Synergy between the Moscow Patriarchate and the Kremlin is so extensive that any distinctive borders between the two have long been erased. They have grown so monolithic that the destruction of one part will inevitably lead to the fall of another. Accordingly, the ongoing transformation in and around the Kremlin as the “national leader” ages and readies to step down automatically triggers similar processes in the patriarchate. Moreover, its leader is even older, while his health issues could be far worse than Putin’s.
That’s according to Credo.press.
The decisions made by Kiril (Gundyaev) on November 8 through the pocket-virtual Synod suggest he is trying to usurp power. Administrative functions, which used to be collegial, have now been assigned to one person. All institutions that are part of the ROC MP, nominally called “synodal”, have in fact become “patriarchal” because the patriarch has been entitled to personally appoint and remove their leaders, without any imitation of online catholicity.
Of course, in essence, the decision changes nothing in the “vertical” of patriarchal power, which has developed over the decades. After all, the current Synod is not the type of body that was created by the All-Russian Local Council in 1917-1918. (And neither is the patriarchate itself – it’s nothing like the one headed by Russia’s last legitimate Patriarch, St. Tikhon, until 1925.) The ROC Synod Those a a successor of an “interim holy Synod under the patriarchal deputy,” founded in the labs of the Soviet OGPU secret police in 1927. This is a body, which, according to its very formal founder, Metropolitan Sergius (Stragorodsky), has no independent authority or jurisdiction, and whose powers are limited to those of a deputy. When Metropolitan Sergius, in defiance of the ecclesiastical catholicity, usurped his powers, along with him the usurper became that very is interim synod, which had not been elected but appointed by Sergius, or better say OGPU, as since May 1927, Segius was no independent actor and limited to following the directives from above.
Formally, this decorative body handled by security operatives to “manage the church from within” was reorganized on a cathedral basis in 1945, when the Local Council of the ROC MP adopted the relevant Statute. The Statute, however, has little in common with the Conciliar Statute of 1917-1918. It was approved under wartime conditions strictly unanimously, mostly by the assets of the atheistic NKVD security agency and under the latter’s full control. According to the Statute, the Synod, with which the patriarch, like Deputy Sergius, shares its power, is not elected by any Councils, is not accountable to anyone, but forms itself around the patriarch. The only moment in the life of the ROC MP, when the Synod acquires some independent subjectivity (although its legitimacy as a “self-formed” body remains in great question), is the moment of the patriarch’s death. It was at this moment that the Synod elected a patriarchal vicar from among its members by secret ballot, who later became patriarch (the only exception to this rule in the history of the ROC MP occurred in the radical perestroika year of 1990).
In general, the “synodal” system of the Moscow Patriarchate remained a decoration until today’s decision. Moreover, there could be no question of any catholicity under such a brutally authoritarian patriarch as Kirill, who would suddenly dismiss even the metropolitan “heavyweights” loyal to him. And no one dared to say a word. (We are not talking about obtaining an approval from the presidential administration here as the procedure did not take place at a Synod meeting.)
The Nezygar channel on Telegram wrote on November 7 that Metropolitan Tikhon (Shevkunov) had already become a “real substitute for Kirill” at the patriarch’s throne. Knowing the psychological features of Vladimir Putin, it is difficult to disagree with the fact that he will take care to secure his “transit” through the church line as well, entrusting it to a more reliable and balanced person than Kirill. Knowing, in turn, the psychological features of Kirill, it is easy to imagine his vividly emotional reaction to this post by Nezygar, which reflected in sudden illegitimate decisions. At least on the morning of November 8, few in the patriarchate knew that the Synod would be taking place today, and there is still no official photo of the meeting posted on the Patriarchy.Ru website.
