ON MY MIND
SOME years ago I was glad to get a shower in a hotel in Irkutsk after a week on the Trans-siberian railway. Suitably fragrant I managed to squeeze into a service in one of the Russian Orthodox churches.
The rich mixture of illuminated icons, stunning coloured imagery, candles and priestly chanting was intoxicating. Now it leaves a bitter taste. The Russian Orthodox Church, through its primate Patriarch Kirill, an ideological ally of Vladimir Putin, has given legitimacy to Putin’s evil and barbaric actions in Ukraine. Claiming that it is God’s truth that the ancient Slavic-orthodox lands should be reunited and calling on Russians to repel the decadence of the west, Kirill has demonstrated the moral bankruptcy and spiritual death of his church.
Contrast this with the attack by the head of the Church of England, a constitutionally established state religion, on the government’s absurd plan to deport asylum-seekers to Rwanda and the consequent archbishop-bashing statements of the PM. We see the healthiness of a vigorous debate. It’s even more fun when you look on as a dissenter in a disestablished Wales. Then there are those who argue that the church should not get involved in politics.
They obviously haven’t got to the bit in the story where Jesus calls the king a fox.
We have already witnessed the attempt to create a pro-nazi unified Reich Church in Germany. It is the result of a toxic conflation of nationalism, patriotism, religion, imperialism and authoritarianism that is now an existential threat to humanity. It is this which produced the abhorrent Cathedral of the Armed Forces, a military theme park near Moscow, where the church is khaki green with a gold Orthodox cross and angels gaze down on a mosaic of Russian soldiers who fought in Syria, Georgia and Crimea. A chilling feature is the space left for future conflicts.
In Russia the church and the military are in an indissoluble and incestuous relationship which allows only mutual admiration. What a privilege to live in a country where a prime minister and an Archbishop can engage in a vigorous spat and walk away unscathed.