______________________________
In the early 2000s, Deacon Andrei Kuraev was one of the leading lights in the Orthodox cyberworld. Lately, he’s become more and more strident, making all kinds of oddbod statements. I asked around and one source told me:
For years now, Kuraev has gone off. His problem is his self-obsession. Pro-Western media outlets, eager for any scandal, pay him much attention. Moreover, producing scandal so that people quote him consumes him; besides which, he’s obsessed with how many hits he gets. Charlie‘s right… Kuraev’s going Protestant; he’s gone Renovationist. He’s become an enemy of the Church in his egoistic quest for celebrity.
I agree. Deacon Andrei has gone off the rails. Once, he was a “go-to” source… today, he’s an embittered “dissident”. I think that he’s well on the way to being another Gleb Yakunin (who was one of the few people personally anathematised by the Church). I don’t think that he’ll be another Rusantsov, but he does have the potential for being defrocked.
Remember, the Church always does the least-invasive thing to solve a problem. For instance, in this case, the Centre used the least-invasive method of shitcanning him. “He didn’t attend to his duties as an MDA faculty member”. This was like the ROCOR Holy Synod stopping the Toll House Wars about thirty years ago by saying, “There’s not much revealed on this topic. All discussion of it should cease” (they should revisit that decision and muzzle the loud konvertsy who perpetually call the Toll Houses “an important Church Doctrine” (which it isn’t)). In the case of Podmoshensky, the ROCOR gave him the drop for serving under suspension (Lebedeff said that was a great relief; nobody wanted to go near the issue of sexual perversion unless that they absolutely had to).
This first disciplinary action… removing Kuraev from the MDA faculty… was a salutary warning. If he continues to fuck up… well, the Church hopes that he doesn’t. I noted that they said nothing of his connection with PSTGU… I wonder, does such need approval from the Vorobyov Mafia (perspirin’ minds wanna know)? Bear in mind how the Church dealt with the rank heresies of Bulgakov and Florensky… it condemned the heresies, but it showed mercy to the people involved.
For instance, to give a good example of such, the Church should send Seraphim Storheim off to live in a monastery, far from children, without any pastoral role. This would be fair to all parties. It’s fair to the victims… for it’d show that the Church implicitly believes their story by denying Storheim a public role. It’s fair to the believers… for they’d be spared worrying that there’d be a relapse. It’s fair to Storheim… for it’d spare him some shame and pain (look, a court found him guilty… that’s harsh enough for me… it DOES put the “Scarlet Letter” upon him, after all). It shows respect to the Court… it shows that the Church intends doing something to neutralise Storheim, removing the need for further legal action or imprisonment. Last of all, it’s fair to the Church… it means that the issue will die a natural death (that is, it’ll persist for as long as Storheim’s alive… but after he’s dead, people would say, “Y’know, they did the right thing…”. Shall this happen? I’d truly like to see it happen, but given the nasty-ass attitude of Syosset and the First Families, I expect more legal manoeuvring, obfuscation, and denials… I’m not hoping for such, but that’s what I see.
It’s not just Deacon Andrei… it’s our whole attitude to dealing with dissidence and malfeasance. Frankly, we’d do well to stick to our traditional ways… they work. Take it one step at a time, and don’t dump on someone all the way all at once. Shall Deacon Andrei turn back? I don’t have a working crystal ball, do you? Things are never boring following the Church, are they?
BMD
Voices from Russia 
Patriarch Kirill Sez that the Foes of the Church Aimed a Premeditated Blow Against It
Tags: Christian, Christianity, Church, Diomid Dzyuban, Eastern Orthodox Church, Kirill I of Moscow, Ksenia Sobchak, Marat Gelman, Moscow, Moscow Patriarchate, Orthodox, Orthodoxy, Patriarch Kirill, Patriarch Kirill I, Philaret Denisenko, political commentary, politics, Religion, Religion and Spirituality, Russia, Russian, Russian Orthodox Church, Valentin Rusantsov, Vladimir Putin
______________________________
Editor’s Note:
English version expanded and corrected using materials from the Russian side of RIA-Novosti. Many thanks to the priest-friend who sent me on the cut n’ paste… it simplified my task enormously. As I always say, this site is NOT an isolated individual effort (God spare me from that… that’s a denial of the Church).
BMD
******
On Sunday, during a broadcast of the TV programme Вести недели (Vesti Nedeli: News of the Week) on the channel Россия-1 (Rossiya-1: Russia-1), Patriarch Kirill Gundyaev of Moscow and all the Russias stated that the Church sustained an intentional blow recently, intended to test the depth of faith of its believers. As of late, the Church came in for unprecedented criticism both at home and abroad over the case surrounding the punk group Pussy Riot and the perceived luxurious lifestyle of its leading figures. His Holiness noted, “I can’t get rid of the thought that it was a kind of probing attack to check the depth of the faith and devotion to Orthodoxy in Russia. In fact, many such opinions were long-repressed, but it also brought to light the long-buried ability of our people to organise themselves to protect their values, to defend their outlook. I won’t quote some of the offensive remarks made against our people by some in the so-called creative class, but they were generally derogatory from start to finish”.
