"The Church is Always with the People." An Orthodox Paradigm in Political Turmoil (original) (raw)
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2020
The article analyzes diverse reactions within the Orthodox church on ongoing protests in Belarus, and puts them into context with the general standpoint taken by Russian Orthodoxy in relation to political processes. The apparently noble principle of a church deliberately neutral and acting "beyond politics", as is argued, is less simple and less easy to maintain in a case of political conflict than it seems. Remaining "neutral" in a conflict is not always the same as contributing to a peaceful solution.
In 2013, the religious field in Belarus was significantly controlled by the state, which was characterized not only by minor ‘clean-ups’ of Protestants, but the Orthodox and Catholic Churches also suffered some blows, although they tried to control conflict situations. Pro-life values (family, demography, abortions) prevailed on the social agenda of the churches and this caused both unification and protest potential, which, nevertheless, was used too little. The confrontation in the administration of the Orthodox Church in Belarus regarding the change of the patriarchal exarch was intensified by interference of the state authority, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, by the Moscow center, which finally made a single-handed decision and appointed a new Metropolitan of Minsk – an ordinary Russian hierarch without any relations to Belarus. The arrest of the Roman Catholic priest Uladzislau Lazar by the secret services threatened the established balance between the Belarusian authorities and the Catholic Church and created prerequisites for reformatting their relations in the context of significant staffing changes in the Vatican.
Restorative Justice and Orthodox Church in Belarus
Churches, Memory and Justice in Post-Communism, 2021
This chapter discusses strategies of reckoning with the communist past that were adopted in Belarus by the Orthodox Church, the country's largest religious denomination. It compares the way in which the legacy of the Soviet past has been dealt with by the official Belarusian Exarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church, referred to here as the Belarusian Orthodox Church (BOC) and by those Orthodox religious groups that oppose institutional subordination to Moscow Patriarchate and campaign for establishing autocephaly. On the wave of political liberalization and religious revival in the Former Soviet Union, the Orthodox Church returned to public life after almost seventy years of continuing ideological harassment and oppression. In the rapidly changing political and social conditions, the church had to re-establish itself as a participant in public life and a legitimate actor in the ongoing societal transformation. Coming to terms with the communist past constituted an important part of this process. Revisiting the legacy of Stalinism, and acknowledging it as the most violent period
In 2016 the policy of state control over the religious sphere continued, the authorities rarely used brutal pressure and repression against religious communities, limiting the activities of religious organizations primarily in bureaucratic ways. In early 2016 there was a traditional conflict of the Commissioner for religious affairs with the leadership of the Roman Catholic Church because the government was not satisfied with the personnel policy of the latter. In the Orthodox Church, especially concerning the Minsk diocese, staff and structural changes continued, and a large organization, the Publishing house of the Belarusian Exarchate, was closed down. In February there was a meeting of Pope Francis and Patriarch Kirill of Moscow in Havana, and in June there was the Sacred and Great Synod of the Orthodox Church on Crete.
The religious sphere in 2011 was influenced by the presidential elections of 19 December 2010 and repressions in civil and political spheres afterwards. On the one hand, both at the higher level of the senior hierarchy and among believers began a certain resuscitation. On the other hand, it was not systematic, flaring up and abating. Nevertheless, this resuscitation was observed both in in-church issues and social events. Besides the traditional agenda (church-state relations, religious education at school, demography, family, abortions, donations for religious buildings and social projects), new issues arose: current political events after the elections and the followed repressions, and the death penalty. The adoption of the new law on reproduction technologies made topical questions of bioethics. These dominated the religious discourse. The church communities gained a more important position. The economic crisis of spring-summer 2011 hit churches as well.