In 2011, the Yekaterinburg diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church was shocked by a loud scandal: Hierodeacon Kirill (Grigoriev), a teacher at the Yekaterinburg Theological Seminary, a former host of the Soyuz TV show, fled the country without warning and, as it later became known, converted to Catholicism. After studying in Latin America, he moved to Ukraine, where he began to serve in the Greek Catholic Church, which was in acute conflict with the Moscow Patriarchate. Now Father Kirill returned to Yekaterinburg, already a Greek Catholic priest. In an interview with Political Council, he spoke about the morals within the Russian Orthodox Church, his conversion to Catholicism and the differences between Greek Catholic and Orthodox priests. At the same time, Father Kirill emphasizes that everything said is his personal opinion, and not the official position of the Catholic Church.
Photo from the personal archive of Father Kirill
- Father Kirill, how did your acquaintance with Christianity begin?
I felt my craving for Christianity in the Catholic Church before the seminary. I went there when I was an infantile teenager, but I was too shy to establish communication with Catholic priests. I went through what is called churching in an Orthodox seminary and immediately immersed myself in the environment of the Orthodox clergy. I think that this path was good in its own way, because before the seminary I had no stereotypes about the priesthood. That is, I saw the Orthodox priesthood immediately from the inside out, not always from the pretty side. I saw the attitude of high-ranking priests towards seminarians as non-humans, as free labor. It became especially obvious under Archbishop Vincent (Morar). I entered the first year when he came to the Yekaterinburg department. At first it was still restrained, then it got worse and worse. Over the course of 5 years of study, I developed a certain idea of what an Orthodox priest is. But during training this did not cause any rebellion, it was taken for granted, since I did not know that it could be otherwise.
- Has this situation discouraged you from becoming a clergyman?
No, I didn’t fight it off. I do not know why. I explain this using the religious term “calling.” I wanted to be a priest no matter what. That's why I went into my specialty.
- Did you expect that over time the attitude towards priests in the Russian Orthodox Church would change?
I didn't expect it to change. I expected that I would endure it, that I would adapt to this situation, but this did not work out. When I became a deacon at the seminary, the life of the Orthodox priesthood became more open to me. The unfair attitude of the bishop towards the priests, which I experienced myself.
- How did this injustice manifest itself?
This was manifested in the elementary tyranny of the archbishop. I didn’t hear him ask how the priest was doing, what his needs were, or how he prayed. The bishop was interested in how long our beard and long hair were. Elementarily, for a more or less neat haircut, you had to get hit on the head from the bishop.
I saw how other priests suffered, especially from some villages and small towns. They were raised at diocesan meetings, in the presence of priests and laity, and began to be publicly scolded like teenagers. I believe that it is humiliation when a bishop raises a person and says: “You are the father of such and such. Come on, let's get up." This is a lack of ethics and basic education. You cannot scold a priest in front of priests and laity. The bishop can tell him something one on one.
Years later, I can say for sure that in the Orthodox Church there can be no talk of any relationship between a bishop as a father and his priests. This is the attitude of a despot towards his slaves. A priest in the Russian Orthodox Church is not even a hired worker. This is a silent slave. This is a tributary who must collect tribute for the bishop. The success of a priest in the Russian Orthodox Church is not assessed by his pastoral activities, but by his financial activities. The flock here acts only as a source of income for the church.
- Was this said directly?
No. This was made clear at diocesan meetings. Each church had a certain tax. The priest was obliged to pay it. If he failed, he became unreliable. In fact, the financial activity of the priest was the only criterion for his evaluation.
- Did they also demand to collect taxes from you?
This problem did not affect me. I was a deacon; a deacon does not have his own flock. After being ordained, he remained in the seminary. I was accepted as a successful student. At first I was a teaching assistant, then I taught liturgics myself (the discipline of studying liturgy - editor's note) for three years.
- When did you become interested in another church?
As I already said, I first visited a church before the seminary, and then during my studies I established contact with Catholic priests. At the same time, I did not have the kind of prejudice that could arise towards Catholics as a result of my education.
— Was there any prejudice towards people of other faiths at the seminary?
The educational system itself, the courses that were taught to us, directly set up the young seminarian to have a certain hostility towards Catholics. Catholics were presented as enemies of Orthodoxy, as executioners. Greek Catholics were generally something terrible, even worse than the Crusaders. I had the opportunity to compare the Russian Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church. I could come to the church and see that no one was being killed there and they didn’t even speak badly about Orthodoxy.
I talked with Catholic priests. I even began to communicate with the Catholic bishop. Then I didn’t yet know their insides, but I began to like the way of communication among the Catholic priesthood, that is, this absolute acceptance. There was no such evil criticism as that of the Russian Orthodox Church towards Catholics. The high level of general culture and erudition of the Catholic clergy was captivating. A Catholic priest is culturally an order of magnitude higher than an Orthodox priest, as the Western system of educating the clergy, fine-tuned over centuries, makes it clear. Orthodox priests for the most part do not even have a special education, they are simply peasants taken from the plow who transferred their Soviet complexes and thinking to the Russian Orthodox Church. Not everyone cuts their nails and maintains personal hygiene. This, of course, does not apply to all Orthodox priests.
-Have you tried to talk about Catholics with Orthodox seminarians or priests?
Yes, I tried. For this, in the seminary I earned a reputation almost as a heretic, especially when I tried to criticize purely Orthodox rites and customs. For example, for doubting that the descent of the “Holy Fire” in Jerusalem is really a miracle. They immediately told me: “You are a Catholic heretic, get out of here.” Although there were seminarians with whom it was possible to talk about these topics. What emerges is not so much sympathy for Catholicism as a social protest against the inhumane treatment of priests in the Russian Orthodox Church. Against this background, pro-Catholic views may arise as an expression of social discontent: “It’s bad here, but it’s different in the Catholic Church.”
- When did you decide to move from the Russian Orthodox Church to the Catholic Church?
This decision had been brewing for many years since my senior years at the seminary. Although I was going to become an Orthodox priest, I did not rule out that someday in the distant future I would become a Catholic. But as a person, I was deeply disgusted by the attitude that the Orthodox priesthood experienced. I could probably endure it, but, knowing a different way of life and the relationship between bishop and priest, I could no longer remain in the Russian Orthodox Church. Of course, it would be possible to come to terms with the surrounding reality. Slowly serve and receive some kind of salary. But then this would mean going against your convictions. The system itself either breaks you, and you become evil, two-faced, vile, or this system throws you out. I felt that this system began to throw me out. I didn’t “tailor myself” to be a cleric of the Russian Orthodox Church.
I believe that in the Orthodox Church many priests, like me, are tormented and tormented. But they do not know any other alternative and are intimidated because, as they teach in the Russian Orthodox Church: “The True Church is only the Orthodox Church. Everything else – there is no salvation.” That is, any other church for such a priest is disastrous.
-Have you told anyone about your leaving the Russian Orthodox Church?
No one except your family. My departure coincided with the period of dual power, when Vincent left and Metropolitan Kirill (Nakonechny) took his place. Nobody cared about me, since at that time there were personnel changes in the diocese. I didn't say anything to anyone and left.
- Why didn’t they tell you?
I didn't want any unnecessary complications. If Metropolitan Kirill had found out about this, they would have started dragging me onto his carpet, getting under his skin. I didn't need any extra interrogations. The decision was made, and I was not interested in justifying it to the Orthodox hierarchs. The Russian Orthodox Church would start writing letters to Catholics saying that such and such is coming to you. I was quite realistically afraid for my reputation. They could simply write slander against me. For the Russian Orthodox Church this is quite realistic; anything could be expected from them. I know one priest who some time ago fled Russia with his family, fearing for his life. In order to avoid a scandal that the Russian Orthodox Church could turn against Catholics and ruin relations with them, they decided to move me to Latin America.
- For what reason was it necessary to leave so far?
So that they don’t even try to somehow look for and influence me and those people who accepted me into the Catholic Church. If I had gone to a country that borders Russia, the Russian Orthodox Church could have written to the hierarch who received me. And then they sent me so far away that any dialogue was already difficult.
