Paul Goble
Staunton,
March 11 – In yet another demonstration of the ways in which the Russian
Orthodox Church and the Putin Kremlin are intermixing, Metropolitan Tikhon of
Pskov says he is writing a play (that is already slated to become a movie)
about Crimea and its history (mk-pskov.ru/politics/2019/03/11/pskovskiy-mitropolit-tikhon-shevkunov-pishet-pesu-pro-krym.html).
Tikhon, widely reputed to be Putin’s
spiritual guide and publicly close to the Kremlin leader, clearly doesn’t need
to curry favor with the Russian president. The metropolitan, on the outs with
Patriarch Kirill, is already the favorite to succeed the current head of the
church when the time comes.
What this latest Tikhon action does
point to is an effort by him that is undoubtedly supported by his friend Putin
to make the church more popular and accessible by adopting populist methods and
messages. One can hardly imagine any previous patriarch writing a play about
such a political subject.
And that may pay the Pskov
metropolitan big dividends; but it is certain to have negative consequences as
well, offending many more traditional believers who despite their caesaro-papist
values won’t want to see their church as nothing more than an echo chamber for whatever
the Kremlin is saying now.
And that in turn opens the way not
only to splits within the ROC MP but also to having some of its believers fall
away into the catacomb church or to Protestantism or Catholicism. Tikhon and
Putin may assume they can block this; but the experience of other faiths whose
leadership has become overly populist suggests they will not succeed.
No comments:
Post a Comment