Suddenly it became clear that the ROC is not only a few ultra-conservative clerics friendly with the Kremlin.
In the relations of Church and state in Russia the event occurred as unexpected as a large-scale. More than one hundred clergymen of the Russian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate have signed an open letter, inviting the authorities to review the sentences of prisoners on so-called “Moscow case”.
It all started with three dozen signatories, including representatives known for his free-thinking communities of the major cities and some priests from foreign parishes of the Russian Orthodox Church. This gave the opportunity to the Deputy Chairman of the Synodal Department for Church and society and the media of the Moscow Patriarchate Vakhtang Kipshidze, the next morning, not only to call the document is not the Church, human rights, but frankly hint at the foreign origin of its authors, pointing to the presence of part of the clergy abroad.
This propaganda move and he backed up the traditional Russian “votebutton”, Recalling that in countries where the lives of the signatories of the letter the priests certainly have their own “unjustly convicted”. Examples Kipshidze, of course, lead was not, Yes it is, as became clear just a couple of hours, and did not make sense.
By the middle of the day on September 18, less than a day after publishing the letter, the number of signatures it has more than doubled, and among the places of service to support his priests there are “deaf” Russian villages, where the representative of the Russian Orthodox Church is clearly not only never went, but perhaps the names of these to this day have not heard. And the number of signatories continues to grow.
It is obvious that with a proposal to the authorities to return to the framework of legality and morality is not a narrow circle of so-called “liberal” Orthodox clergy, but, using the current political terminology, “deep Church,” silent all these years. She was silent for so long that the authorities honestly began to think that the face of the ROC — a few ultra-conservative clerics friendly with the Kremlin and its inhabitants.
At the time, only five clergymen of the Russian Orthodox Church condemned the Pussi Riot. In Russia (unlike Ukraine) actually, none of the clergy not made a public protest, when, in the Donbass began a fratricidal war. But the years of constant lies and repeated violations of the law by the authorities exhausted the supply of the loyalty of a significant part of the Orthodox clergy. Unlike the Catholic, the Orthodox Church, as honestly noted in his response Kipshidze, always striving to live in Symphony with the authorities. Simply put — do not criticize any of their decisions.
However, according to the letter of Orthodox priests against repression, every Symphony can turn into a cacophony when the bureaucracy forgets that “the government imposes on the individual extra responsibility, and shall not exempt from it.” And then the pastoral duty of the cleric to stand up for the innocent prisoners.
For the Russian authorities it is definitely a heavy blow. No wonder, the answer of the official administrators of the ROC, tightly fused with the ruling class, followed so quickly, but was so poor in form and content.
In recent years, the authorities used to do to act as if the Church’s position — the position of the infallible and pseudomallei. So very hard for them to suddenly realize that in Russia there are still other moral authorities, independent from the Kremlin and is able from a Christian perspective does not only call for mercy, but to reveal the limits of the competence of rulers.
In Chinese philosophy, the concept of legitimacy is closely connected with the “heavenly endorsement” of the Governor. When he loses the “mandate of heaven” — and then the revolution happens. That is, the same change, to live in an era which supposedly is not recommended by Confucius. A similar allusion to similar circumstances, only from the point of view of Christian theology, the letter of the clergy can be seen very clearly. And the authorities would be nice to hear this signal.
Moreover, after the clergy of the Russian Orthodox Church’s collective position was formulated and teachers. Another moral authority in Russian society, which the Russian government relied all these years, adjusting to fit your momentary needs of the education system and forcing school employees to participate in the electoral process, sometimes, as believe many, in the role of “the counterfeiters inevitably”.
It is, in fact, the signs of total discontent and rebellion in all parts of the system the current Russian corporate or speak the old language, caste society. Corporation (from journalists to teachers, and from the priests to the actors) send the authorities a clear message: the boundaries of permissible violence in the summer of 2019 have been completed. The Kremlin is ready, in spite of these messages, continue to tighten the screws, relying solely on the Corporation security forces?
The answer to this question must obviously be wider than the theatrical release of actor Paul Ustinov, which is clearly the case. Still it needs to be even wider than the cancellation of other previously imposed illegal sentences on so-called “Moscow case”. But the government, unfortunately, is hardly aware of this. It is easier to assume that they will try to continue to operate a policy of “carrots and sticks”, involving the protest of all the new groups of the population and is rapidly losing the legitimacy of the other, except that based on force.
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