- How did the Yekaterinburg diocese react to your departure from the Russian Orthodox Church?
According to my friends, the canonical process has begun in the diocese. They wanted to ban me from the priesthood in absentia. Suitable canons were immediately found. In general, law enforcement in the Russian Orthodox Church is a separate issue, very similar to Russian legal proceedings. The canons in the Russian Orthodox Church are remembered only when someone needs to be ground into powder. In this case, they immediately begin to remember all the Ecumenical and local councils, and apply all the punishments. I don't know how my process ended. Maybe I was banned. As far as I understand, it died down over time. I disappeared for everyone. I cannot be summoned to a church court. All this never went to the Moscow Patriarchate. I just disappeared. Six months later, seeing that there were no negative consequences, I continued my studies at the Greek Catholic seminary in Ukraine.
- Why Greek Catholic? After all, it was originally about Catholicism?
The Greek Catholic Church is also part of the Catholic Church. I decided to maintain my ritual, since I served as an Orthodox deacon for many years, it became my tradition. The Greek Catholic Church has its own patriarch in Kyiv, who reports to the Pope.
- Were you disappointed when you became acquainted with the underside of the Greek Catholic priesthood?
No. Did not have. I have only been in the Greek Catholic Church for three years, but the first thing that won me over is that the bishop is truly a father figure to the priests. The bishop can scold, even punish, but this does not turn into persecution of the priest, as in the Russian Orthodox Church. The Orthodox bishop will not calm down until he lives with the light of the priest. It's like a blood feud.
I had to sit with the patriarch of the Greek Catholic Church, I freely expressed my thoughts and vision on certain issues in front of him. This was the attitude towards all priests.
- After returning to Yekaterinburg, has anything changed for you?
I lost many friends because of the transition. People, considering me a traitor, thought it best to stop communicating with me. Although there were also those who were sympathetic to my choice, which was a surprise to me. I explain this by the fact that there are people who think about the injustice that exists in the Russian Orthodox Church. I believe that fish look where it is deeper, and people look where it is better. There is nothing wrong with finding for yourself that church, that community that most closely matches your views and vision of human relations, that community and that church where you can fully realize yourself.
Questions from a Political Council correspondent
On December 4, 2015, the VII All-Russian festival on the theme of safety and rescue of people “Constellation of Courage” was held in Moscow. The winners of the festival's competitive nominations were rescuers, firefighters, dog handlers, divers, journalists and ordinary people who came to the aid of their neighbors in a moment of danger.
As part of the festival, the chairman and 10 other clergy of the Russian Orthodox Church who provided assistance to victims in emergency situations were awarded medals from the Ministry of the Russian Federation for Civil Defense, Emergencies and Disaster Relief (EMERCOM).
On this morning, Bishop Panteleimon celebrated the Divine Liturgy in Moscow. Representatives of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Russia were present at the service on the feast of the Entry into the Temple of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
“Priests help heal the emotional wounds that remain for people who have come into contact with the tragedy,” said Bishop Panteleimon. — People sometimes lose faith because trouble happened to them. The devil wants to lead us to despair, despondency or embitterment, but sorrows are allowed so that we rise above what happened. God calls to resist evil, to resist it. The priest, in a sense, is also an employee of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, only freelance. He also deals with emergency situations, because people often come to the temple after the death of loved ones or other tragedies, and he helps them survive what happened and become better.”
According to the chairman of the Synodal Department for Charity, the Russian Orthodox Church has established long-term cooperation with the Ministry of Emergency Situations. In 2010, an agreement was signed between the Church and the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations on cooperation in providing assistance to the affected population in emergency situations, a number of clergy took courses at the Ministry of Emergency Situations and some received diplomas as rescuers, the vicar of His Holiness the Patriarch recalled.
After the service, the head of the Institute of Culture of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, Nikolai Burlyaev, presented Bishop Panteleimon with the medal of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Russia “For the Commonwealth in the Name of Salvation.” The Chairman of the Synodal Department organized and coordinated church-wide assistance to victims of fires in 2010, floods in Krymsk in 2012, victims of floods in the Far East in 2013, and civilians in Ukraine in 2014-2015. Under the leadership of Bishop Panteleimon, a team of Church Assistance in Emergency Situations (CRES) has been created to travel to places where large-scale disasters have occurred and organize a church relief headquarters on the spot.
10 clergymen were awarded medals of the Ministry of Emergency Situations “For excellence in eliminating the consequences of an emergency situation.” The head of the social department, Archimandrite Trifon (Plotnikov), was awarded for organizing assistance to victims of the flood in Krymsk in 2012, a number of floods in 2013, and humanitarian assistance to refugees from Ukraine.
The secretary of the diocesan administration, who previously held the position of secretary, Archimandrite Innokenty (Kosarikhin) and the rector of the Church of the Holy Great Martyr George the Victorious in the city of Khabarovsk, Archpriest Sergius Meshcheryakov, organized assistance to flood victims in the Far East in 2013.
The executive secretary of the Synodal Department for Charity, Hegumen Seraphim (Kravchenko), participated in providing assistance to affected refugees as a result of the armed conflict in Lebanon in 2006 and victims of the armed conflict in South Ossetia in 2008. Father Seraphim is a member of the Church-wide headquarters for assistance to injured civilians in Ukraine in 2014-2015.
Secretary Abbot Tikhon (Tyuryumin) helped victims of an accident on the Khabarovsk-Komsomolsk-on-Amur highway in August 2015, when 15 people died and another 63 were injured. A seriously wounded priest pulled victims from mangled buses. When emergency assistance arrived, he was one of the last to agree to be transported to the hospital.
The secretary, Archpriest Georgy Balakin, and the deputy chairman of the social department, Archpriest Sergiy Kholodkov, were awarded for helping those affected by the flood in the Siberian Federal District, which occurred at the end of May 2014.
Archpriest Valentin Skrypnikov, rector of the parish of St. Innocent in the Moscow village of Vtorchermet in the city of Volgograd, organized assistance to victims of terrorist attacks in Volgograd on October 21 and December 29-30, 2013.
The head of the social department, Priest Evgeniy Osyak, and the head of the social department, Priest Vladislav Kasyanov, were awarded for organizing assistance to refugees from Ukraine.
On the same day, the All-Russian festival on the theme of safety and rescue of people “Constellation of Courage” was held in the fundamental library of Moscow State University. The festival is taking place for the seventh time. This year it was dedicated to the 25th anniversary of the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations.
In 2015, the emergency response system was significantly strengthened, Vladimir Puchkov, Russian Minister for Civil Defense, Emergencies and Disaster Relief, noted in his speech. According to the minister, today the most modern technologies are used in the prevention and prevention of various dangers and natural disasters. Modern comprehensive fire and rescue garrisons have been formed in all constituent entities of the Russian Federation, and natural fires are effectively fought. The 112 emergency call system is being gradually introduced, to which about 70% of Russians already have access. Since June 15 of this year, a branch of the National Center for Crisis Management has been opened in Geneva, Russian specialists in this field are already working in Europe and other countries of the world, the head of the department noted.
“There is a lot of evil in the world, but, as St. John Chrysostom says, all the evil of this world is just a drop before the ocean. The ocean is the goodness and goodness of God, which, unlike the ocean, have no boundaries,” Bishop Panteleimon noted in his speech. - How can you defeat evil? We destroy evil with sacrifice. A person who sacrifices his time, his strength, his life to help his neighbors is a conqueror of evil. With the help of God, he accomplishes a feat following the example of Christ, Who destroyed evil and its power.” Many rescuers show true love, strong, strong and courageous, which conquers all evil, added Bishop Panteleimon.
The selection of winners of the “Constellation of Courage” festival takes place in three stages. As part of the interregional and regional stages of the festival, professional skills competitions are held throughout the country, where the most worthy representatives of the profession are selected, as well as the best structural units of the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations. In November, the results of the final federal stage are summed up. Among the winners of the festival's competitive nominations are not only rescuers and firefighters, but also ordinary people who showed courage and came to the aid of their neighbors in a moment of danger. This year, Archpriest Andrei Bliznyuk and Priest Philip Ilyashenko are certified rescuers, employees of the Church Assistance in Emergency Situations group of the Synodal Department for Church Charity.
