Russian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate

Cathedral of the Armed Forces outside Moscow, completed with the assistance of taxpayer funding in 2020.

The Russian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate is the official church of the Russian Federation. Patriarch Kirill has held the seat as Primate since 2009.

Two weeks into the NATO war in Ukraine, Patriarch Kirill delivered a sermon excplaining why the Russian intervention into the Ukrainian civil conflict:

“In the Donbass there is rejection, a fundamental rejection of the so-called values that are offered today by those who claim world power. Today there is such a test for the loyalty of this government, a kind of pass to that “happy” world, the world of excess consumption, the world of visible “freedom”. Do you know what this test is? The test is very simple and at the same time terrible – this is a gay parade”.

Kirill continued: “The demands on many to hold a gay parade are a test of loyalty to that very powerful world; and we know that if people or countries reject these demands, then they do not enter into that world, they become strangers to it.” Patriarch Kirill has been under sanctions by the globalist-controlled UK government since making those statements.

History

Though there were already Orthodox Christians in some of the Black Sea ports, and though Viking traders had become Christians in Constantinople and had built some churches along their Volga river trade-route, and though the Polish had begun some missionary activity along the western frontier of the Kievan state, the year conventionally recognized as the establishment of the Church of Russia is 988 when St. Prince Vladimir decreed Orthodox Christianity as the state religion. This church, like many of the Orthodox Churches suffered from Islamic invasion, but also Mongol conquest and most recently, severe persecution under the Communists (though claims have been made that the church often sided with, or at least turned a blind eye to, actions taken by the Communist government). This last persecution produced more than 50 million holy martyrs.

A Russian Orthodox Christian icon depicting Bolsheviks firing upon a church procession in Astrakhan, USSR in order to impose militant atheism on the Soviet population

The Russian Orthodox Church has historically clashed with Constantinople over which jurisdiction can declare a church body in a country to be autocephalous (the only matter on which they agree is that a secular government has no power to do so):

• Constantinople takes the position that its Patriarch, as "first among equals", has sole authority to declare a church body as autocephalous.
• Russia takes the position that the Patriarch of any autocephalous church can subsequently declare any church within a country under its geographical jurisdiction to be itself autocephalous.

This disagreement has arisen several times over the years:

• In 1832 the Greek Orthodox Church was declared autocephalous by the secular Greek government, a move not recognized by Constantinople. However, in 1850 Constantinople did declare the body to be autocephalous, but as it was BOTH within the geographical territory of Constantinople AND declared such by its Patriarch, the overarching issue was not resolved.
• A similar issue took place when the Bulgarian, Serbian, and Romanian bodies were declared autocephalous, as they were in the same situation as the Greek church before.
• In 1917, the Russian Church declared the Georgian Orthodox Church (at that time under its geographical jurisdiction) to be autocephalous, which Constantinople did not recognize at the time, but in 1990 it finally did so.
• In 1970, the Russian Church declared the American Orthodox Church (which is under its geographical jurisdiction) to be autocephalous, a decision Constantinople did not recognize and still does not.

The disagreement has come to the forefront over recognition of the schismatic Orthodox Church of Ukraine of the Kiev Patriarchate (OCU) and the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UOC) resulted in break of diplomatic relations between Constantinople and the Moscow Patriarchate in 2019.

Russian Orthodox theology on salvation, faith and works

The Orthodox Teaching on personal salvation by Deacon Victor E. Klimenko, Ph.D., a graduate of the Pastoral School of the Chicago and Mid-America of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia.

Russian identity

The Nazi's obsession with exterminating the Russian nation turned World War II into a Patriotic one. So it was natural that in a bid to overpower the enemy the nation turned to its traditions and Russian history. The Orthodox Christian faith was the Russian main spiritual basis. Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin realized this, so he sought assistance from the Church during that dangerous period of time in Russian history. 20,000 churches were opened during the war years. In spring 1942 the Soviet regime allowed Easter celebrations for the first time in many years. On September 4, 1943 Stalin invited the hierarchs of the Russian Orthodox Church to the Kremlin to discuss the need for reviving religious life in the USSR and the speedy election of a Patriarch. Paraphrasing Alexander Solzhenitsyn one veteran said, "We may have forgotten God, but God did not forget us".

Also, according to a 2019 report "Using data from surveys carried out by the Higher School of Economics in Moscow in 2018, the sociologist Yana Roshchina worked out that while almost 81 percent of adult Russians consider themselves Orthodox, this is often a declaration of identity rather than faith. Just 6 percent of the population and 43 percent of believers go to church several times a month. According to Interior Ministry statistics, 4.3 million people across the country attended Easter services in 2019 – around 100,000 fewer than a year before."

The Present and Future of the Russian World

During the XXV World Russian People's Council (WRPP) Congress, which took place on March 27, 2024 in the Hall of Church Councils of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow under the chairmanship of Patriarch Kirill, the Mandate of the WRPP was approved and proclaimed:

From a spiritual and moral point of view, a special military operation is a Holy War, in which Russia and its people, defending the single spiritual space of Holy Rus', fulfill the mission of "Holding”, protecting the world from the onslaught of globalism and the victory of the West, which has fallen into Satanism. Russia is the creator, support and defender of the Russian world. The borders of the Russian world as a spiritual, cultural and civilizational phenomenon are significantly wider than the state borders of both the current Russian Federation and greater historical Russia. Along with representatives of the Russian ecumene scattered throughout the world, the Russian world includes everyone for whom the Russian tradition, the shrines of Russian civilization and the great Russian culture are the highest value and meaning of life. Russia must become a refuge state for all compatriots of the world suffering from the onslaught of Western globalism, wars and discrimination. In addition to our compatriots, our country can become a refuge for millions of foreigners who defend traditional values, are loyal to Russia and are ready for linguistic and cultural integration in our country.

Western surveys

Young people in NATO countries largely favor gay marriage. In Central and Eastern Europe where Orthodox Christianity is dominant, young people mostly oppose same-sex marriage. Globalists from the United States, European Union, and NATO have attempted to impose it on them through the threat of economic sanctions.

Pew Research reported in 2017: "Relatively few Orthodox or Catholic adults in Central and Eastern Europe say they regularly attend worship services, pray often or consider religion central to their lives. For example, a median of just 10% of Orthodox Christians across the region say they go to church on a weekly basis."

In 2022, it was reported that attendance at Russian Orthodox Church services in Russia has dropped to around one percent.

In the post-Cold War era and early 21st century, the Liberal World Order has been in the forefront of spreading the homosexual agenda, same-sex marriage and transgenderism. Gay rights theoretically are considered by its advocates as among the God-given, "unalienable", "democratic" and human rights guaranteed by the US constitution, now enforced upon the rest of the planet by US economic and military power and might in a "rules-based order".

Since the Clinton presidency, the United States has routinely used the carrot of trade relations, and stick of economic sanctions, to get countries to incrementally de-criminalize homosexuality and, after "normalizing" social acceptance of aberrant behavior, to legalize gay marriage as a human right. Holdout nations have faced hybrid warfare, color revolutions, coups, and military intervention.

The de-dollarization process in part is a rejection of American hegemony which seeks to corrupt local cultures with Hollywood values.

See also

• Our Lady of Kazan

External link

• PREDICTIONS OF UKRAINIAN ASCETIC MONKS ABOUT THE UNITY OF RUS', THE SPLIT OF THE CHURCH AND THE UNITED STATES.