Statement by clergymen of the diocese of Smolensk and Kaliningrad

STATEMENT BY CLERGYMEN OF THE DIOCESE OF SMOLENSK AND KALININGRAD

By the grace of God, our Russian Orthodox Church is going along a difficult way of reviving and restoring spiritual identity of Holy Russia. We believe that through the prayers of all saints who shone forth in the land of Russia, our much suffered Fatherland will manifest its spiritual strength and the truth of Holy Orthodoxy in the world in the new millennium. Though there are positive and constructive changes taking place in the life of our nation, Orthodox people see negative and destructive processes leading to divisions and confrontation in society and the Church, inflicting particular pain on the hearts of believers.
For us, clergymen of the diocese of Smolensk and Kaliningrad, a particular anxiety and concern among these alarming and bitter facts is a vile and slanderous campaign launched by certain mass media against our ruling hierarch, Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad. This campaign is waged with the objective to blacken a prominent hierarch of our Church and a permanent member of the Holy Synod, and also to discredit the church hierarchy in general, thus bringing temptation into the not yet strong souls of people who are just finding the truth of Orthodoxy and the salutary faith.

Fifteen years ago the Heavenly Queen Hodegetria has brought His Eminence Metropolitan Kirill to our old Smolensk land. The diocese was in dire neglect at that time. In the Smolensk diocese there were only 35 Orthodox parishes, the most part of them in rural areas. The lack of churches, monasteries, theological educational institutions was doubtless telling on general spiritual and moral state of the population of the region. People had forgotten God, the faith of their fathers and their Orthodox roots. The zealous work of Metropolitan Kirill has kindled a hope in people for the revival of Orthodoxy in the Smolensk region. At that time it was hard to imagine that new parishes will come to life, but in the Smolensk diocese, after the arrival of Metropolitan Kirill, it became a reality. We remember very well the joy of the opening of an Orthodox parish in Kaliningrad in 1985, the first in many years, and of another in Yartsevo in 1986. It was a real celebration for the inhabitants of these cities and of all neighbouring localities as well. At present there are some 100 parishes in the Smolensk dioceses. A lot of work has been done for their organization, arrangement, maintenance and bringing them up to strength by church workers and clergymen. On the initiative of Metropolitan Kirill, the first in our Church Orthodox kindergarten, gymnasium and theological college were opened in the Smolensk diocese, and broad catechization began in the secular higher and secondary education establishments. At present 5.000 children in the Smolensk region learn the basics of Orthodoxy and Christian life. Besides a theological seminary, opened in the diocese was a theological college to train precentors, psalm-readers, icon-painters and catechists with a faculty to train nurses which is a novelty for this kind of theological educational institutions.

Words fail us to describe the sacrificial work of Metropolitan Kirill in the Kaliningrad region! There were no working churches in the region in 1985! The ministry here can be truly called missionary. At present there are 39 parishes and a convent in the Kaliningrad region, and catechetical work is being conducted on the ships of the Baltic fleet, in the state university and in many other educational institutions of the region. All these are the works of our archpastor! How dare the ‘writing brethren’ lift up their hands against Metropolitan Kirill, slanderously accusing him in ruining Orthodoxy in the Kaliningrad region! There was nothing to ruin there. The only possibility was to build and to create, and Metropolitan Kirill is successfully building up the Church of God in the Kaliningrad land, disgracing the foes of the Orthodox faith!

The forces which try to discredit our archpastor do not give unbiassed coverage of his activities as it would run counter to their ignoble purposes, to put it mildly. We can only guess the reasons for unleashing this campaign, as standing behind it are concrete forces in the state and society, the forces which hate the very idea of the Church being free and independent of their dictatorial attitude and arbitrariness and raising her prophetic voice to proclaim justice and witness the truth. We know that our Metropolitan gives a lot of his physical and spiritual strength for establishing and asserting the independence of the Church and does not compromise on this point. On behalf of all our clergymen we state that our hierarch serves God and the Church sincerely and with all his heart as a faithful assistant and coworker of His Holiness the Patriarch in the field of Christ.
St.Paul said: ‘evil men and impostors will go on from bad to worse, decievers and deceived’ (2 Tim.3:13), but we believe that the Heavenly Queen, the Most Holy Mother of God, Who Shows the Way, and all saints of the Smolensk land will disgrace all slander cast on our dear archpastor, and ‘we may be delivered from wicked and evil men’ (2 Thess.3:2).