Diakonia.ru / Patriarchy.ru
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(31 votes: 3.8 out of 5)Yu. Ruban
HIERARCHY(Greek ἱεραρχία - literally means “hierarchy”) is a term used in Christian theological terminology in a double meaning.
1) “Heavenly hierarchy” - a set of heavenly forces, angels, presented in accordance with their traditional gradation as intermediaries between God and people.
2) “Church hierarchy,” which, according to Pseudo- (who first used this term), is a continuation of the heavenly hierarchy: a three-degree sacred order, whose representatives communicate divine grace to the church people through worship. Currently, the hierarchy is a “class” of clergy (clergy) divided into three degrees (“ranks”) and in a broad sense corresponds to the concept of clergy.
For greater clarity, the structure of the modern hierarchical ladder of the Russian Orthodox Church can be represented by the following table:
|
Hierarchical degrees |
White clergy (married or celibate) |
Black clergy (monastic) |
|
III Episcopate (bishopric) |
patriarch metropolitan archbishop bishop |
|
|
II Presbytery (priesthood) |
protopresbyter archpriest priest (presbyter, priest) |
archimandrite abbot hieromonk |
|
I Diaconate |
protodeacon deacon |
archdeacon hierodeacon |
The lower clergy (clerics) are outside this three-tier structure: subdeacons, readers, singers, altar servers, sextons, church watchmen and others.
Orthodox, Catholics, as well as representatives of the ancient eastern (“pre-Chalcedonian”) Churches (Armenian, Coptic, Ethiopian, etc.) base their hierarchy on the concept of “apostolic succession.” The latter is understood as a retrospective continuous (!) sequence of a long chain of episcopal consecrations, going back to the apostles themselves, who ordained the first bishops as their sovereign successors. Thus, “apostolic succession” is the concrete (“material”) succession of episcopal ordination. Therefore, the bearers and guardians of internal “apostolic grace” and external hierarchical power in the Church are bishops (bishops). Protestant confessions and sects, as well as our priestless Old Believers, based on this criterion, do not have a hierarchy, since representatives of their “clergy” (leaders of communities and liturgical meetings) are only elected (appointed) for church administrative service, but not possess an internal gift of grace, communicated in the sacrament of the priesthood and which alone gives the right to perform the sacraments. (A special question is about the legality of the Anglican hierarchy, which has long been debated by theologians.)
Representatives of each of the three degrees of the priesthood differ from each other by “grace” granted to them during elevation (ordination) to a specific degree, or by “impersonal holiness,” which is not associated with the subjective qualities of the clergyman. The bishop, as the successor of the apostles, has full liturgical and administrative powers within his diocese. (The head of a local Orthodox Church, autonomous or autocephalous - an archbishop, metropolitan or patriarch - is only “first among equals” within the episcopate of his Church). He has the right to perform all the sacraments, including successively elevating (ordaining) representatives of his clergy and clergy to sacred degrees. Only the consecration of a bishop is carried out by a “council” or at least two other bishops, as determined by the head of the Church and the synod attached to him. A representative of the second degree of priesthood (priest) has the right to perform all sacraments, except for any consecration or consecration (even as a reader). His complete dependence on the bishop, who in the Ancient Church was the predominant celebrant of all the sacraments, is also expressed in the fact that he performs the sacrament of confirmation in the presence of the chrism previously consecrated by the patriarch (replacing the laying on of the hands of the bishop on the head of a person), and the Eucharist - only with the presence of the antimins he received from the ruling bishop. A representative of the lowest level of the hierarchy, a deacon, is only a co-celebrant and assistant of a bishop or priest, who does not have the right to perform any sacrament or divine service according to the “priestly rite.” In case of emergency, he can only baptize according to the “secular rite”; and he performs his cell (home) prayer rule and daily cycle services (the Hours) according to the Book of Hours or the “secular” Prayer Book, without priestly exclamations and prayers.
All representatives within one hierarchical degree are equal to each other “by grace,” which gives them the right to a strictly defined range of liturgical powers and actions (in this aspect, a newly ordained village priest is no different from an honored protopresbyter - the rector of the main parish church of the Russian Church). The difference is only in administrative seniority and honor. This is emphasized by the ceremony of successive elevation to the ranks of one degree of priesthood (deacon - to protodeacon, hieromonk - to abbot, etc.). It occurs at the Liturgy during the entrance with the Gospel outside the altar, in the middle of the temple, as if awarded with some element of vestment (gaiter, club, miter), which symbolizes the person’s preservation of the level of “impersonal holiness” given to him at ordination. At the same time, elevation (ordination) to each of the three degrees of priesthood takes place only inside the altar, which means the transition of the ordained to a qualitatively new ontological level of liturgical existence.
The history of the development of the hierarchy in the ancient period of Christianity has not been fully elucidated; only the firm formation of the modern three degrees of the priesthood by the 3rd century is indisputable. with the simultaneous disappearance of the early Christian archaic degrees (prophets, didaskals– “charismatic teachers”, etc.). The formation of the modern order of “ranks” (ranks, or gradations) within each of the three degrees of the hierarchy took much longer. The meaning of their original names, reflecting specific activities, changed significantly. So, abbot (Greek. egu?menos– lit. ruling,presiding, – one root with “hegemon” and “hegemon”!), initially - the head of a monastic community or monastery, whose power is based on personal authority, a spiritually experienced person, but the same monk as the rest of the “brotherhood”, without any sacred degree. Currently, the term "abbot" indicates only a representative of the second rank of the second degree of the priesthood. At the same time, he can be the rector of a monastery, a parish church (or an ordinary priest of this church), but also simply a full-time employee of a religious educational institution or an economic (or other) department of the Moscow Patriarchate, whose official duties are not directly related to his priestly rank. Therefore, in this case, elevation to another rank (rank) is simply a promotion in rank, an official award “for length of service,” for an anniversary or for another reason (similar to the assignment of another military degree not for participation in military campaigns or maneuvers).
3) In scientific and common usage, the word “hierarchy” means:
a) arrangement of parts or elements of the whole (of any design or logically complete structure) in descending order - from highest to lowest (or vice versa);
b) strict arrangement of official ranks and titles in the order of their subordination, both civilian and military (“hierarchical ladder”). The latter represent the typologically closest structure to the sacred hierarchy and a three-degree structure (rank and file - officers - generals).
Lit.: The clergy of the ancient universal Church from the times of the apostles to the 9th century. M., 1905; Zom R. Lebedev A.P. On the question of the origin of the early Christian hierarchy. Sergiev Posad, 1907; MirkovicL. Orthodox Liturgics. Prvi opshti deo. Another edition. Beograd, 1965 (in Serbian); Felmy K.H. Introduction to Modern Orthodox Theology. M., 1999. S. 254-271; Afanasiev N., prot. Holy Spirit. K., 2005; The Study of Liturgy: Revised edition / Ed. by C. Jones, G. Wainwright, E. Yarnold S. J., P. Bradshaw. – 2nd ed. London - New York, 1993 (Chap. IV: Ordination. P. 339-398).
BISHOP
BISHOP (Greek) archiereus) – in pagan religions – “high priest” (this is the literal meaning of this term), in Rome – Pontifex maximus; in the Septuagint - the highest representative of the Old Testament priesthood - the high priest (). In the New Testament - the naming of Jesus Christ (), who did not belong to the Aaronic priesthood (see Melchizedek). In the modern Orthodox Greek-Slavic tradition, it is the generic name for all representatives of the highest degree of hierarchy, or “episcopal” (i.e., bishops themselves, archbishops, metropolitans and patriarchs). See Episcopate, Clergy, Hierarchy, Clergy.
