christianity

A Confession

The other day I was able to read the last part of a book in russian that shook the Russian society last year , not least it’s  Orthodox circles – “Ispoved” (= Confession) by Maria Kikot. It hasn’t been heard of much in the West, as I see. Not in any western european language, anyway.

All-focus

She writes about her experience of going to a Russian Orthodox Monastery today. It is like old times and modern times in collision. Old church-buildings and monasteries that sometimes fit well into the Russian landscape. Sometimes only walls left. Ruins after the Bolshevik ravages. At the same time, a lot of reconstruction work is taking place . And even experiments ..

The author apparently ended up among people who experimented in the field of religious life. They combined old Russian traditions, and modern Greek “Athos” – monks ascetic exercises, as well as something that reminded me of a modern therapeutic method I’ve heard of. People are using that method sometimes, when they want to rehabilitate drug addicts – a group of people sits and talks, and suddenly everyone turns against one individual among them, everybody shout, criticise and accuse him or her for an hour or more. A kind of “cleansing” experience ..

The Abbess in the monastery just south of Moscow used a similar method as a pure authoritative technique, and in a really terrible and elaborate manner. She chased the collective against the individual. The “sisters” broke one by one, becoming either docile and subservient for the rest of their lives, or kicking back and breaking up. Kikot couldn’t stand it anymore, but she did quit and wrote her “confession”.

It’s a bit of Russia today. Pretty orthodox. And a lot more.

I hope someone will translate this book to english.

x

An english-language blog that mentions (in passing) about the book – here

 

  • –

Putin’s name abandon “proletarian” styled banners, and appear in Church reports ..?

Anyway – no slogans with Mr. Putin’s name mentioned occurs during the 1:st of May in Ekaterinburg – according to e1 : “… this year, there were no red banners with ‘Peace! Work! Putin!’ on, which was among the most prominent last year. “

Another indication that Mr. Putin is approaching orthodoxy? Which sometimes seems to be the case.

Putin i Kristus Frälsarens katedral

Putin in the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow , Saturday night

Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov  in a recently published interview for the swedish daily  “Dagens Nyheter” :

“- If the West’s approach to human rights develops into plain promiscuity, they disregard the fact that it is contrary to the fundamental basics of our culture, which is based on orthodox religion – Christianity.”

And when Putin  made critical remarks against Lenin in January this year, he, according to yoki.ru , added an explanation :
“I was, like millions of other Soviet citizens, member of CPSU. I was not the only member of the Communist Party, but also worked in the KGB. I can recall that in Soviet times when someone was expelled from the Communist Party he also was dismissed by KGB. I say quite honestly that I was not just a formal member of the Communist party, and I was not an idealistic Communist (unlike many officials I was a regular member of the Communist party), but my approach to it was very cautious. I have never thrown away the party membership card, I never burned it, it is still there in my home “

Read Full Article

Ukrainian Orthodox : – Havana meeting was a betrayal!

That Ukrainian Orthodox distance themselves from the Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch does not sound so strange, considering the Russian-Ukrainian conflict nowadays. But we are talking about those Ukrainian Orthodox that until today have been under the Moscow Patriarchate ! Not those who are under the Kiev Patriarchate.

In the days have thus been held a gathering where some emotional reactions, but also church consistent views have been noticed. The subject of indignation is the meeting between Patriarch Kirill and Pope Franciscus at the airport in Havana February 12, and especially the Joint Declaration that was signed by both church leaders there. The Moscow Patriarchate Orthodox residents in Ukraine feels apparently completely misguided, and categorizes the things they suffered, as “..worse than during the communist era,” and they compares the Patriarch’s actions with Judas’ betrayal.

Parts of a performance can be heard on the clip below. It is Bishop Longin who speak, and some sentences I’ve translated into english – see below clip!

 

Read Full Article