“A Compromise Position is Unacceptable to the Church”

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On Sunday, every major church in Russia served moliebens “in defence of the faith, desecrated holy places, the Church, and its good name”. The main event was at the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow, where a procession and molieben drew about 65,000 believers. The idea to hold an all-Russian molieben came after a series of provocative actions and blasphemous antics at Russian churches. The most egregious, according to the MP, was the “punk prayer” of the group Pussy Riot at the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour and the Epiphany Cathedral in Moscow. Besides this, there were attacks on the church of St Prokopy in Veliki Ustyug (a vandal hacked at the iconostas with an axe), St Sergei of Radonezh Church in the Byelorussian town of Mozyr, and Pokrovsky Cathedral in southern Russia.

Patriarch Kirill Gundyaev described the current attempts to undermine the moral foundations of society and deprive it of spiritual values, saying, “We didn’t come to a rally, for the Church doesn’t hold rallies. We don’t have any posters… but we do have banners, icons, words, and prayers… so that never again would they blow up the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour Cathedral, that no one would defile our holy objects, that no one would falsify our history, that our spirit and moral strength remains unbroken. We’re here to stand before God to pray for our people, for our youth, that God may turn them from diabolic temptations and suggestions; for they have once already ruined our people, it ruined the country and us, too”.

Tens of thousands of people came to the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour Cathedral in Moscow, and there were damaged holy objects there, as well. Special video screens ensured that none of the believers missed any of the special events going on. One of the people present told me that they came to pray for the souls of blasphemers, and of the unity of the Church. His Holiness said, “I want to point up how much we need the Church and spirituality, for we need to cleanse the spirit. Every day, we bathe our bodies; you need to cleanse your soul, too”.

The intent behind the action is to consolidate society and show the power of the Church. According to Aleksei Makarkin, the Deputy Head of the Centre for Political Technologies, said, “The Church is afraid of the growth of secular attitudes in society. What the Church fears is an evolution in the same direction that took place in Western Europe. In these countries, the role of the Church declined; moreover, it collapsed into the sphere of private life. In fact, this action, which is the hierarchy’s idea, shows that a compromise position is unacceptable to the Church and that the Church is ready to go all-out in defending its “self-image” (самость), its position in society, and its view on social processes”.

The current all-Russian molieben was the largest of all similar Church actions in recent Russian history. Today, clergy served moliebens “in defence of the faith, desecrated holy places, the Church, and its good name” in all the cathedrals throughout the country.

Yuliya Ashcheulova

Voice of Russia World Service

http://rus.ruvr.ru/2012_04_22/72570157/

Editor’s Note:

I have the sad duty to report that neither the OCA nor the ROCOR publicised any action in support of His Holiness and the Mother Church. NOTHING. The Mother Church is under assault by the American special services and its running-dogs in the former Soviet space, and we’re SILENT. That’s not only shameful; it’s condemnatory. WHY?

Reflect on this… BOTH American political parties attack the Motherland. BOTH want to install a vulture-capitalist system WORSE than the oligarchs are (at least now, Putin keeps the oligarchs in line). Here’s what’s worst… we have clergy who support the attack on the Motherland either in the name of American phyletism or as a continuation of spiritual “Vlasovism”. Both are BAD.

Our hierarchies revealed themselves to the world as worse than sacrificitores… those who had “thrown a pinch of incense on the altar”. Some are out-and-out opponents of the Church who hobnob with Uniates and the Hard Right haters of the homeland. Pass me the jug… there’s only so much the human frame can stand…

BMD

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Molieben “In Defence of Desecrated Holy Places”

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On Sunday, all the cathedrals in Russia served moliebens “in defence of the faith, desecrated holy places, the Church, and its good name”. His Holiness led a procession around the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour. Accompanied by clergy, Patriarch Kirill Gundyaev marched in a procession that held two icons from Veliki Ustyug, one of which had bullet-holes from the 1920s, and the other was just hacked by an axe-wielding vandal this spring. Before the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, on a specially-built platform, stood a veneration cross from the cathedral at Nevinnomyssk, which a knife-wielding vandal slashed on 20 March.

At the end of the procession, the clergy solemnly hoisted the damaged cross from the platform, and re-erected it at the main entrance to the Cathedral. Then, His Holiness served a molieben, after which he addressed the congregation with a sermon. He called our current epoch disturbing, saying, “Today, when the Enemy’s forces attack us, we’re told that the violation of holy places is just a manifestation of people’s free will, it’s merely commonplace. We don’t threaten anyone, we don’t use force, we don’t have any posters… but we do have banners, icons, words, and prayers… so that never again would they blow up the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour Cathedral, that no one would defile our holy objects, that no one would falsify our history, and that our spirit and moral strength remains unbroken. We’re here to stand before God to pray for our people, for our youth, that God may turn them from diabolic temptations and suggestions; we pray for the prosperity of our great country, historic Rus, a common spiritual space from the Black Sea to the White Sea, from the Baltic to the Pacific. May the Lord give you peace of soul and joy in your heart so that you might meet the future with hope”.

22 April 2012

Voice of Russia World Service

http://rus.ruvr.ru/2012_04_22/72548633/