DEACON
DEACON, DIACON (Greek. diakonos- “servant”, “minister”) - in ancient Christian communities - an assistant to the bishop leading the Eucharistic meeting. The first mention of D. is in the epistles of St. Paul (and). His closeness to a representative of the highest degree of the priesthood was expressed in the fact that the administrative powers of the D. (actually the archdeacon) often placed him above the priest (especially in the West). The church tradition, which genetically traces the modern diaconate to the “seven men” of the book of the Acts of the Apostles (6:2-6 - not named at all by D. here!), is scientifically very vulnerable.
Currently, D. is a representative of the lowest, first degree of the church hierarchy, “a minister of the word of God,” whose liturgical duties consist primarily of loud reading of Holy Scripture (“evangelization”), proclamation of litanies on behalf of those praying, and censing of the temple. The church charter provides for his assistance to the priest performing the proskomedia. D. does not have the right to perform any divine service and even to put on his own liturgical clothes, but must every time ask for the “blessing” of the clergyman. The purely auxiliary liturgical function of D. is emphasized by his elevation to this rank at the Liturgy after the Eucharistic canon (and even at the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts, which does not contain the Eucharistic canon). (At the request of the ruling bishop, this can happen at other times.) He is only a “minister (servant) during the sacred rite” or a “Levite” (). A priest can do without D. entirely (this occurs mainly in poor rural parishes). D.'s liturgical vestments: surplice, orarion and shoulder straps. Non-liturgical clothing, like that of a priest, is a cassock and cassock (but without a cross over the cassock, worn by the latter). The official address to D., found in old literature, is “Your gospel” or “Your blessing” (not used now). The address “Your Reverence” can be considered competent only in relation to the monastic D. The everyday address is “Father D.” or “father named”, or simply by name and patronymic.
The term “D.”, without specification (“simply” D.), indicates his belonging to the white clergy. A representative of the same lower rank in the black clergy (monastic D.) is called “hierodeacon” (lit. “hierodeacon”). He has the same vestments as D. from the white clergy; but outside of worship he wears the clothes common to all monks. The representative of the second (and last) rank of deaconate among the white clergy is the “protodeacon” (“first D.”), historically the eldest (in the liturgical aspect) among several D. serving together in a large temple (cathedral). It is distinguished by a “double orar” and a violet kamilavka (given as a reward). The reward at present is the rank of protodeacon itself, so there can be more than one protodeacon in one cathedral. The first among several hierodeacons (in a monastery) is called “archdeacon” (“senior D.”). A hierodeacon who constantly serves with a bishop is also usually elevated to the rank of archdeacon. Like the protodeacon, he has a double orarion and a kamilavka (the latter is black); non-liturgical clothes are the same as those worn by the hierodeacon.
In ancient times there was an institution of deaconesses (“ministers”), whose duties consisted mainly of caring for sick women, preparing women for baptism, and serving the priests at their baptism “for the sake of propriety.” St. (+403) explains in detail the special position of deaconesses in connection with their participation in this sacrament, while decisively excluding them from participation in the Eucharist. But, according to the Byzantine tradition, deaconesses received a special ordination (similar to that of a deacon) and participated in the communion of women; at the same time, they had the right to enter the altar and take St. cup directly from the throne (!). The revival of the institution of deaconesses in Western Christianity has been observed since the 19th century. In 1911, the first community of deaconesses was supposed to be opened in Moscow. The issue of reviving this institution was discussed at the Local Council of the Russian Orthodox Church in 1917-18, but, due to the circumstances of the time, no decision was made.
Lit.: Zom R. Church system in the first centuries of Christianity. M., 1906, p. 196-207; Kirill (Gundyaev), archimandrite. On the issue of the origin of the diaconate // Theological works. M., 1975. Sat. 13, p. 201-207; IN. Deaconesses in the Orthodox Church. St. Petersburg, 1912.
DIACONATE
DIACONATE (DIACONATE) - the lowest degree of the Orthodox church hierarchy, including 1) deacon and protodeacon (representatives of the “white clergy”) and 2) hierodeacon and archdeacon (representatives of the “black clergy.” See Deacon, Hierarchy.
EPISCOPATH
EPISCOPATE is the collective name for the highest (third) degree of priesthood in the Orthodox church hierarchy. Representatives of E., also collectively referred to as bishops or hierarchs, are currently distributed, in order of administrative seniority, into the following ranks.
Bishop(Greek episkopos - lit. overseer, guardian) - an independent and authorized representative of the “local church” - the diocese headed by him, therefore called the “bishopric”. His distinctive non-liturgical clothing is the cassock. black hood and staff. Address - Your Eminence. A special variety - the so-called. "vicar bishop" (lat. vicarius- deputy, vicar), who is only an assistant to the ruling bishop of a large diocese (metropolis). He is under his direct supervision, carrying out assignments on the affairs of the diocese, and bears the title of one of the cities on its territory. There can be one vicar bishop in a diocese (in the St. Petersburg Metropolis, with the title “Tikhvinsky”) or several (in the Moscow Metropolis).
Archbishop(“senior bishop”) - a representative of the second rank E. The ruling bishop is usually elevated to this rank for some merit or after a certain time (as a reward). He differs from the bishop only in the presence of a pearl cross sewn on his black hood (above his forehead). Address - Your Eminence.
Metropolitan(from Greek meter– “mother” and polis- “city”), in the Christian Roman Empire - the bishop of the metropolis (“mother of cities”), the main city of a region or province (diocese). A metropolitan can also be the head of a Church that does not have the status of a patriarchate (the Russian Church until 1589 was ruled by a metropolitan with the title first of Kiev and then of Moscow). The rank of metropolitan is currently bestowed on a bishop either as a reward (after the rank of archbishop), or in the case of transfer to a department that has the status of a metropolitan see (St. Petersburg, Krutitskaya). A distinctive feature is a white hood with a pearl cross. Address - Your Eminence.
Exarch(Greek chief, leader) - the name of a church-hierarchical degree, dating back to the 4th century. Initially, this title was borne only by representatives of the most prominent metropolises (some later turned into patriarchates), as well as extraordinary commissioners of the Patriarchs of Constantinople, who were sent by them to the dioceses on special assignments. In Russia, this title was first adopted in 1700, after the death of Patr. Adrian, locum tenens of the patriarchal throne. The head of the Georgian Church (since 1811) was also called Exarch during the period when it became part of the Russian Orthodox Church. In the 60s - 80s. 20th century some foreign parishes of the Russian Church were united on a territorial basis into the “Western European”, “Central European”, “Central and South American” exarchates. The governing hierarchs could be of lower rank than the metropolitan. A special position was occupied by the Metropolitan of Kiev, who bore the title “Patriarchal Exarch of Ukraine”. Currently, only the Metropolitan of Minsk (“Patriarchal Exarch of All Belarus”) bears the title of exarch.
Patriarch(lit. “ancestor”) - a representative of the highest administrative rank of E., - the head, otherwise the primate (“standing in front”), of the Autocephalous Church. A characteristic distinctive feature is a white headdress with a pearl cross attached above it. The official title of the head of the Russian Orthodox Church is “His Holiness Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus'.” Address - Your Holiness.
Lit.: Charter on the governance of the Russian Orthodox Church. M., 1989; see the article Hierarchy.
JEREY
JEREY (Greek) hiereus) - in a broad sense - “sacrificer” (“priest”), “priest” (from hiereuo - “to sacrifice”). In Greek language is used both to designate the servants of pagan (mythological) gods, and the true One God, i.e., Old Testament and Christian priests. (In the Russian tradition, pagan priests are called “priests.”) In the narrow sense, in Orthodox liturgical terminology, I. is a representative of the lowest rank of the second degree of the Orthodox priesthood (see table). Synonyms: priest, presbyter, priest (obsolete).
HIPODIACON
HYPODEAKON, HYPODIAKON (from Greek. hupo– “under” and diakonos- “deacon”, “minister”) - an Orthodox clergyman, occupying a position in the hierarchy of the lower clergy below the deacon, his assistant (which fixes the naming), but above the reader. When consecrated into Islam, the dedicatee (reader) is clothed over the surplice in a cross-shaped orarion, and the bishop reads a prayer with the laying of his hand on his head. In ancient times, I. was classified as a clergyman and no longer had the right to marry (if he was single before being elevated to this rank).
