Icons of Virgin Mary and saints targeted in sacrilegious staging inside Russian church
Serhii Shumylo, PhD in history and theology and director of the International Institute of Athonite Legacy, discusses this troubling event in his blog on RISU, referencing Russian primary sources.
During a pseudo-Orthodox ceremony, underage students from the local patriotic education center “Dynamite,” armed with weapons, performed dances in the church to rock music, incorporating elements of hand-to-hand combat and simulated gunfire. This spectacle demonstrated their training in violence against Ukrainians.
The performance occurred in the right-side chapel of the church dedicated to the Nativity of the Mother of God, directly in front of the iconostasis and opposite the altar. During these blasphemous dances, children dressed in military uniforms, with the clergy and parishioners applauding, aimed and mimicked firing automatic weapons at the icons of the Virgin Mary, the Savior, and various Orthodox saints displayed in the iconostasis.
A video of this disturbing event was shared on social media.
Shumylo asserts, “What transpired in the Peter and Paul Church of the Moscow Metropolis of the Russian Orthodox Church in Obukhovo is blasphemy and sacrilege. The organizers of the event, as well as the rector and other priests who condoned it, should face at least a church ban on serving.” He believes that these priests from the Moscow Metropolis will ultimately be held accountable.
He points out that the militarization of the church's worldview and rituals in recent years stems from Moscow Patriarch Kirill Gundyaev and other leaders within the Moscow Patriarchate. This disturbing incident vividly exemplifies the church's adoption of the quasi-religious, heretical ideology of the “Russian world,” which the Moscow Patriarch openly promotes from church pulpits to justify and legitimize Russia's war against Ukraine. Shumylo states, “The fish rots from the head” (Latin: Piscis primum a capite foetat).
“We are witnessing the decay and decomposition of the 'Sergianist' Moscow Patriarchate, now visible even at the grassroots level. This transformation symbolizes its shift towards becoming a militaristic mega-sect, where the Gospel and the teachings of Christ are not only unnecessary but also obstruct the realization of the ideals of the new civil religion of the 'Russian world' and its so-called 'holy war' against Christian Europe,” the theologian concludes.
