Message from the press service of the Moscow diocese
Because in the means mass media there are requests, then, with the blessing of Metropolitan Juvenaly of Krutitsy and Kolomna, I consider it necessary to provide information on the issue related to the ban on clergy on January 14 of this year. clergyman of the Cathedral of All Saints, who shone in the Russian land, the city of Domodedovo, Moscow Region, priest Dimitri Sverdlov. The prohibition decree was signed on the basis of a report received from the dean of the churches of the Domodedovo district, rector of the Cathedral of All Saints, who shone in the Russian land, the city of Domodedovo, Moscow Region. According to the existing practice, the Metropolitan's decrees are handed over to the persons concerned personally. January 15 this year Archpriest Alexander Ganaba, Secretary of the Moscow Diocesan Administration, made a telephone request to the Dean to inform the priest. D. Sverdlov about the need to come to the Diocesan Office. Due to the fact that the Rector failed to do this on January 16 of this year. priest A telegram was sent to D. Sverdlov and on the same day he was informed by telephone by the secretary of the Moscow Diocesan Administration of the content of the Decree and invited to come and receive it. On the motives for the prohibition of St. D. Sverdlov is evidenced by the following documents.
Press Secretary of the Moscow Diocesan Administration
Bishop Nikolai Balashikhinsky

TO HIS HIGH PRIEST


dean of churches
Domodedovo District
Archpriest Alexander Vasiliev
REPORT
Your Eminence!
In February 2012, the priest Dimitry Sverdlov (then rector of the Peter and Paul Church, now a cleric of the Cathedral of All Saints in the Russian land who shone in Domodedovo) filed a petition addressed to you (attached to the report), in which he expressed his desire to leave the state due to "pastoral burnout." This request of his was rejected by you.
During 2012, priest Dimitry Sverdlov systematically violated church discipline in part foreign trips without your blessing. This prompted me to write a corresponding report (No. 95 dated September 10, 2012, attached to this report). As a result, he was released from the abbotship and appointed a clergyman to the staff of the Cathedral of All Saints in the Russian Land Resplendent in Domodedovo.
However, from the moment he received the decree on the new appointment, Priest Dimitry Sverdlov did not attend a single divine service and did not present me with a single document justifying his absence.
On my instructions, my assistant, Archpriest Vyacheslav Zavyalov, spoke with him on the phone in December 2012 regarding his attitude to serving in the cathedral, but did not hear anything specific.
At the beginning of January, Fr. Vyacheslav again tried to contact him in order to convince him to come to the Christmas service at the cathedral, but he did not answer the phone calls and did not call back in response.
In connection with the foregoing, I believe that Priest Dimitry Sverdlov ignores the decree of Your Eminence on his appointment to the staff of the Cathedral of All Saints in the Russian Land, Resplendent in Domodedovo and, thus, falls under the rule of 36 Sts. Apostles (“If anyone, having been ordained a bishop, does not accept the service and care of the people entrusted to him: let him be excommunicated until he receives onago. Similarly, the presbyter and deacon ...”), as well as the text of the priestly oath (“Without the will of his Archpastor not to leave the place of service where he is assigned, and not to go anywhere arbitrarily”).
YOUR HIGH EMHNESS
unworthy novice
Archpriest Alexander Vasiliev
Ref. No. 2 dated 14.01.2013

Decree No. 3097 of September 14, 2012
Priest Dimitry Sverdlov is relieved of his duties as rector of the Peter and Paul Church in the village of Pavlovskoye, Domodedovo District, and is appointed to the staff of the Cathedral of All Saints in the Russian Land, Resplendent in the city of Domodedovo, Moscow Region.
+Juvenaly,
METROPOLITAN OF KRUTITSKY AND KOLOMENSKY