Traditionally, the duties of the priest included taking care of sacred vessels and altar covers, guarding the altar, leading catechumens out of the church during the Liturgy, etc. The emergence of the subdiaconate as a special institution dates back to the 1st half of the 3rd century. and are associated with the custom of the Roman Church not to exceed the number of deacons in one city above seven (see). Currently, the subdeacon's service can only be seen during the bishop's service. Subdeacons are not members of the clergy of one church, but are assigned to the staff of a specific bishop. They accompany him during mandatory trips to the churches of the diocese, serve during services - they dress him before the start of the service, supply him with water for washing his hands, participate in specific ceremonies and actions that are absent during regular services - and also carry out various extra-church assignments. Most often, I. are students of religious educational institutions, for whom this service becomes a necessary step towards further ascent up the hierarchical ladder. The bishop himself tonsures his I. into monasticism, ordains him to the priesthood, preparing him for further independent service. There is an important continuity in this: many modern hierarchs went through the “subdeaconal schools” of prominent bishops of the older generation (sometimes even pre-revolutionary consecration), inheriting their rich liturgical culture, system of church-theological views and manner of communication. See Deacon, Hierarchy, Ordination.
Lit.: Zom R. Church system in the first centuries of Christianity. M., 1906; Veniamin (Rumovsky-Krasnopevkov V.F.), archbishop. New Tablet, or Explanation of the Church, Liturgy and all services and church utensils. M., 1992. T. 2. P. 266-269; Works of the blessed one. Simeon, Archbishop Thessalonian. M., 1994. pp. 213-218.
CLERGY
CLER (Greek - “lot”, “share inherited by lot”) - in a broad sense - a set of clergy (clergy) and clergy (subdeacons, readers, singers, sextons, altar servers). “Clerics are so called because they are elected to church degrees in the same way as Matthias, appointed by the apostles, was chosen by lot” (Blessed Augustine). In relation to temple (church) service, people are divided into the following categories.
I. In the Old Testament: 1) the “clergy” (high priests, priests and “Levites” (lower ministers) and 2) the people. The principle of the hierarchy here is “tribal”, therefore only representatives of the “tribe” (tribe) of Levi are “clerics”: the high priests are direct representatives of the clan of Aaron; priests are representatives of the same family, but not necessarily direct; Levites are representatives of other clans of the same tribe. “People” are representatives of all other tribes of Israel (as well as non-Israelites who accepted the religion of Moses).
II. In the New Testament: 1) “clergy” (clergy and clergy) and 2) the people. The national criterion is abolished. All Christian men who meet certain canonical standards can become priests and clergymen. Women are allowed to participate (auxiliary positions: “deaconesses” in the Ancient Church, singers, servants in the temple, etc.), but they are not classified as “clergy” (see Deacon). “The people” (the laity) are all other Christians. In the Ancient Church, the “people,” in turn, were divided into 1) laity and 2) monks (when this institution arose). The latter differed from the “laity” only in their way of life, occupying the same position in relation to the clergy (acceptance of holy orders was considered incompatible with the monastic ideal). However, this criterion was not absolute, and soon monks began to occupy the highest church positions. The content of the concept of K. has changed over the centuries, acquiring rather contradictory meanings. Thus, in the broadest sense, the concept of K. includes, along with priests and deacons, the highest clergy (episcopal, or bishopric) - so in: clergy (ordo) and laity (plebs). On the contrary, in a narrow meaning, also recorded in the first centuries of Christianity, K. are only clergy below the deacon (our clergy). In the Old Russian Church, the clergy is a collection of altar and non-altar ministers, with the exception of the bishop. Modern K. in a broad sense includes both clergy (ordained clergy) and clergy, or clerics (see Clergy).
Lit.: On the Old Testament priesthood // Christ. Reading. 1879. Part 2; , priest Controversy on the issue of the Old Testament priesthood and the essence of priestly ministry in general. St. Petersburg, 1882; and under the article Hierarchy.
LOCATOR
LOCAL TENNS – a person temporarily performing the duties of a high-ranking state or church figure (synonyms: viceroy, exarch, vicar). In the Russian church tradition, only “M. patriarchal throne,” a bishop who governs the Church after the death of one patriarch until the election of another. The most famous in this capacity are Met. , mit. Peter (Polyansky) and Metropolitan. Sergius (Stragorodsky), who became Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus' in 1943.
PATRIARCH
PATRIARCH (PATRIARCHES) (Greek. patriarches –“ancestor”, “forefather”) is an important term in the biblical Christian religious tradition, used mainly in the following meanings.
1. The Bible calls the P.-mi, firstly, the ancestors of all mankind (“antediluvian P.-i”), and secondly, the ancestors of the people of Israel (“the forefathers of the people of God”). All of them lived before the Mosaic Law (see Old Testament) and therefore were the exclusive guardians of the true religion. The first ten P., from Adam to Noah, whose symbolic genealogy is represented by the book of Genesis (chap. 5), were endowed with extraordinary longevity, necessary to preserve the promises entrusted to them in this first earthly history after the Fall. Of these, Enoch stands out, who lived “only” 365 years, “because God took him” (), and his son Methuselah, on the contrary, lived longer than the others, 969 years, and died, according to Jewish tradition, in the year of the flood (hence the expression “ Methuselah, or Methuselah, age"). The second category of biblical stories begins with Abraham, the founder of a new generation of believers.
2. P. is a representative of the highest rank of the Christian church hierarchy. The title of P. in a strict canonical meaning was established by the Fourth Ecumenical (Chalcedon) Council in 451, which assigned it to the bishops of the five main Christian centers, determining their order in diptychs according to “seniority of honor.” The first place belonged to the bishop of Rome, followed by the bishops of Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem. Later, the title of P. was also received by the heads of other Churches, and the Constantinople P., after the break with Rome (1054), received primacy in the Orthodox world.
In Rus', the patriarchate (as a form of government of the Church) was established in 1589. (before this, the Church was ruled by metropolitans with the title first “Kiev” and then “Moscow and All Rus'”). Later, the Russian patriarch was approved by the Eastern patriarchs as fifth in seniority (after the Jerusalem one). The first period of the patriarchate lasted 111 years and actually ended with the death of the tenth Patriarch Adrian (1700), and legally - in 1721, with the abolition of the very institution of the patriarchate and its replacement by a collective body of church government - the Holy Governing Synod. (From 1700 to 1721, the Church was ruled by Metropolitan Stefan Yavorsky of Ryazan with the title “Locum Tenens of the Patriarchal Throne.”) The second patriarchal period, which began with the restoration of the patriarchate in 1917, continues to the present day.
Currently, the following Orthodox patriarchates exist: Constantinople (Turkey), Alexandria (Egypt), Antioch (Syria), Jerusalem, Moscow, Georgian, Serbian, Romanian and Bulgarian.
In addition, the title of P. is held by the heads of some other Christian (Eastern) Churches - Armenian (P. Catholicos), Maronite, Nestorian, Ethiopian, etc. Since the Crusades in the Christian East there have been so-called. "Latin patriarchs" who are canonically subordinate to the Roman Church. Some Western Catholic bishops (Venetian, Lisbon) also have this same title, in the form of an honorary distinction.
Lit.: Old Testament doctrine in the time of the patriarchs. St. Petersburg, 1886; Roberson R. Eastern Christian Churches. St. Petersburg, 1999.
