A question for Orthodoxy in Dialogue’s readers to ponder: How is the Kremlin using the Orthodox Church in America (OCA), the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia (ROCOR), Archbishop John (Renneteau) and his followers in Western Europe, and its other ecclesiastical proxies around the globe to advance Moscow’s geopolitical agenda?

Recent public attention has focused on Moscow’s use of cyber warfare against elections in the US and Europe. But lately, a far more insidious threat to liberal democracy and the Euro-Atlantic alliance has emerged – Russia’s weaponization of faith-based organizations.

Expelled from the G-8 and sanctioned economically for its illegal seizure of Crimea, Russia is employing new tactics to influence US and European decision makers and win the war of public opinion. In America, the Russian government has re-configured its active measures strategy to deliberately target the three pillars of modern American conservatism — big business, gun-rights advocates, and Christian fundamentalists. Read More

Patriarch Theodoros II of Alexandria (second from right) concelebrates with Patriarch Kirill of Moscow (left) in July 2018

(Photo credit: Religion News Service)

By coincidence or not, this time last year Patriarch Kirill of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) thanked Patriarch Theodoros II of Alexandria for his support of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP) on the question of Ukrainian autocephaly. Exactly a year later, the Patriarchate of Alexandria (AP) joined the Orthodox Church of Greece (OCG) in recognising the autocephaly of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU). How do Patriarch Kirill and Metropolitan Onuphrius of Kiev* feel? If the initial reactions from the UOC-MP are any indicator, then the answer is betrayed. Read More

Orthodoxy in Dialogue’s readers will recall that the Georgian Orthodox Church hosted the notoriously homophobic World Congress of Families in 2016, which earned Father Josiah Trenham the distinction of coming to the attention of the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Hatewatch Staff.

In the 21st century, to what extent—if at all—is the Church in a majoritarian Orthodox country justified in trying to control artistic expression and popular culture?

In Georgia, far right groups and the Orthodox Church join forces against the premiere of the Swedish film And Then We Danced, shot in Georgia and featuring a gay Georgian dancer.

And Then We Danced, which notably will open the 32nd annual Image+Nation Film Festival in Montreal on November 21, is a tender story of the discovery of gay love filmed in Tbilisi, Georgia.  Read More

For the background to the present essay see the articles listed under Archdiocese of Russian Orthodox Churches in Western Europe (AROCWE) in our Archives, as well as Antoine Arjakovsky’s A Way Out of the Orthodox Church’s Present Crisis and Victor Alexandrov’s The Choice Facing the Archdiocese of Russian Churches in Western Europe.

Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and Archbishop John (Renneteau) of Dubna

On November 2 and 3, the Russian news and many church media showed what they have called the reunification ceremony of the Archdiocese of Russian Churches in Western Europe with the Patriarchate of Moscow. Patriarch Kirill has called it “irreversible” and “the closing of a long parenthesis.” Much splendor and pomp were displayed, speeches made, and honors given. Archbishop John (Renneteau) of Dubna (formerly of Charioupolis) spoke of “joy” and “return.” For some, it seemed a triumph; for others, humiliating. I won’t make a secret of the fact that I belong to the latter group.

A chapter seems to be over, the chapter of the politically independent, poor but free, multi-ethnic,  conciliarly organized Archdiocese of rue Daru. The path which lead our former archbishop and those who followed him to this “return” is strewn with dissimulation, confusion, manipulation, fear, and mediocrity. I will try to outline it here. It will be from a subjective angle, but I shall try to be as impartial as possible where the facts are concerned. Read More