War of ‘Missionaries’ and ‘Migrantophobes’ in Russian Orthodox Church Seen Triggering Demands for Autocephaly in Central Asia

Paul Goble
    Staunton, Nov. 20 – The Russian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate is being torn apart in battles between the so-called “missionaries” who see the conversion of immigrants as the salvation of the church and the so-called “migrantophobes” who want to block the influx of migrant workers into the Russian Federation.
    In the past, the patriarchate was able to control this fight by shifting hierarchs who went to far in either direction to other sees, a policy that Kirill, the current head of the church, has continued. But now the fight is becoming so public that his efforts at neutrality are failing (ng.ru/ng_religii/2024-11-19/9_584_disagreements.html).
    Not only are the Orthodox “migrantophobes” increasingly powerful and increasingly coming into conflict with regional officials, but their words and actions are having the effect of stimulating demands for greater autonomy or even autocephaly among Orthodox churches in Central Asia.
    While the number of Orthodox Christians in most of those countries is small – Kazakhstan is an exception – any move toward autocephaly even there would represent another defeat for Kirill and the ROC MP and possibly cost the patriarch his position, given his church’s losses elsewhere.
    On autocephaly demands in Central Asia, see windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2024/07/orthodox-in-kazakhstan-seeking.html, windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2023/12/seeking-autocephaly-church-dissident-in.html, windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2023/07/orthodox-leaders-in-kazakhstan-now-say.html and windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2023/02/number-of-mosques-in-turkmenistan-has.html.