Some of our readers do not understand why a Muslim website is constantly writing about the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC). We have never hidden this — we have to deal with the ROC because its leadership is involved in Muslim affairs. To put it bluntly, they have actually declared a crusade against Islam in Russia, the conduits of which are the official representatives of the church corporation, such as Roman Silantyev, director of the ROC’s World Russian People’s Council Human Rights Center (https://golosislama.com/news.php?id=31080).
And this is far from being the only example of such a war of destruction against the Islamic project being waged by people directly associated with the ROC. Therefore, of course, we have covered and will continue to cover political trials related to this corporation, God willing. Recently we wrote about how the coronavirus is destroying the empire of Patriarch Kirill (https://golosislama.com/news.php?id=38458).
One of the topics of that publication was the death of Alexander Ageikin, the prior of the Elohovsky (Epiphany) Cathedral in Moscow, who was close to Kirill Gundyaev himself and became known for his close ties with Russian Freemasons. But the story did not end there — neither with Ageikin’s death nor with the coronavirus in the Elohovsky Cathedral.
Today, Gundyaev is using Ageikin’s death as an excuse to launch an ecclesiastical crackdown on his main critic within the ROC, Archdeacon Andrey Kurayev (pictured), who has become the most prominent Orthodox dissenter in recent years. For his unflattering remarks about the deceased, Gundyaev banned Kurayev from liturgical services, and his case was referred to the diocesan ecclesiastical court. Kurayev, in fact, spoke very harshly about Ageikin, calling him a «dull careerist who made his career in the sphere of VIP services». Perhaps this was too much in relation to the recently deceased faithful, it is not for us to judge, but the fact is that something suspicious is happening at the Elohovsky Cathedral.
In addition to Ageikin, two other priests died of the coronavirus, a new prior was appointed, Bishop Foma of Pavlovsky Posad and head of the administrative secretariat of the ROC, but now he too has been hospitalized. However, what is happening with the Elohovsky Cathedral is a kind of symbol of what is happening within the ROC as a whole, and it seems that they have decided to deal with Kurayev precisely because he is constantly talking and writing about it.
Even then, when the ROC leadership insisted on continuing services and sacraments in churches during the coronavirus epidemic, Kurayev was the first within the church to criticize this policy not only from the standpoint of common sense, but also from the standpoint of Orthodox theology. And when Gundyaev, under public pressure, was forced to formally urge Orthodox believers not to go to church, Kurayev continued to expose the mischief of church circles that continued to spread the infection. He was also among the critics of the new Armed Forces Church with pictures of Putin and Stalin inside (https://golosislama.com/news.php?id=38477), as well as other controversial decisions of the church leadership.
Therefore, it is quite logical that they decided to exclude him from the church body, and his comments about the deceased prior are more a pretext than a reason for this decision. Why is this interesting for us? It should be emphasized that Kurayev is far from being a friend of Islam and Muslims — he has previously made anti-Islamic statements, so in this respect he is no better than the mainstream of the ROC. But he is interesting for other reasons — it is probably Kurayev and people like him who will determine the new face of Russian Orthodoxy after the collapse of Kirill’s empire and the Putin regime.
While the militant Orthodox consider him almost an enemy of the church, today he is doing important work for it for the future — creating an alternative image of Russian Orthodoxy that is not subservient to power and not fanatical, but in demand by the thinking part of society. Moreover, in addressing this society, he exposes not only the ecclesiastical authorities, but also the secular authorities, playing the role of an Orthodox civil leader.
And this is directly related to the topic we recently discussed — the necessity and inevitability of the emergence of Muslim dissent in Russia (https://golosislama.com/news.php?id=38442). Moreover, if for the opportunistic Orthodox the official religious corporation benefits from the current regime, then even the mainstream of the Muslim community in Russia has long lost reasons to support this regime. So, thinking Muslims should not miss the opportunity, so that tomorrow Kurayev and new Orthodox figures are not the only religious dissidents and critics of the current regime.