ANDREI DESNITSKY: WE SHOULD BUILD OUR THIRD ROME?

ANDREI DESNITSKY: WE SHOULD BUILD OUR THIRD ROME?

In the Orthodox information space, there is news every day: Moscow quarrels with Constantinople over Kiev. Each of the Patriarchs considers Ukraine his own canonical territory and cites the canons in support of his position. But canons are not dogmas, eternal and unchangeable. They are just norms of Church law, in fact, written testimonies about how the bishops of bygone times resolved disagreements that arose. They are subject to change, they sometimes contradict each other, and sometimes leave gaps — for example, no canon describes the procedure for granting autocephaly, that is, complete independence. So, each trump what he can.

Constantinople insists that she holds a primacy of the entire Orthodox world. But if you are so serious about the rhetoric of past times, you will probably have to admit that the primacy in the early Church belonged to Rome. Once the Eastern half of the Christian world has withdrawn from the Western in precisely on how this primacy is to be understood. And if it is necessary to put a single bishop over all Orthodox Christians, who will sort out their disputes and redraw their boundaries, it is quite logical that this should be a Roman bishop, not a Constantinopolitan one. Why we should copy the papal autocracy? Is it not better to turn to the original? And in the end, in the fourth century, the Throne of Constantinople turned out to be the same “newcomer” that violates the order of the ancient patriarchates, as the Russian Throne seems to do the same to Constantinople today.

Moscow insists that it is not appropriate to redraw the boundaries of ecclesiastical jurisdictions along the lines of political borders, in order to please the current rulers of the Ukrainian lands. But it seems to forgets that this is exactly how she took Kiev in the seventeenth century, following another redrawing of the political map at the request of the Moscovite Tsar.

Well, many Orthodox Kievans today strive for the complete independence of their Church from Moscow - but are they sure that they will be able to preserve the independence of their Church structure from the State structure? that the new autocephalous Church will not become Ukrainian in the first, second and third level, and only in the tenth a Christian?

Everything is repeated in this world, and especially the history of the struggle for power and territory. And everyone forever considers fair only the decision that gives him more.

But my house is in Moscow, my parish is in the Russian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate, and I am not worried about Kiev or Constantinople, with all my love for these beautiful cities. I see how, in this whole story, the leadership of my own Church consistently pushes itself into a corner and makes it impossible to maneuver. And please, you don’t need to say, “the rest is worse” - even if it’s so, it’s an excuse for a prankster, nor a consolation for a Christian.

Ukrainian Church schism exists more than a quarter of a century. All these years, the canonically flawless Moscow Patriarchate repeated only one thing: “the real Church is us, repent before us, and then we will decide what to do with you”. This position may be correct, but definitely does not work. Today, Constantinople offers its own model for overcoming the split, and it may be fundamentally wrong. But she was able to offer it only because a quarter of a century Moscow had not offered anything substantial. And sharply rejecting her actions today, she does not offer anything in return.

I often hear today: if the Ukrainian Orthodox autocephaly is granted, war will begin. And I cannot understand it: did not you notice that the war is already in the fifth year and there is no end to it? That the sequence of events is exactly the opposite: at first the war began on Ukrainian soil, and as a result, the rather sluggish desire for autocephaly aggravated before? Maybe it’s worth starting with feeling this pain, admitting this confusion - well, to begin with, at least stop preaching about the “Russian world” (Russkii Mir) simply because under its slogans one of the parties is fighting in this war? And if this is not done - do not be surprised for a sharp reaction.

The words that we are brothers with the Ukrainians and we should be together forever sound great. But they usually mean: therefore, we will all decide for them, because we know better what is good for them and how they should be. No, dear ones, they do not refer in such a way to brothers, but only to slaves. A brother is a person for whom you recognize the right to their own, even erroneous, decisions. And in order to preserve what remains of the brotherhood, it is worth stopping to strangle the brothers in your arms and allow them to deal with their own lives there.

And the most surprising, of course, is the cessation of theological dialogue with Constantinople. In today's Orthodox world there are many questions and challenges that need to be answered. But they can only be found in dialogue with other Orthodox local churches - and if we get rid of dialogue (as was already done in relation to the Pan-Orthodox Council in 2016), all answers will be taken without us.

Ignoring and boycotting do not lead to victory, but only to self-isolation.

Will there be a broadcast of the ceremony from Jerusalem next Saturday? Will the pilgrims go to Mt. Athos now? Or will we become confined to self-isolation: We only have intact Orthodoxy, do not we care about the rest of the world? But this is the path of the sect, not the Church.

And yet, this is the usual way. Alexander Schipkov, the second person in the Church structure responsible for relations with the media and society, published an article in AIF, where he put everything in its place. The Patriarchate of Constantinople is a puppet of the United States, a heretical gathering that seeks to change the religious identity of Russians, of course, with the help of their hirelings - liberal Orthodox, who destroy the Church with the money of Italian Catholics, and now, we must assume, also of American Protestants. Such a fervent editorial from Pravda of Stalin's time, all that is lacking is something like, “our whole team demands to shoot traitors like mad dogs.” History repeats itself in the form of a farce — well, if only it would not be minced.

That's how everything became clear and good ... Do not think about the problems facing the country and society, and the Church as a part of this society. It is not necessary to have a difficult dialogue with those who think differently; it is not necessary to build relationships with fellow believers from other denominations. We are the knights of good and light, they are the fiends of hell, everyone in the fight, who did not hide - that is unsung. Also, a kind of result of the thirty-year “church revival” - this inexorable, crystal, pure Stalinist style, but now in the name of Orthodoxy, and the Orthodoxy with power.

Our enemies are clear, our traitors are defined – go to work, comrades?

The original headline: “We Should build our own Third Rome?” (ΕΜΕΙΣ ΘΑ ΧΤΙΣΟΥΜΕ ΤΗΝ ΤΡΙΤΗ ΡΩΜΗ;) is a parody of the Internationale anthem “We should build our own new world”.

Source: https://www.gazeta.ru/comments/column/desnitsky/11973919.shtml