On 17 August, a Moscow court sentenced three Pussy Riot punk group members, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 22, Maria Alyokhina, 24, and Yekaterina Samutsevich, 30, to two years in prison over a “punk prayer” in Moscow’s largest cathedral in a trial that attracted both mass media attention and sharp international criticism. Lawyers for the group say that their clients’ actions were a protest against overt Church support for Vladimir Putin ahead of the 4 March presidential poll that returned the former KGB officer to the Kremlin. Less than a month before the election, Patriarch Kirill called Putin’s first two presidential terms a “miracle from God” in a televised meeting.
In his view, the time for such a test was ripe, especially, since everyone saw what happened in Russia in connection with the visit of the Vatopedi delegation to Russia carrying the Belt of the Mother of God. “Do recall the reaction of those millions of people who came to bow before the relic. Therefore, apparently, it’s time to check whether our people are committed to the faith, and whether they’ll do anything to protect it… today, I think that those who made such provocations can see that the people aren’t a faceless amorphous mass, and they can now see that the people are able to defend what they hold holy”.
Vladyki Kirill described the problem facing us wasn’t just aggression against the Church, but also an attack “against the heart of our culture, against the very basis of our civilisation. However, such sallies always fail. Look at what the statistics say. The vast majority don’t want public blasphemy. Only a small percentage approve of blasphemy and social deviation. The vast majority are in favour of laws that’d limit the spread of sin. What does that mean? It means that a sense of morality is alive in the people”.
He pointed up that one avenue of attack against the Church were accusations that there are elements fomenting a union between the Church and State, saying, “It’s a myth; a deliberately-created myth. After all, if you wish to attack the Church, you need to stake out your ideological position. That’s what we’re seeing today. One of the central tenets of the myth about a union of Church and State is that the clergy are trying to run our lives. Why do they say this? It’s to show that a union of Church and State has the intent of controlling your mind and your will”. He observed that he’s issued no document, approved any statement, or made any public utterance that could support such a thesis.
His Holiness went on to say, “In the past 20 years, our Church, which earlier faced charges of inaction, of being unable to carry out its mission in the modern world, has achieved impressive results in reaching our people. Our people are becoming Orthodox. Today, just look at the crowds at the Easter services, at all the services in our parishes. Orthodox believers are people of all different ages and conditions. Therefore, why should we conclude from the fact that the President or Prime Minister pray together with the patriarch once or twice a year that there’s a union? Are we supposed to deprive these people, who’re believers, after all, of the right to worship with their patriarch?”
He said that his opponents tried to prove that a relationship existed between Church and State by the fact that the Patriarch visited a submarine base at Vilyuchinsk, noting, “What of it? Are we to conclude that there’s a union of Church and State in the USA because the US forces have chaplains in Afghanistan? Furthermore, don’t the regular armies of almost all European countries have regularly-appointed chaplains? I went there because the sailors invited me to visit them. I came to visit my flock because most of the sailors are believers. Where is there a so-called ‘union’ in that?” The Patriarch observed that such visits are pastoral calls by clergy, that they’re missionary outreach.
In April, Patriarch Kirill came under fire after he insisted in an interview with a Russian journalist that he’d never worn a 30,000 USD (955,000 Roubles. 23,500 Euros. 18,750 UK Pounds) Breguet watch that he received as a gift. He suggested that any photographs of him wearing the watch must have been doctored. However, attentive bloggers quickly discovered a photograph on the Church’s official website of Patriarch Kirill with the expensive watch on his wrist. Less than 24 hours later, someone had photoshopped the timepiece out of the photograph. Unfortunately for the Church, the inattentive editor left intact a telltale reflection of the luxury wristwatch on a varnished table, sparking weeks of online mockery. In mid-August, there was more unwanted publicity for the Church when the abbot of a downtown Moscow parish faced accusations of being drunk behind the wheel after a Maltese diplomatic vehicle he was driving ploughed into another vehicle. The online Gazeta.ru newspaper reported that witnesses said that Igumen Timofei’s eyes were “glazed and crazy” after the crash, but the abbot refused to take a breathalyser test.
9 September 2012
RIA-Novosti
http://en.rian.ru/Religion/20120909/175863670.html
Editor’s Note:
There’s nothing but ordinary “wheat n’ tares” here. If this is the worst that Ksenia Sobchak and Marat Gelman can come up with… it’s no biggie. After all, it’s not a Seraphim Storheim court case or that whole Sam Greene tits-up in Texas. Considering what’s been achieved in the last twenty years, what’s utterly amazing is that there’s been so LITTLE idiocy. The Church will survive Philaret Denisenko, Diomid Dzyuban, and Valentin Rusantsov... it did before, it shall again. However, we in America have a monstrous shit-pile in the byre to tackle. Having a lawyer unctuously intone, “We admit no wrongdoing” is satanic and demonic… there’s no other way of putting it. We either put things right or we won’t have a Church… full stop. After all, don’t you see signs of Laodicea in all too many quarters (especially, loud n’ strident “religious” ones)? I should be clear… I mean the reference to “poor, blind, and naked” (Apocalypse 3:17-18), not “I will spew thee out of my mouth” (Apocalypse 3:15-16).
Remember… the most foul flowers of the Evil One grow in the shadow of the altar… and all too many were planted by clerical hands…
BMD