VLADIMIR PUTIN JOINS CONCILIAR THINKING
President supports church in opposing "anonymous protectorates"
by Andrei Melnikov, Artur Priimak
Nezavisimaia Gazeta, 2 November 2018
The 22nd World Russian People's Assembly, observing this year its 25th anniversary, was attended by President Vladimir Putin. In the Hall of Church Councils of the church of Christ the Savior, where by tradition the sessions of the WRPA are held, the head of state stood on the stage next to Patriarch of Moscow and all-Rus Kirill, who has been the permanent head of WRPA since 2009. Putin "returned" to the church forum after 17 years; on 13 December 2001 the elected president took part for the first time in the 6th Assembly [Sobor], along with Patriarch Alexis II.
"Only a united cohesive society is able to resist external pressure," Putin said in his welcoming address. "We see what kinds of forces are employed in order to reformulate the world and to destroy the cultural values and those historical spaces that have developed over the centuries. The goal of this is to create anonymous protectorates. After all, disengaged peoples, who have been deprived of national memory, are simpler and more convenient to manage. Primitive nationalism and russophobia are used in order to achieve shameless crude interference in church life. Such a policy is dangerous. But I am sure life will put everything in its place. It is impossible to force people to go against their own faith, their own traditions and family ancestry, against truth and justice." Putin never pronounced the word "Ukraine," but it was clear that he was talking about the church division and political processes in that country. The president called the WRPA the bearer of ancestral traditions like the "conciliar thinking" of the people.
After the speech by the first person of the state, participants of the forum were shown a video devoted to the origins of the WRPA. "The 1990s are not called free-wheeling in vain," a resounding voiceover pronounced. These words were accompanied by archival clips demonstrating the glaring social problems of that time. "The only possible medicine for the troubles is sobornicity [conciliarity]," the voice continues, after which it is described how in May 1993 the Assembly [Sobor] was created, which became the platform for the mutual action between church and society.
Then Patriarch Kirill delivered his introductory speech. It was devoted to upholding traditional values in circumstances of globalization. "The narrow paradigm of the new time speaks about globalization as an inescapable process. At the same time, the word 'inescapable' conceals the legitimization of the western principle of global development, whose characteristics are liberal secularism and modern forms of colonialism. It is a mistake, the rejection of the system of transfer of values from generation to generation, which forms the civilizational code of nations with its cultural, spiritual, and religious paradigms, based on God-given, and thus unchangeable, moral values that have accompanied humanity over the course of all of history. Violation of these values leads to tragedies and cataclysms," the head of the Russian Orthodox Church noted.
The day before the opening of the WRPA, Patriarch Kirill participated in the festival of news media "Faith and Word," where he said: "In Ukraine, the global order for the destruction of the Russian Orthodox Church is being implemented. There is no doubt for whom it was necessary to deliver the blow to this 'island of freedom,' because we are free from stupification and the dominance of alien thoughts over us. The patriarch of Constantinople is invading our land and our church. He declares his preeminent right to invade without having any basis in the sacred canons."
Then Vladimir Putin spoke before the guests of the 6th World Congress of Compatriots, where he emphasized: "Russia provides a refuge for compatriots who are being illegally persecuted abroad."
It is logical that Putin and Patriarch Kirill opened the 22nd congress of the World Russian People's Assembly with the "Ukrainian topic." (tr. by PDS, posted 11 November 2018)
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