SEXTON
SEXTON (or “paramonar” - Greek. paramonarios,– from paramone, lat. mansio – “stay”, “finding”") - a church clerk, a lower servant ("deacon"), who initially performed the function of a guard of sacred places and monasteries (outside and inside the fence). P. is mentioned in the 2nd rule of the IV Ecumenical Council (451). In the Latin translation of church rules - “mansionarius”, the gatekeeper in the temple. considers it his duty to light lamps during worship and calls him “the guardian of the church.” Perhaps in ancient times the Byzantine P. corresponded to the Western villicus (“manager”, “steward”) - the person who controlled the selection and use of church things during worship (our later sacristan or sacellarium). According to the “Teaching News” of the Slavic Service Book (calling P. “servant of the altar”), his duties are to “... bring prosphora, wine, water, incense and fire into the altar, light and extinguish candles, prepare and serve the censer to the priest and warmth, often and with reverence to clean and clean the entire altar, as well as the floors from all dirt and the walls and ceiling from dust and cobwebs” (Sluzhebnik. Part II. M., 1977. P. 544-545). In the Typikon, P. is called “paraecclesiarch” or “kandila igniter” (from kandela, lampas - “lamp”, “lamp”). The northern (left) doors of the iconostasis, leading to that part of the altar where the indicated sexton accessories are located and which are mainly used by P., are therefore called “sextons”. At present, in the Orthodox Church there is no special position of a priest: in monasteries, the duties of a priest mainly lie with novices and ordinary monks (who have not been ordained), and in parish practice they are distributed among readers, altar servers, watchmen and cleaners. Hence the expression “read like a sexton” and the name of the watchman’s room at the temple – “sexton”.
PRESBYTER
PRESBYTER (Greek) presbuteros“elder”, “elder”) - in liturgical. terminology – a representative of the lowest rank of the second degree of the Orthodox hierarchy (see table). Synonyms: priest, priest, priest (obsolete).
PRESBYTERMITY
PRESBYTERSM (priesthood, priesthood) - the general (tribal) name of representatives of the second degree of the Orthodox hierarchy (see table)
PRIT
PRECHT, or CHURCH PRECEPTION (glor. whine– “composition”, “assembly”, from Ch. lament- “to count”, “to join”) - in the narrow sense - a set of lower clergy, outside the three-degree hierarchy. In a broad sense, it is a collection of both clergy, or clergy (see clergy), and the clerks themselves, who together make up the staff of one Orthodox Church. temple (church). The latter include the psalm-reader (reader), sexton, or sacristan, candle-bearer, and singers. In pre-rev. In Russia, the composition of the parish was determined by states approved by the consistory and the bishop, and depended on the size of the parish. For a parish with a population of up to 700 souls, men. gender was supposed to consist of a priest and a psalm-reader; for a parish with a large population - a P. of a priest, a deacon and a psalm-reader. P. populous and wealthy parishes could consist of several. priests, deacons and clergy. The bishop requested permission from the Synod to establish a new P. or change staff. P.'s income consisted of ch. arr. from the fee for completing the requirement. The village churches were provided with land (at least 33 tithes per village), some of them lived in the church. houses, that is. part with gray 19th century received a government salary. According to the church The 1988 statute defines the P. as consisting of a priest, a deacon, and a psalm-reader. The number of members of the P. changes at the request of the parish and in accordance with its needs, but cannot be less than 2 people. - priest and psalm-reader. The head of P. is the rector of the temple: priest or archpriest.
PRIEST – see Priest, Presbyter, Hierarchy, Clergy, Ordination
ORDINARY - see Ordination
ORDINARY
ORDINARY is the external form of the sacrament of the priesthood, its culminating moment is actually the act of laying on hands on a correctly chosen protege who is being elevated to the priesthood.
In ancient Greek language word cheirotonia means casting votes in the people's assembly by show of hands, i.e. elections. In modern Greek language (and church usage) we find two similar terms: cheirotonia, ordination - “ordination” and cheirothesia, hirothesia - “laying on of hands”. The Greek Euchologius calls each ordination (ordination) - from the reader to the bishop (see Hierarchy) - X. In the Russian Official and liturgical manuals, the Greek is used as left without translation. terms and their glory. equivalents, which are artificially different, although not completely strictly.
Ordination 1) of the bishop: ordination and X.; 2) presbyter (priest) and deacon: ordination and X.; 3) subdeacon: H., consecration and ordination; 4) reader and singer: dedication and consecration. In practice, they usually speak of the “consecration” of a bishop and the “ordination” of a priest and deacon, although both words have an identical meaning, going back to the same Greek. term.
T. arr., X. imparts the grace of the priesthood and is an elevation (“ordination”) to one of the three degrees of the priesthood; it is performed in the altar and at the same time the prayer “Divine grace...” is read. Chirotesia is not “ordination” in the proper sense, but only serves as a sign of admission of a person (clerk, - see) to perform some lower church service. Therefore, it is performed in the middle of the temple and without reading the prayer “Divine Grace...” An exception to this terminological differentiation is allowed only in relation to the subdeacon, which for the present time is an anachronism, a reminder of his place in the ancient church hierarchy.
In the ancient Byzantine handwritten Euchologies, the rite of the X. deaconess, which was once widespread in the Orthodox world, similar to the X. deacon (also before the Holy Altar and with the reading of the prayer “Divine grace...”) was preserved. Printed books no longer contain it. Euchologius J. Gohar gives this order not in the main text, but among the variant manuscripts, the so-called. variae lectiones (Goar J. Eucologion sive Rituale Graecorum. Ed. secunda. Venetiis, 1730. P. 218-222).
In addition to these terms for designating ordination to fundamentally different hierarchical degrees - the priestly and lower “clerical” ones, there are also others that indicate elevation to various “church ranks” (ranks, “positions”) within one degree of the priesthood. “The work of an archdeacon, ... abbot, ... archimandrite”; “Following the creation of a protopresbyter”; “Erection of archdeacon or protodeacon, protopresbyter or archpriest, abbot or archimandrite.”
Lit.: Henchman. Kyiv, 1904; Neselovsky A. The ranks of consecrations and consecrations. Kamenets-Podolsk, 1906; A guide to the study of the rules of worship of the Orthodox Church. M., 1995. S. 701-721; Vagaggini C. L » ordinazione delle diaconesse nella tradizione greca e bizantina // Orientalia Christiana Periodica. Roma, 1974. N 41; or T. under the articles Bishop, Hierarchy, Deacon, Priest, Priesthood.
APPLICATION
ENOCH
INOC - Old Russian. the name of a monk, otherwise - a monk. In zh. R. – monk, let’s lie. – nun (nun, monk).
The origin of the name is explained in two ways. 1. I. - “lonely” (as a translation of the Greek monos - “alone”, “lonely”; monachos - “hermit”, “monk”). “A monk will be called, for he alone speaks to God day and night” (“Pandects” Nikon Montenegrin, 36). 2. Another interpretation derives the name I. from the other way of life of someone who has accepted monasticism: he “otherwise must lead his life from worldly behavior” ( , priest Complete Church Slavonic dictionary. M., 1993, p. 223).
In modern Russian Orthodox church usage, a “monk” is not called a monk in the proper sense, but Rassophoran(Greek: “wearing a cassock”) novice - until he is tonsured into the “minor schema” (conditioned by the final acceptance of monastic vows and the naming of a new name). I. - like a “novice monk”; In addition to the cassock, he also receives a kamilavka. I. retains his worldly name and is free to stop completing his novitiate at any time and return to his former life, which, according to Orthodox laws, is no longer possible for a monk.
Monasticism (in the old meaning) - monasticism, blueberry. To monk - to lead a monastic life.
LAYMAN
LAYMAN - one who lives in the world, a secular (“worldly”) person who does not belong to the clergy or monasticism.
M. is a representative of the church people, taking a prayerful part in church services. At home, he can perform all the services given in the Book of Hours, Book of Prayer or other liturgical collection, omitting the priestly exclamations and prayers, as well as the deacon’s litanies (if they are contained in the liturgical text). In case of emergency (in the absence of a clergyman and in mortal danger), M. can perform the sacrament of baptism. In the first centuries of Christianity, the rights of the laity were incomparably superior to modern ones, extending to the election of not only the rector of the parish church, but even the diocesan bishop. In ancient and medieval Rus', M. were subject to the general princely judicial administration. institutions, in contrast to the people of the church, who were under the jurisdiction of the metropolitan and bishop.
