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Just In: Orthodox Bishop tells Russians not to vote for Putin in rare church dissent
The Telegraph ^ | 22 Jan 2018 | Alec Luhn

Posted on 01/22/2018 4:43:40 PM PST by GoldenState_Rose

A Russian Orthodox bishop has advised the faithful not to vote for Vladimir Putin when he stands for re-election in March, a nearly unheard of occurrence in the loyal church.

The angry statement marked the first time an acting bishop has spoken against supporting the current president.

Bishop Yevtikhy Kurochkin of the epiphany cathedral in the Siberian city of Ishim wrote on his page on VK, Russia's most popular social network, that he could no longer follow his “desire to vote for Putin” following “blasphemous” remarks by the president.

“'If the light that is in you is darkness, how great is your darkness!' are the words of Christ,” Mr Kurochkin wrote. “And will I go against Christ to vote for darkness or advise anyone to do this? No, no and no!”

The bishop was angered by comments in a state television film about Valaam, an island of monasteries and churches in Lake Ladoga where the president has a holiday home. Mr Putin had argued that the Soviet regime had “adapted” Christian ideas for its communist ideology, including in its mummification of Vladimir Lenin, whose body remains on display on Red Square.

“They put Lenin in the mausoleum. How does this differ from the relics of saints for Orthodox believers or Christians in general?” Mr Putin said. “When they tell me no, there is no such tradition in Christianity, how is there not? Go and look in Athens, there are the relics of saints there, and we have the relics of saints here too.”

While the Russian Orthodox church has been growing increasingly influential in recent years, it has usually been supportive of the ruling regime. This goes back to a tradition of loyalty in tsarist times, when the official ideology was “Orthodoxy, Autocracy, and Nationality”.

(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events; Philosophy; Politics/Elections; Russia
KEYWORDS: bishop; christianity; moscow; orthodoxchurch; putin; russianorthodox; siberia; vladimirputin
(a rough online translation of the original article from Novaya Gazeta)

The former vicar of the Moscow diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church with the title "Domodedovo" and now the rector of the Epiphany Cathedral in the city of Ishim, Bishop Yevtikhy (Kurochkin) urged the Orthodox not to vote for Putin on March 18. Moreover, he called the "national leader" "darkness" and denounced him, albeit cautiously, as the anti-Christian.

Previously, such statements were allowed only by "alternative" bishops, but in no way acting hierarchs of the Moscow Patriarchate!

In the middle of January, Bishop Yevtikhy wrote in his blog in VKontakte:

"If what you consider to be light is darkness, then what is your darkness ?! - the words of Christ. And I will go, contrary to Christ, vote for the darkness or someone advise it to do it ?! - No, no and NO!"

This exclamation is preceded by a quotation from the film "Valaam" quoted by the bishop. She made a lot of noise in the Orthodox environment and, if she did not belong to the president of Russia, would surely be the reason for the trial for "insulting the feelings of believers". The protest of Yevtikhy was caused by such words of Putin:

"Look, Lenin was put in the Mausoleum. How is this different from the relics of saints for the Orthodox, and just for Christians? When they tell me that they do not, that in Christianity there is no such tradition ... Well, how can it not! Go to Athos, look, there are relics of the saints, and we have here also holy relics. "

The bishop left behind the brackets the culturological ignorance of the author of these words, and even to the identification of Holy Scripture with the "Code of the Communist builder" sounded a little earlier in the same film, he also did not pay attention.

... It's no secret that Putin's ideas about Orthodoxy are much incompatible with orthodox Christianity, but the official ROC, having agreed to play the role of the ideological department of power and the business project of the patriarch, encourages the synthesis of the cross and five-pointed star. On the contrary, the fear of the church authorities is caused by neophytes or even "veterans" (such as Andrei Kuraev) who show too much interest in theology and canon law.

