Patriarch Kirill and Russian Orthodox Church Flex Political Muscle During Mass Prayer in Moscow By Dan Peleschuk Russia Profile 04/23/2012 Tens of thousands of Russian Orthodox believers gathered in central Moscow on Sunday to join in a mass prayer service aimed at “defending the faith” from what the church perceives to be an attack from blasphemous sources. The service was a response to the recent scandal over punk rockers “Pussy Riot” and their scathing performance in Moscow’s Christ the Savior Cathedral, as well as other recent instances of anti-religious sentiment. But the event also reflected the church’s mobilization power in a country where church-state relations are often dubiously indistinguishable. The “Pussy Riot” scandal has sent opposing camps into arms, part of a protracted intellectual battle in the wake of a deflated anti-Kremlin movement. The state’s prosecution of three group members – they could receive seven-year prison sentences – has angered liberal, opposition-minded Russians and provided more fodder for criticism of the Russian Orthodox Church, which has long been under fire for its closeness to the state. Besides Patriarch Kirill’s own condemnation of the punk rockers’ performance, which offered a “prayer” for the Virgin Mary to sweep President-elect Vladimir Putin away, his open support for Putin and public opposition to the anti-Kremlin rallies of last winter had angered many.
Russia’s winter of discontent and the awakening of hundreds of thousands of well-educated and Internet-connected citizens seemed set to offer greater and more sustainable resistance to the unofficial political writ the church wields in Russia. Even last week, when a scandal reemerged over the church’s attempt to cover-up Kirill’s $30,000 watch, it was dunked further into hot water. But on Sunday, it seemed as though the church had finally regained the upper hand, mustering around 65,000 believers to the streets of central Moscow to rally against the assault on the Russian Orthodox faith by which many believers feel threatened. Unending lines of frocked and bearded priests streamed from the banks of the Moscow River up around the cathedral, studding one’s eye level with the gold crosses and icons they hoisted into the air. The show of force alone was formidable. While officials expected around 25,000 to attend, more than twice that amount the flooded the area around Christ the Savior, an army of the Russian faithful punctuated by the archetypal “babushki” in shawls, holding small icons with their heads sunk in reverence. Kirill’s voice, meanwhile, bellowed throughout the area in a commanding tone, warning his followers, who had gathered from 17 different dioceses, that the orthodox faith is being threatened. “The enemies of the church probably don’t realize themselves that by attacking Orthodox Christianity, they are attacking the very fundamentals of the centuries-old Russian culture,” he said during the ceremony. And the message, whether aimed at believers or blasphemers, was clear: the church is a powerful force in Russia, and it will not tolerate attacks from its opponents. And while many of those who rallied to support the cause seemed harmless – devout older men and women who had felt, they said, simply offended by “Pussy Riot’s” raucous performance – others were more determined to prove a point. While Kirill reassured his critics that the ceremony, the largest mass event in Moscow since the anti-Kremlin protests, was not a political demonstration, the array of nationalist flags and strutting, uniformed Cossacks throughout the crowd were tinged with political meaning. Among those with a heavy presence at the event were representatives from Moscow’s Cossack Brotherhood, a ceremonial group that taps into Russian historical tradition to defend what it sees as contemporary attacks on God and the country. “Insofar as we’re Orthodox believers, we are determined to fight so that our children will live in an Orthodox state,” said Alexander Popov, a group member adorned in a blue military cap and waving a traditional Cossack flag emblazoned with Christ’s likeness. “The Russian nation needs to have one unitary faith, and the state should be built upon this faith. If the state is built upon Orthodoxy, it will be strong.” Experts say there’s little room for doubt that the entire event was a political assembly on the heels of an active opposition season. According to Alexander Morozov, a noted blogger and media expert, Kirill’s political ambitions amount to a ruse at the expense of true believers. “Patriarch Kirill is continuing his line of cooperation with Putin by attempting to demonstrate that his political resources are just as good as those of other major contemporary players,” he said. “But it should also be pointed out that most of the participants [in the mass prayer service] don’t really know what’s going on here. It’s a very basic tool of exploitation – they don’t understand the political undertones involved.” This fact, indeed, seemed lost on many of the faithful who turned up to the cathedral to offer their prayers on Sunday in the midst of Orthodox Easter season. Of the several people polled by Russia Profile – mostly elderly men and women – most seemed unenthusiastic to talk politics, or even confirm whether they truly felt “under attack” by outside forces. Standing solemnly outside the cathedral, Aleftina Fadeeva, a pensioner, said she simply came for the chance to pray with Patriarch Kirill. Her eyes turned toward the cathedral. Listening attentively to Kirill describe the ongoing battle with evil forces, she shrugged off suggestions about the patriarch’s ulterior motives. “Why would I think the church interferes with the state, or the other way around?” she said. “It seems to me the balance is just fine.” http://russiaprofile.org/culture_living/57857.html
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