Lit.: Afanasyev N. The ministry of the laity in the Church. M., 1995; Filatov S.“Anarchism” of the laity in Russian Orthodoxy: Traditions and prospects // Pages: Journal of Biblical Theology. in-ta ap. Andrey. M., 1999. N 4:1; Minney R. Participation of the laity in religious education in Russia // Ibid.; Laity in the Church: Materials of the international. theologian conference M., 1999.
SACRISTAN
Sacristan (Greek sacellarium, sakellarios):
1) head of the royal clothes, royal bodyguard; 2) in monasteries and cathedrals - the custodian of church utensils, the clergyman.
The Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) has about 40 thousand priests. About 20 thousand of them serve in Russia. This means that since the collapse of the USSR the number of clergy has more than tripled. Who are all these people?
To answer this question, I did a little - who serves in three typical Russian dioceses (Tver, Ufa and Kurgan). It turns out that priests for the most part are not young people: 69% are now between the ages of 37 and 60, and another 13% are over 60. They are well educated - almost 40% graduated from secular universities, often in Moscow and St. Petersburg. What’s funny is that this proportion in the clergy is approximately twice as high as in the episcopate, which is appointed to lead them. But, as you might guess, people with secondary and incomplete secondary education (school, vocational school or technical school) predominate - more than 60%. As a rule, they received additional education at a seminary or Orthodox university. But there are those who did without it.
Numbers, of course, tell us little about why people chose to make worship their profession. According to my observations, there are three main motives and, accordingly, social types of clergy.
Demand executors
Executors of demands are the basis of the clergy as a corporation. They came to church in order to perform the required rituals without much ideological hesitation, realize their purpose and abilities, and receive money for it. As a rule, these are people who are direct and “concrete” in their words and desires, with a low-level secular education. Among them there are people from priestly families; from villages that traditionally produce a large number of priests (there are many of these in Western Ukraine and Moldova); from working and peasant families; as well as former “men in uniform” and provincial cultural workers.
Their life path is usually also straight. In Soviet times it was 8-10 grades of school, then vocational school or technical school, then conscript service in the army. Here a fork in the road arose: dusty work in a blue-collar profession (among the priests of the Ufa Metropolitanate there are former car mechanics, tailors, driver’s assistants, electricians, etc.), joining the professional army-police-bandits, or serving in the church.
fulfillers of demands are limited, but active - they build churches, find money, take care of social groups from which they themselves came - military, Cossacks, prisoners
The “entrance ticket” to become a priest in the late 1980s and 1990s did not cost anything - they accepted all men who had no external defects or obvious mental disabilities. And he gave ordination a lot. In a year, a young mechanic could become a respected person in the area. This did not even require a seminary (then four, now five years of study), since there were not enough priests. “Pious tractor drivers” (church meme) were ordained without any “spiritual education.”
If you ignore the homophobic rhetoric of Russian Orthodox Church officials, in practice the Russian Orthodox Church is a fairly open and friendly world for homosexuals. As a rule, rejected by his peers, “not like everyone else,” the boy finds a warm welcome in the temple, where children and teenagers are always needed for various obediences. And already from middle school he begins to make a career in the temple.
If you don’t pay attention to the homophobic rhetoric of officials, the Russian Orthodox Church is a fairly open and friendly world for homosexuals
Since there are many “like these” in the church environment, the young man joins the system of informal contacts, which quickly determines his place in the sun. As a rule, within a few years, from the beginning of his independent life, he becomes a member of a homogeneous youth male company, hanging out with an influential priest or bishop. The earliest of such companies that I found dates back to the mid-1960s - internal church critics directly called it a “harem” in a letter to the Moscow Patriarchate.
The evidence collected by Kuraev, and my interviews and observations, suggests that this type of social organization is observed in dozens of dioceses. The positions of the bishop's driver, subdeacon, regent and singers of the bishop's choir are reserved for young people. The favorite often holds the position of personal secretary or cell attendant of the bishop (an orderly with the right, sanctioned by church practice, to stay overnight in the same room with the boss), less often as a secretary of the diocesan administration. At this level, a certain separation occurs - someone, having turned around, leaves the church forever, someone goes to monasteries, others receive an education and become parish priests.
This is especially true for the “violet” - this is how the church calls those “gay” who are so unable to hide their orientation that the diocesan leadership becomes embarrassed in front of sponsors, and it tries to bring overly open gays to come to the grandmothers who do not understand anything, who are able to interpret any behavior in pious church terminology.
The most intelligent and careful ones become middle-level managers in the diocesan administration or go with their patrons to make a career - to Moscow, to a new diocese, where at the age of 20 you can officially become the “second person” and “drive” “venerable archpriests” (quote from my interview with one such church official in 1997, now he himself is a “venerable archpriest” in one of the Volga regions).
Apparently, this is not a single, subjective definition of one priest, but a certain position consolidated within the Russian Orthodox Church. Tsarebozhniki and fighters against “Matilda” declare Vladimir Putin their patron and head of a non-existent, but beloved “empire” in the spirit of Byzantium, which died seven centuries ago. Although supporters of the country's secular development still believe that Vladimir Putin is the president of a multi-religious country (and by no means an empire, but a republic - if you believe the Constitution of the Russian Federation).
True, it is best to understand the logic of opponents from the primary source. Therefore, disagreeing with the author, “NI” publishes Oleg Trofimov’s article without cuts:
In Russia, the issue of shortage of clergy and religious buildings for worship is still acute. Although, as indicated Patriarch Moscow and All Rus' Kirill in his report at the opening of the Bishops' Council in Moscow, O total number of Russian churches P Orthodox C churches lately increases approximately 1300 per year. INpresent moment in The Russian Church has 36,878 churches or other premises where liturgy is celebrated. For today More than 40 thousand cells serve in the RPC priests. Over the past eight yearsmore than a hundred appeared new dioceses, and their total number was 303, which is means that there are more of themalmost twice as much as in 2009. In addition, there has been an increase the number of monasteries – from 804 to 944.
The “200 churches for Moscow” program, although it encounters resistance among temple activists, is still being implemented. But, of course, it cannot completely solve the problem of the lack of religious buildings in the metropolis, especially in the cities of the Moscow region. Moscow is a state within a state. With the continuing trend of population increase, taking into account Orthodox labor migrants and refugees living in the capital, as well as the expansion of city borders, at the moment in Moscow, according to my calculations, there is a shortage of more than 2 thousand churches, plus the same number in the Moscow region. On holidays, churches clearly cannot accommodate everyone.
We can safely say that in Russia and other CIS countries, where the majority of the population is Orthodox, Orthodoxy has powerful potential and strong trends towards increasing the number of communities (if the necessary resources are provided, it can at least double, if there is no open persecution). In Russia itself, according to my conservative estimates, the number of communities may be three times larger. That is, there is room to grow.
At the same time, it is noticeable that in the Muslim countries of the CIS the Russian Orthodox Church is experiencing certain pressure: the registration of communities and the construction of new churches are prohibited, so our diplomats must carry out work here. In this regard, one cannot help but recall the late Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the DPRK Andrei Gennadievich Karlov (killed in Turkey in 2016), thanks to whose efforts and authority a number of Orthodox churches were opened and equipped abroad. The Kingdom of Heaven to the warrior of Christ!
I also want to openly say that in addition to external forces that purposefully hinder the development of Orthodoxy, the construction of churches, and the opening of new parishes, internal problems of the management structure also hinder.
The senior clergy is often unable to respond in a timely manner to the globalization processes taking place in modern society, remaining within the framework of the “traditional” way of life of the last century: they do not build or open new parishes where there is a “familiar and convenient” priest, so that the contribution is paid stably, or, based on the same monetary parameters, they are accepted into the diocese for a parish. Bureaucratic red tape in the preparation of a number of documents also complicates this process.
I can give an example of many districts of Moscow or cities of the Moscow region, where for more than 100-300 thousand people only one, or at most two, churches are open, but the bishop is happy with this.
There is also a problem in the priestly cadres, which need to be formed for modern missions, and those that already exist must be constantly improved as part of advanced training.