Incidentally, a screenshot of the statement of Bishop Evtikhia posted in his blog the same Kuraev - in case the hierarch can be intimidated and forced to remove politically dangerous statements.

Yevtikhy has a rather unusual biography, which partly explains his "freethinking". In the 1980s he became a cleric of the Omsk-Tyumen diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church, where he quickly entered into conflict with his superiors. When in the process of the collapse of the USSR the first parishes of the Russian overseas church, independent and even opposition of the Moscow Patriarchate appeared in the country, Evtikhii joined them and in 1994 became Bishop of Ishim and Siberian. In the ROCOR, he came into conflict with the conservatives opposed to the Moscow Patriarchate and took an active part in the "reunification" of the two churches that President Putin initiated and which ended in May 2007 with the signing of a corresponding act in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. As a reward for his labors, Evtikhy received the title of vicar of the patriarch and titular Domodedovo department. In 2012, after the change of the patriarch, he retired to rest and received a sinecure in the form of the native Epiphany Cathedral in Ishim.

The character of Bishop Yevtikhy is complex, he likes to "go by principle". It is possible that his biography will make another turn, and Yevtikhy repents that he hurriedly handed over the Church Abroad to the forces he now calls "darkness."

- Andrey Soldatov

https://www.novayagazeta.ru/articles/2018/01/22/75230-pomazannik-okazalsya-antihristom

1 posted on 01/22/2018 4:43:40 PM PST by GoldenState_Rose
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To: GoldenState_Rose

“Bishop Yevtikhy Kurochkin of the epiphany cathedral in the Siberian city of Ishim...”

The first thing I’d check if I were you, is determine whether or not the bishop was paid off by Soros or the US State Department.


2 posted on 01/22/2018 4:52:10 PM PST by sergeantdave (Teach a man to fish and he'll steal your gear and sell it)
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To: sergeantdave
Gee, maybe someday we in America will be free so that our pastors, rabbis, and clerics can advise us on elections.
 
3 posted on 01/22/2018 5:09:31 PM PST by Governor Dinwiddie (CNN is fake news.)
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To: sergeantdave

At this point the first thing to check would be his pulse.


4 posted on 01/22/2018 5:09:40 PM PST by longfellowsmuse (last of the living nomads)
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To: longfellowsmuse

“At this point the first thing to check would be his pulse.”

Or his bank account.


5 posted on 01/22/2018 5:15:30 PM PST by sergeantdave (Teach a man to fish and he'll steal your gear and sell it)
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To: GoldenState_Rose

Send this heretic off to Siberia!

Oh wait...


6 posted on 01/22/2018 5:20:58 PM PST by mac_truck (aide toi et dieu t'aidera)
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To: GoldenState_Rose

He’s a dead man.


7 posted on 01/22/2018 5:43:27 PM PST by immadashell (Save Innocent Lives - ban gun free zones)
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To: GoldenState_Rose

It would be best for all concerned for Putin to be defeated, then have a tragic fate befall him.


8 posted on 01/22/2018 6:22:34 PM PST by montag813
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To: longfellowsmuse

His pulse is fine, however he is being scheduled for a “heart attack” or fatal “accident.”

Mr. Putin is not noted for his tolerance.


9 posted on 01/22/2018 7:33:37 PM PST by drop 50 and fire for effect ("Work relentlessly, accomplish much, remain in the background, and be more than you seem.")
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To: sergeantdave
The first thing I’d check if I were you, is determine whether or not the bishop was paid off by Soros or the US State Department.

What?! You think it is Putin who is to be supported? You think he is a friend to Christians because he supports the loyalist state church, and that anyone who dares oppose at risk to life or limb must be paid off by anti-Christ Soros? It is Putin supporters who are well-known to be paid to support him against any opposition. .

10 posted on 01/22/2018 8:53:20 PM PST by daniel1212 (Trust the risen Lord Jesus to save you as a damned and destitute sinner + be baptized + follow Him)
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