Paul Goble
Staunton, Nov. 26 – New research by the Moscow Institute of Sociology shows that trust in the Russian Orthodox Church among residents of the capital is now the lowest in two decades, that the level of their religiosity has fallen and that many of the young are turning away from the church and choosing to follow Eastern religions or other “non-traditional” faiths.
Unless the patriarchate changes course, Stanislav Stremidlovsky, a political scientist who specializes on cultural affairs, argues, Russian Orthodoxy’s current approach isn’t working and the church will lose its dominance at least among urban Russians and perhaps more generally (iarex.ru/news/87759.html).
Patriarch Kirill has bet that his outspoken patriotism and slavish following of Putin’s militarist course will be enough to keep his church’s position, but the new study strongly suggests, the analyst says, that he is wrong and that the church needs to find a new approach, one more in tune with the views of its ever-small flock.
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