We still do not fully utilize the potential of lay missionaries. That is, due to the lack of a systematic approach, there is a clear oversight in working with active lay people, or their rejection occurs. This ultimately leads to the fact that they realize themselves in other denominations or schisms. All these problems will most likely remain in the new year. I don’t want to say that they are not being addressed at all, but there are still a lot of unresolved issues.
There are also problems that can be collectively called “Orthodox diseases.” By the way, every century has had its own “diseases”; this is not only a phenomenon of our time. This is the fight against the external “Antichrist”, his “seals”, etc. This is also the result of interfaith meetings, dialogues and unforeseen consequences from them, for example, schisms, which serve as an additional reason for external forces to rock the Church and the country. At the same time, I know bishops who “treat” these “diseases” with love, and not prohibitions.
(Multi-kilometer queues to the relics of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker)
In my opinion, the most grandiose event that is directly related to church life in Russia is the arrival from the city of Bari (Italy) of the ark with the relics of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker and their veneration in the cities of Russia. To venerate the relics, queues of many kilometers lined up; people stood for several hours, from four to eleven, hours. Several million people worshiped the great shrine. There were many testimonies of miracles.
This became possible due to friendly agreements between the Roman Catholic Church and the Russian Orthodox Church as a result of the Havana meeting. Not all believers accepted this event unambiguously; some expressed fears that this was yet another flirtation with Rome, which would only bring harm, and pointedly called for people not to come to venerate the relics of St. Nicholas. But there were an overwhelming minority of them.
(Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church 2017)
An important event in 2017 was the Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church. It confirmed the status of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate, its right to broad autonomy (self-government), but also canonical unity with the Moscow Patriarchate. A commission was created for dialogue with schismatics of the UOC-KP, in connection with the “repentant” letter of “patriarch” Filaret. Issues dedicated to the centenary of the overthrow of the Russian monarchy and the authenticity of the “Ekaterinburg remains” were also discussed, which we will talk about in more detail later.
(Speech Orthodox Emperor at the Council of Bishops, and the Patriarch couldn’t be happier)
Speech on December 1 by Orthodox President of Russia V.V. Putin at the Council of Bishops seemed to plunge us into the “old and good times” of the Byzantine period. Many abroad, who already called him the Russian Emperor, received another reason for this.
The sensational “repentant” letter of the schismatic Patriarch of the UOC-KP Filaret (aka the defrocked Mikhail Denisenko), addressed to the Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus' Kirill and the Council of the Russian Orthodox Church, of course, caused considerable excitement and discussion not only in the church media and Orthodox circles, but also among secular people. Many wanted to believe in a miracle, but they didn’t have to... Everything again turned out to be a fake, aimed at attracting Filaret’s attention to his own personality, due to Moscow’s lack of interest in him.
An important event, in my opinion, was the centennial anniversary of the restoration of the Patriarchate in Russia and the visit of the heads of Local Churches to Moscow in connection with this.
In 2017, the Russian Orthodox Church also revealed itself as a peacemaker. At the end of the year, what was expected on both sides of the civil conflict in Ukraine happened. Citizens of the same country, with the same passport, were exchanged for each other. His Holiness Patriarch Kirill and His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry, the clergy of the Russian and Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate, directly contributed to building a bridge of trust. At all exchange points, it was the priests of the UOC-MP who accompanied the prisoners like human shields. Yes, not everything went smoothly; the Ukrainian side again resorted to deception and incomplete implementation of the agreement. Whoever took credit for this exchange in Ukraine, including the aforementioned Filaret. But it is clear that only the canonical Church, which did not support the position of the current government of Ukraine in this conflict, was able to shake hands with both sides and make the exchange of prisoners possible.
(His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry at a press conference with a released captive soldier of the Ukrainian Armed Forces)
In such a period, leading the Church, preserving it from open destruction means for His Beatitude Onuphry to be between many consuming fires. What kind of willpower, spirituality and wisdom you need to have to resist! All with God's help!
The role of the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church, His Holiness Patriarch Kirill, is also difficult to overestimate. The busy schedule of his participation in divine services, the management of the Church and the introduction of the ideas of the Russian world into society, active missionary and preaching activities and participation in the public life of the country, holding Councils and peacemaking efforts - all this will still find its assessment in the history of the Church. And all those attacks from the enemies of Christ that are made against him and the Church he leads serve as evidence of the right path.
The promotion in the media of another nasty thing, accusations of the Patriarch in connection with the installation of monuments to all the patriarchs of Rus', including the current one, is an obvious attack on the Church in the spirit of the saying “kill the shepherd and the sheep will scatter.” After all, no one has ever talked about banning, for example, portraits of current primates.
2017 brought a lot of good things. More and more frequent and each time more crowded religious processions taking place throughout Mother Rus' speak of the growth of Orthodox self-awareness in society. In these processions, for all their religiosity, the spirit of patriotism is also emphasized, which is important for the peoples of our Motherland - Holy Rus'.
Speaking about the Immortal Regiment (I deliberately write through – z – the Immortal Regiment), given the diversity and multi-confessional nature of Russia, the Orthodox factor in it is very obvious! The appearance of icons of Orthodox saints in it is natural. The Church continues its peacemaking mission, stitching together our divided society, with its opposing historical, political views and worldviews.
(Holy Dormition Svyatogorsk Lavra, Svyatogorsk, combined Easter procession and Immortal Regiment)
The self-awareness of believers as Orthodox monarchists is growing; Even on various political talk shows, these issues are discussed as historical prospects for the future of Russia.
The blasphemous film “Matilda” directed by A. Uchitel, released in the year of the centenary of the overthrow of the House of Romanov - this purposeful provocation and fake, a manifestation of the ongoing war against Rus' - was a complete failure with criminal consequences for its creators. This event mobilized patriotic forces, and the rebuff that the “fifth column” received showed it that, even using state resources and colossal financial support, it would continue to feel severe pressure. It is worth mentioning State Duma deputy Natalia Poklonskaya, who, without fear of threats and mass ordered information defamation, submitted applications from citizens to the Prosecutor General’s Office 43 times. Natalia, keep it up, “our nyasha”!
(Natalia Poklonskaya in the Immortal Regiment with an icon and “Matilda”)
In the domestic cinema, we were pleased with the film “The Legend of Kolovrat”. Its importance lies in the fact that until now pseudo-pagans have “monopolized” the image of this legendary figure and presented Kolovrat as an anti-Christian hero. Now they have received an ideological rebuff, Kolovrat, this mighty hero - the warrior of Christ!
It is obvious that the growth of Orthodox and patriotic self-awareness will continue in 2018, and it will not be stopped in subsequent years.
The centenary of the overthrow of the Anointed One of God and the accomplishment of the October Revolution, the beginning of the persecution of the Church of Christ - all these events, although discussed in society, but, in my opinion, still did not receive a mass resonance. For the younger generation, many events remained unclear. This suggests that it is for the Church that there remains a wide field of activity in this area of enlightenment.
(Ilya Glazunov. The painting “The Great Experiment” gives us reason to think about the last century)
Until now, the issue of identifying the Ekaterinburg remains has remained unresolved and painful, i.e. The Church does not recognize the remains as authentically royal and questions the conclusions of Solovyov’s investigation. Many dark pages in this story remain unexplained. When, during the investigation, the version of ritual murder began to be considered, in connection with the cabalistic ritual inscription on the wall in the room in the Ipatiev House where the Royal Family was shot, then... Who do you think began to scream the most about accusing the Russian Orthodox Church of anti-Semitism and demanding to stop considering this version? Congress of Russian Jews and a number of liberals! But Bishop Tikhon Shevkunov, who is responsible for this matter, is a great guy and substantiates this version very well.
Suddenly, on all federal channels of Russia, as if by order, a documentary film “The Latvian Trace: Unknown Details...” appeared, refuting the version of ritual murder. But why hasn’t a film appeared in the mainstream, confirming any other twists in this long investigation?..
The most important international events of 2017 include the victory of the sacred Russian weapon in Syria. This made it possible to restore peaceful life in this country. After many years, the first Christian churches destroyed by ISIS terrorists (an organization banned in the Russian Federation) are finally being opened and restored in Syria.
