Bp Evtikhy speaks out against Putin - former Rocor Bp

DIscussion and News concerning Orthodox Churches in communion with those who have fallen into the heresies of Ecumenism, Renovationism, Sergianism, and Modernism, or those Traditional Orthodox Churches who are now involved with Name-Worshiping, or vagante jurisdictions. All Forum Rules apply. No polemics. No heated discussions. No name-calling.


Post Reply
User avatar
Barbara
Protoposter
Posts: 3983
Joined: Sat 29 September 2012 6:03 pm

Bp Evtikhy speaks out against Putin - former Rocor Bp

Post by Barbara »

Things have seemingly come full circle.
Bishop Evtikhy [Kurochkin]of Ishim and All Siberia, as was his title under Rocor, was against rapprochement between his new Church and the MP in years leading up to the massive onslaught of MP propaganda to lure Rocor into joining it.
Then, suddenly Bp Evtikhy wrote an overly emotional, longwinded explanation of his personal supposed spiritual experience which like the hand of Heaven woke him up to the correctness of that union. I remember that florid sermon which wandered all over and never seemed to get to any point.
The MP obligingly found a slot for him as Bishop of Domodedevo, a vicar of the Moscow diocese, from May 2007 until his retirement in 2012 due to health worries.

Seems to me that now, with the passage of years and calm time for reflection back in his hometown of Ishim, the REAL Bishop Evtikhy has returned. The Moscow Times, never a publication to favor the Church, seized upon something he wrote on the Russian social network VK and gave it full coverage. Now his remarks are causing Putin and MP supporters to blanch :

Image
Image
Bishop Evtikhy serving at St John the Baptist Church, Washington, 2006

"Only recently I publicly expressed my regrets that barriers have arisen in my desire to vote for Putin. The barrier consists in the fact that Vladimir Vladimirovich made a rather snide remark in reference to Peter Arkadievich Stolypin: “We know, we know—there are ‘Stolypin’ railway cars and ‘Stolypin’ neckties.” This was a cheeky, deceitful revival of the Bolshevik cliché, invented by Masons, which was anti-sovereign and transparently false. I was shocked, and expressed my hope that I would hear from the lips of the President some apology for those irresponsible words. But instead of that I read these blasphemous words: “Well, look, Lenin was placed in a mausoleum. How does this differ from relics for the Orthodox, or simply for Christians? When they tell me that no, there is no such tradition in Christianity, well, of course there is—just go to Mt. Athos and see that there are relics there, and we also have holy relics here.”

“If what you consider is light is darkness, then what is your darkness?!” Those are Christ’s words. And I should go against Christ and vote for darkness or advise someone else to do that?! No, no, and no!"

Here is the flabbergasting passage :
"Communist ideology is in fact very close to Christianity. Freedom, brotherhood, equality, fairness. This was all set forth in the Holy Scriptures, it’s all there. And what was the codex for the builders of communism? It was a sublimation, it was simply a primitive citation of the Bible, they hadn’t thought up anything new. Just look, they put Lenin in the mausoleum. But how does this differ from holy relics? For the Orthodox, or simply for Christians? When they say to me, “No, there is no such tradition in the Christian world”—How is there not? If you go to Mt. Athos there are holy relics there. And here there are also holy relics, Sts. Sergius and Herman [of Valaam.—Trans.] Essentially, the regime of those days did not think up anything new. It simply fit what mankind had invented a long time ago into its own ideology."

One could spend much time challenging this point of view which entirely caters to Communists and serves as an excuse to keep the Pit of Heavy Devils intact !
It sounds like Putin believes that 'mankind invented' the Bible and perhaps manufactured the phenomenon of incorrupt Saints ?

Quotations of 1) Bp Evtikhy's outrage and 2) Putin's remarks are translated by Mother Cornelia [Rees]in her article - which takes the other side in defending Putin - on the Pravoslavie site : http://orthochristian.com/110281.html

User avatar
Barbara
Protoposter
Posts: 3983
Joined: Sat 29 September 2012 6:03 pm

Re: Bp Evtikhy speaks out against Putin - former Rocor Bp

Post by Barbara »

Apparently Bp Evtikhy either bowed to pressure due to the storm which his remarks kicked up, or thought it best to back out quietly : either way, he took his assessment of Putin off his VK page.

He sounds honest about refusing to endorse any of the candidates, however, stating that he knows little or nothing about the others. Indeed, the former Rocor Bishop sounds distinctly unenthusiastic about the electoral process in Russia and probably everywhere.

Perhaps the Siberian hierarch is a monarchist or semi-monarchist but doesn't feel comfortable to announce this publicly ?! In short, maybe that opinion is not encouraged by his MP superiors. This is only a guess. It seems that MP hierarchs are able to express warm sympathy for the last Royal family, but they are not so much permitted to speak out in favor of a return to monarchy ? Anyone please correct me if I am wrong : this is only my impression. Perhaps Rocor-MP hierarchs like Abp Gabriel of Canada are allowed to persist in their 'wild ideas' of stating firm support for a reinstated monarchy * because 'those foreign Bishops' are known to have been strong supporters of monarchy for many decades and can't be easily dissuaded from their quaint notions.

This assumption, IF accurate, points out one of the reasons why the MP is considered to be so pathetically subservient to the state. It seems to feel comfortable only with the status quo : never will the MP step out into uncharted territory and talk up a restored monarchy.

  • Re Abp Gabriel's statement, see :



http://euphrosynoscafe.com/forum/viewto ... 12&t=11981

User avatar
Barbara
Protoposter
Posts: 3983
Joined: Sat 29 September 2012 6:03 pm

Re: Bp Evtikhy speaks out against Putin - former Rocor Bp

Post by Barbara »

Supporting my thesis, I came across this quotation by the MP's Patriarch Kirill from 2013 :

" In an interview, he firmly rejected the claims of the other Romanov descendants and stated: "Today, none of those persons who are descendants of the Romanovs are pretenders to the Russian throne. But in the person of Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna and her son, George, the succession of the Romanovs is preserved — no longer to the Russian Imperial throne, but to history itself."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Duc ... _of_Russia

What does that mean that this Romanov line is preserved "to history itself" ? Suitably vague for the MP leader to toss a small consolation prize to supporters of a restored monarchy while definitively dismissing any possibility of a return to Romanov rule.

Post Reply