Thread by @ChrisO_wiki

1/ Pacifism is a heresy, according to a new ruling by an ecclesiastical court of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC). The ruling, said to have been directed personally by Patriarch Kirill, has been made against an anti-war priest who was convicted and fined for advocating peace. ⬇️

2/ The ruling has been made against John Burdin, the rector of the Church of the Resurrection of Christ in the village of Karabanovo near Kostroma in western Russia.

3/ The ruling states that "the pacifism with which priest Burdin tries to shield himself from accusations against him is not compatible with the actual teachings of the Orthodox Church, in particular as set out in the 'Fundamentals of the Social Concept'.

4/ "Pacifism has been present in heretical doctrines at various epochs of Church history..."

(Such heretical doctrines apparently include the Gospel of Matthew.)

5/ He is also accused of violating various canonical rules requiring obedience to authority, such as "Rule 84 of the Holy Apostles: 'If any man vex a king, or a prince, not according to righteousness: let him be punished.

6/ "And if he be of the clergy, let him be expelled from the holy ranks; but if he be a layman, let him be excommunicated from the communion of the church."

7/ Burdin, a native of Odesa in Ukraine, is also accused by the church court of "'pseudo-pacifism', as he criticised the actions of the Russian, not Ukrainian, authorities and, in particular, kept quiet about the auto-da-fe arranged in his hometown of Odessa – ...

8/ … the mass burning of people who had advocated preservation of Russian peace, which went unpunished."

[This is a reference to the 2 May 2014 fire in the Odesa Trade Unions House, which caused 42 deaths and effectively ended a pro-Russian attempt to take over the city.]

9/ "So his pacifism is imaginary, one-sided, it clearly shows his anti-Russian political position, which is perceived as unacceptable in our country, and what is important to emphasise, ...

10/ ... radically divergent from the position of the Russian Orthodox Church, which is undoubtedly known to him."

Burdin's offence was to have given a sermon preaching against the recently launched invasion of Ukraine and to have posted anti-war statements on the parish website.

11/ "We Christians do not dare to stand aside when a brother kills a brother, a Christian kills a Christian. Let's not repeat the crimes of those who welcomed the actions of Hitler on 1 September 1939.

12/ "We cannot bashfully close our eyes and call black white, evil good, say that Abel was probably wrong in provoking his older brother."

Burdin was arrested by police on the same day as his sermon, having probably been denounced by one of his parishioners.

13/ He was charged with "inspiring the parishioners of the church with information about the presence of the Russian Armed Forces in Ukraine, ongoing shelling of Ukrainian cities (Kiev, Odessa, Kharkov, etc.), murders of residents of Ukraine (brothers and sisters in Christ) ...

14/ …as well as by posting information with campaign images on the website," according to the indictment.

He was tried within 3 days and was convicted and fined a sum of 35,000 rubles ($423) for the offence of having "discredited the Russian Army".

15/ After the conviction, Burdin tried in March 2023 to transfer to the Bulgarian Orthodox Church but was refused permission to do so by his Russian Orthodox Church superiors. He subsequently resigned from the ROC and was banned from preaching ahead of his church trial in June.

16/ Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, is said to have played a personal role in the proceedings against Burdin. This isn't surprising, as Kirill –  reputedly a former KGB agent – is a pillar of the Putin regime and a strong supporter of the war.

17/ Christian nationalism is a fundemental element of the ideology of Putinism. The Russian Orthodox Church has been engaged at all levels in legitimising the war.

18/ An editorial in a church publication in February 2023 called for punishment for "liberal clerics" who had made a "vile and traitorous address ... to our homeland and the Russian army, for this address is a knife in the back of the Russian warrior who is liberating the world…

19/ …from Nazism, as our fathers, grandfathers and great grandfathers heroically did during the Great Patriotic War".

Burdin's preaching, and pacifism in general, are clearly seen by the church leadership as being intolerable threats to that position. /end

Sources:
🔹 t.me/NetFreedomsPro…
🔹 t.me/NetFreedomsPro…
🔹 t.me/astrapress/208…
🔹 t.me/sotaproject/60…