Bishop Panteleimon of Baltia, archimandrite Anthony Mezentsev, hegumen Arkady Nedosekov, hegumen Vadim Malinovsky, hegumen Damian Potapov, hegumen Sergy Zyatkov on behalf of the brethren of the Monastery of the Saviour and the Transfiguration, hegumen Avraamy Zhukov, priest Ioann Bozhelko, priest Alexy Sologubov, priest Georgy Chekhovsky, priest Anatoly Yefimenkov, priest Nikolay Babyuk, priest Nikolay Privalov, priest Vassily Savelyev, priest Sergey Zelenkov, priest Boris Stepanov, priest Yevgeny Barinov, priest Alexy Komandirchik, priest Alexy Velikopolsky, priest Oleg Kozlovsky, priest Alexander Zhykharev, priest Sergy Parulin, priest Oleg Pereverzev, priest Valery Alexeev, priest Gennady Prokofiev, priest Valentin Mitrofanov, priest Vladimir Kanchuk, priest Vladimir Shevelin, priest Mikhail Goltsman, priest Alexander Mironov, priest Georgy Urbanovich, priest Svyatoslav Khudovekov, hieromonk Tikhon Koshelev, hieromonk Lazar Bocharkin, hieromonk Tarasy Lange, hieromonk Seraphim Geroyev, hieromonk Potapy Zobkov, hieromonk Daniel Sychev, hieromonk Melety Pavliuchenkov, hieromonk Petr Isakov, priest Iakov Kushnir, priest Vladislav Stepanov, priest Alexy Petrischenkov, priest Nikolay Marchenko, priest Pavel Petrovsky, priest Vladimir Dmitriev, priest Vladimir Titov, priest Mikhail Bevtsik, priest Nikolay Bondart, priest Sergy Moseichuk, priest Roman Svistun, priest Dimitry Kichula, priest Mikhail Kadenkov, priest Nikolay Duma, priest Victor Lupekhin, priest Vladimir Kukurchuk, priest Dimitry Kopeichikov, priest Vassily Demchuk, priest Andrey Konstantinov, priest Andrey Vdovenkov, priest Sergy Kuzmin, priest Sergy Nesterov, priest Nikolay Kotusev, priest Feodor Zinchenko, priest Igor Onufrienko, priest Nikolay Novikov, priest Vassily Pervushin, priest Roman Pavlishov, priest Ioann Zhdanov, priest Roman Tkachenko, priest Vitaly Sladkov, priest Andrey Menshikh, priest Sergey Markov, protodeacon Alexander Melnichuk, protodeacon Victor Kryukov, deacon Vladimir Machulsky, hierodeacon Ignaty Punin, deacon Alexsnader Klimenkov, deacon Leonid Belyaev, hierodeacon Rostislav Ivochkin, hierodeacon Siluan Nuzhny, hegumen Merkury Ivanov, hegumen Tikhon Kushnir, hegumen Sofrony Kolosov, archpriest Petr Berbenichuk, archpriest Maryan Pozun, archpriest Dimitry Krutin, archpriest Valery Kryuchkov, archpriest Iosif Ilnitsky, hieromonk Ermogen Chernyakov, hieromonk Markell Keis, hieromonk Kornily Yefimov, archpriest Nikifor Melnik, priest Gavriil Garmash, archpriest Alexander Alexeyenko, priest Georgy Biryukov, priest Igor Yurchenko, priest Victor Kurkin, priest Vitaly Serov, priest Oleg Izvekov, priest Petr Kuptsov, priest Vadim Netkachev, priest Roman Belousov, priest Sergy Dovgal, priest Alexy Yevgrafov, priest Valery Skibo, priest Sergy Borsky, priest Andrey Marzaev, priest Leonid Stuchilin, priest Yevgeny Zatsepin, priest Oleg Onischuk, priest Sergy Kotov, priest Vadim Degtyarev, priest Roman Promzelev, priest Oleg Mikhalev, priest Alexy Klikushin, priest Dionisy Makhanko, priest Alexander Ilyin, priest Anatoly Vysokovsky, priest Oleg Sushko, priest Dimitry Prusakov, priest Mikhail Scherbakov, priest Vladimir Maximov, priest Alexander Duzhkin, deacon Yevgeny Valyashkin, deacon Andrey Paskhin, deacon Sergy Skuratov, sister Ioanna Kadurova, hegumen Leonid Selyunin, hegumen Alexander Karpikov, hegumen Irinarkh Andreev, archpriest Mikhail Gorovoy, archpriest Grigory Trubin, archpriest Dimitry Singaevsky, archpriest Ioann Ilnitsky, archpriest Nikolay Alexeev, archpriest Victor Savik, archpriest Nikolay Kanchuk, archpriest Mikhail Gil, archpriest Nikolay Morozov, archpriest Vladimir Ladoga, archpriest Ioann Belyak, archpriest Nikolay Belousov, archpriest Alexander Matoshko, archpriest Petr Dolgopolov, archpriest Vassily Sinyachkin, archpriest Bogdan Gaiduk, archpriest Grigory Bogomolov, archpriest Vassily Movchanyuk, archpriest Boris Fedorenko, archpriest Iosif Mikhalchich, hieromonk Gavriil Markov, hieromonk Zosima Volkov, archpriest Anatoly Chaikin