From an American Orthodox priest reader living temporarily in Russia:
I wanted to thank you for reporting about the martyred priest Fr. Daniil. I thought you might also be interested to know that there is some thought in the Church here that Fr. Daniil was murdered as a warning to Patriarch Kyrill. The patriarch has been very outspoken about missionary work. He believes that the years since the fall of communism have seen the "restructuring" of the Church here, but now is the time for real mission work, not only making the new Orthodox truly Orthodox (or "churching the people" as he often puts it), but reaching outside the Church to those who are non-Orthodox. He was very supportive of Fr. Daniil and all missionary priests here; openly so and very vocal about it.So, Fr. Daniil was murdered on the evening of the Patriarch's birthday as a perverted "gift" to him. By killing one of the most visible and well-known of his missionary priests, they were warning him what the cost would be to him and the Church if missionary work continues.
This is still very much a place where one's faith has a high cost. A number of friends (and family) have warned me about always wearing my cassock and cross in public, on the subway, on the streets, at the university. But I find that so many people are attracted to a priest and are very sincerely interested in the faith, and have so many questions to ask, that just wearing the cassock in public is "missionary."
Below, Patriarch Kyrill serves at Fr. Daniil's funeral. If you speak Russian, follow this link for a video of the Patriarch's eulogy at the martyred priest's funeral:
Add to Del.icio.us
Add to Technorati
Add to Digg
Add to Newsvine
Add to Facebook
Add to StumbleUpon
Subscribe
I was curious about this after reading your first post - and was surprised to discover the extent to which neo paganism is appealing to Russians and the nature of this movement. Spoke with a colleaugue about this who is knowledgeable - and he told me that throughout the former Soviet empire there is a considerable number of people who are pagans. It seems that there is a movement to recover national identity pre - communism that is often expressed in this movement. A common theme is that Christianity was imposed on the slavic people and corrupted their culture. In order to regain their genuine identity they must reject not just communism but also orthodox Christianity. The troubling thing is that unlike paganism in the US - this form of paganism is coupled with nationalism and right wing politics which includes anti semitism and anti Islam along with the rejection of orthodox Christianity. There are also varying degrees of admiration for Nazi "volk" notions.
Apparently the orthodox Church has been fighting this movement and there have been incidents of pagan shrines being destroyed and orthodox icons left to purify the sites. Which of course results in retaliations by the pagans.
There are also Russian political parties who have aligned themselves with these right wing movements.
Obviously - we do not know who murdered Fr. Danill and it may have had nothing to do with his conversion activities. But it does seem that continued confrontations between Orthodox Christianity and this right wing paganism will occur. Troubling development.
It's my understanding that Mr. Danill had antagonized the Muslim community much more than the neo-pagan community. Given that they seem historically to be more prone to violence when confronted with such attitudes, perhaps it would be better to look to the Muslim community for the guilty party, rather than dubious associations with neo-paganism based on shaky evidence.
Of course, if you all would concern yourselves less with what other people believed, and concentrated on yourselves, we might have less conflict in this sphere altogether. Pagans don't as a rule actively convert, much less do so by the sword. If only you sons of Abraham would do the same...
Post a Comment
By submitting these comments, I agree to the beliefnet.com terms of service, rules of conduct and privacy policy (the "agreements"). I understand and agree that any content I post is licensed to beliefnet.com and may be used by beliefnet.com in accordance with the agreements.