On February 11, a diocesan meeting of the Moscow Metropolitanate of the Russian Orthodox Church was held in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. At the meeting, priest Alexei Shlyapin from Mozhaisk entered into a theological debate with Patriarch Kirill on patriotism.
This was reported by the Telegram channel Christians Against War.
As follows from the video published by a number of telegram channels, the following dialogue took place between them during the discussion of the final document of the meeting.
Shlyapin: I disagree with this patriotic trend in church relations. The priest's duty is to lead people to the Kingdom of Heaven, not to engage in patriotism.
Patriarch Kirill: How wonderful. I have never heard this before. Are you, by any chance, from western Ukraine? Go, take a seat and think about what you have just said.
Fr. Alexei Shlyapin is a follower of the priest Daniel Sysoev, who was murdered in 2009. At the meeting, he also raised the issue of the possibility of canonizing the murdered priest Daniel.
Fr. Daniel Sysoev was one of the leaders of the so-called “uranopolitical” movement in the Russian Orthodox Church, which emphasized the importance of heavenly rather than earthly 'citizenship' for Christians.
A year ago, at the XXV World Russian People's Council, Patriarch Kirill proclaimed Russia's aggression against Ukraine a liberating “holy war.”
“The special military operation is a new stage in the national liberation struggle of the Russian people against the criminal Kyiv regime and the collective West behind it, which has been waged on the lands of Southwestern Russia since 2014. During the SVO, the Russian people defend their lives, freedom, statehood, civilizational, religious, national and cultural identity, as well as the right to live on their own land within the borders of a united Russian state. From the spiritual and moral point of view, the special military operation is a Holy War in which Russia and its people, defending the unified spiritual space of Holy Rus, fulfill the mission of the “Keeper”, protecting the world from the onslaught of globalism and the victory of the West, which has fallen into Satanism.
After the completion of the SVO, the entire territory of modern Ukraine should enter the zone of Russia's exclusive influence. The possibility of a Russophobic political regime hostile to Russia and its people, as well as a political regime controlled by an external center hostile to Russia, should be completely excluded on this territory,” the council's order, prepared under the personal leadership of the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, reads.