratively pointed one finger into the air and said, “That’s where I’m sending all of you”… We saw such shenanigans in every city, and the farther east we went, the more frequent they were. However, I have to admit that this gave me the idea to address the theme of paganism in my lectures.

Yelena Zhosul

Did a lot of people come to the rock concerts?

At a DDT concert

Deacon Andrei

I couldn’t count the number of the people in the crowd, but, it’s obvious that we got no less than 10,000 people in the audience in each city. Most of the concerts were held outdoors in open areas, and only once did we use a stadium as the venue. It was strange, sometimes, though… in Dnepropetrovsk, we were encircled by beer tents, whilst in Zaporozhe we were set up in one of the parks, where even smoking was forbidden. You see, Yushchenko just issued a decree prohibiting smoking in the parks. The cops busted the kids who tried to smoke during the rock concert.

Yelena Zhosul

What are you up to, now?

Deacon Andrei

We’ve been in the far west of the country, in Uzhgorod, to the far east, in Lugansk. Now, we’re going back, to the central parts. We’re appearing in Kharkov, Poltava, Sumy, and Chernigov. We’ll take a month’s break in June, and then we’ll go to the Ukraine again, but, from the south to the north. We’ll start in the Crimea, passing through Odessa, Nikolaev, and Kherson on the way to Kiev. By the way, it’s interesting to note that only one other city than Ivanovo-Frankovsk banned us… Sevastopol. The city officials didn’t confirm their agreement to our concert in July. You see, it all depends on how heavily the city government is connected to the official ideology. In Sevastopol, the mayor isn’t elected democratically, he’s appointed by Yushchenko in Kiev. Therefore, over the past two years, the Sevastopol city government has tried to sever all cultural connections with Russia. In the past, the rock group Alisa was forbidden to perform and I had trouble arranging some of my earlier lectures. The situation is truly bollixed up there.

However, our rock tour shan’t confine itself to the Ukraine. Our basic idea is to use the means of “people diplomacy” to convey our ideas of the united sources and general roots of the Slavic peoples. We plan to continue our tour through Moldavia, Byelorussia, and Russia. Our break in June is due to the fact that we want to spend time in planning for the continuation of the tour after we’re done in the Ukraine. Thus far, all the rockers involved, including DDT, have refused all contracts and invitations until November so that they’re free to go on the road with us. It would be a great idea to fly to Chukotka in August, and then go gradually through the entire country to Moscow, so we can complete the tour on 4 November, the Day of National Unity, the main holiday in Russia. True, thus far, no potential sponsor has answered the patriarch’s appeal. Remember, His Holiness blessed our tour. Unfortunately, at present, all our plans are up in the air.

Yelena Zhosul

Did you intend to take your tour to Russia, Moldavia, and Byelorussia from the very beginning, or didn’t you think that far ahead then?

The Russian hard-rock bank Alisa in concert. Konstantin Kinchev (1958- ), the front-man, is a friend of Deacon Andrei and a dedicated Orthodox Christian.

Deacon Andrei

No, it just came out of my head. A very interesting thing occurred; the idea grew faster amongst the rockers. Take note of the anniversary, the 1,020^th, not the 1,025^th. It’s an anniversary that’s not usually celebrated. We’re not comparing it with the millennium celebrations in 1988. Yet, there were young rockers in Kiev, who weren’t able to celebrate in 1988, because they weren’t in the