TWENTY MOST IMPORTANT EVENTS OF RELIGIOUS LIFE IN 2020
1. "Coronavirus Ordeal" and the victims associated with it: March-December
2. Trial of Father Andrei Kuraev: December
3. Rebellion of Father Sergius Romanov, his expulsion from RPTsMP, the storming of the Central Urals convent, and the arrest of the schehegumen: April-December
4. Intensification and expansion of persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia: January-December
5. Recognition of the autocephaly of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine by the Cypriot archdiocese and escalation of schism in world Orthodoxy: October-November
6. Protests by Christians against usurpation of authority in Belarus by Lukashenko, expulsion from the country and the return of Metropolitan Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz: August-December
7. Consecration (without Putin) and opening (with Putin) of the "main church" of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation in Moscow suburb of Kubinka: 14-22 June
8. Arrest of leaders of the Church of the Last Testament of Vissarion and the demand by authorities to liquidate this church: September-December
9. Insertion of the word "God" into the constitution of the Russian Federation: February-July
10. Death of Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin: 26 January
11. Imprisonment in psychiatric hospital of Shaman Alexander Gabyshev: May-June
12. Attempt of Moscow patriarchate to resist quarantine measures, including at the official level: March
13. Creation of Yakunin committee Freedom of Conscience in the R.F.: 11-12 March
14. Increase in severity of law on freedom of conscience in the R.F.: December
15. 400th anniversary of Archpriest Avvakum, nearly wiped out because of the pandemic: August-December
16. Fiasco of "Pan-Orthodox Summit" in Amman, initiated by RPTsMP: 26 February
17. Protests of supporters of Serbian patriarchate in Montenegro and change of government in that country: January-November
18. Surrender to a church court of the RPTsMP by three bishops—Ignaty, Ignaty, and Flavian—and the "untimely" unfrocking of the latter: April-December
19. Public outcry over Pokrov monastery of RPTsMP in Moscow after the hegumen's refusal to donate money for an operation on a child of a priest who ministers in the monastery: January-February
20. Uproar in Tver because of the performance in the cathedral church of the liturgy partially in the Russian language and installation of a "Kochetkov Plaque": 2 February (tr. by PDS, posted 1 January 2021)
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