TO HIS HIGH PRIEST
HIGH RECOGNIZED JUVENAL
METROPOLITAN OF KRUTITSKY AND KOLOMENSKOY
dean of churches
Domodedovo District
Archpriest Alexander Vasiliev
REPORT
Your Eminence!
I consider it my duty to bring to your attention about the revealed systematic violation by the rector of the Peter and Paul Church in the village of Pavlovskoye of the Domodedovo church district, priest Dimitri Sverdlov, of the existing regulation in the Moscow diocese regarding clergy vacations.
So, this summer, with your blessing, Fr. Dimitri was in next vacation. He arrived from vacation with a delay of a week, about which he did not inform me. The fact of his being late was established by me from third-party sources, after which he was called by me for an explanation. All the arguments of Father Demetrius were not convincing, explanatory note on this occasion he refused to write. Despite this, after talking with him for more than an hour and a half, I hoped that I had persuaded Father Dimitri to implement discipline regarding the vacation.
However, already in August of this year, he arbitrarily went to Italy (Rome) for some kind of Catholic conference. This became known after I tried to summon him to the office of the deanery for the usual ordinary question. At this time he was already in Rome and was going to return only next Saturday. I suggested that he come immediately for an explanation, but he did not appear until the end of the next week.
During this meeting, I pointed out Fr. Demetrius on the canonical rules and the priestly oath, which determine the movement of clergy only with the permission of the hierarchy. In particular, this is indicated by the rules of the Council of Laodicea (No. 41: “The consecrated, or the clerk must not travel without the correct letter from the bishop” and No. 42: “The consecrated, or the clerk must not travel without the command of the bishop”) and the text of the oath “Without the will of his Archpastor not to leave the place of service where he was appointed, and not to go anywhere without permission. In addition, everyone knows your direct instructions regarding vacations and departures of clerics outside the diocese. In response, he stated that he did not see a significant problem in the fact that the clergy would travel somewhere between services, even abroad, since this did not infringe on parish and liturgical life. During the conversation, he also confirmed the rumor about his unauthorized trip to the city of Krymsk with a cargo of humanitarian aid and financial resources in the amount of about a million rubles. He also said that his plans already include possible trips, including those at the invitation of various organizations. I exhorted him to refrain from these trips, again pointing out their uncanonicity. In response to Fr. Dimitri asked for time to think until Monday, which I provided.
On that Monday, Fr. Dimitri said that, at my insistence, he had canceled planned trips until the end of this year and refused invitations, but again said that he did not see a significant problem in the freedom of movement of clerics between services, and, thus, did not share the practice existing in the Moscow diocese regarding holidays of the clergy. I suggested that he write an explanatory note on the unauthorized abandonment of the parish, to which he replied that he would write it only upon a written request from my side.
As a result of all my meetings and conversations with Fr. Dimitri, I got the strong impression that he still does not regard his actions as significant violations, which makes it possible to repeat them in various variations.
At all these meetings, the assistant to the dean, Archpriest Vyacheslav Zavyalov, was present, who is a witness to all the confessions and words of Fr. Demetrius set out in the report.
Presenting to Your Eminence the above facts of the unauthorized abandonment of the parish by priest Dimitry Sverdlov, I ask you to consider the clergyman of the Cathedral of All Saints in the Russian Land of the Resplendent City of Domodedovo Priest Yevgeny Nevodin as a possible candidate for the post of rector of the Peter and Paul Church in the village of Pavlovskoye of the Domodedovo Church District, leaving the staff of the cathedral (legal name - Local religious organization Orthodox parish of the Peter and Paul Church, Pavlovskoye village, Domodedovo district, Moscow region, Moscow diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church).
YOUR HIGH EMHNESS
unworthy novice
Archpriest Alexander Vasiliev
Ref. No. 95 dated 10.09.2012

TO HIS HIGH PRIEST
HIGH RECOGNIZED JUVENAL
METROPOLITAN OF KRUTITSKY AND KOLOMENSKOY
dean of churches
Domodedovo District
Archpriest Alexander Vasiliev
REPORT
Your Eminence!
I respectfully submit to you a report and an explanatory letter from the rector of the Peter and Paul Church, the village of Pavlovskoye, Domodedovo District, in which his request for admission to the state is set out.
I became aware of his intention in December 2011 as a result of our conversation with him. I tried to convince him of infidelity decision and think again, to which he replied that he had already made a decision. After that, there were two more meetings and conversations, at the last one I reminded Father Dimitry about the priestly oath, handing him the text of this oath.
But all our conversations did not make him change his mind, and on February 15, 2012, Priest Dimitry Sverdlov handed over to the dean's office his report on the appointment for the state, which I regretfully submit to Your Eminence.
If Your Eminence satisfies the petition of Priest Dimitry Sverdlov, I humbly ask you to appoint the rector of the Peter and Paul Church, the village of Pavlovskoye, Domodedovo District, Priest Yevgeny Nevodin, cleric of the Cathedral of All Saints in the Russian Land Resplendent in Domodedovo, with the release from the post of cleric of the cathedral.
YOUR HIGH EMHNESS
unworthy novice
Archpriest Alexander Vasiliev
Ref. No. 72 dated February 16, 2012

His Eminence



Priest Dimitry Sverdlov

Pavlovskoye village, Domodedovo district
Moscow region
PLEASE
Your Eminence,
I ask you to remove from me the obedience of the rector of the Peter and Paul Church in the village of Pavlovskoye, Domodedovo District, and to count me as a staff member of the diocese entrusted to you by God due to the fact that I am experiencing a state of “pastoral burnout” and a feeling chronic fatigue.
with gratitude and filial love
priest Dimitri Sverdlov,


February 15, 2012
Meeting of the Lord

His Eminence
His Eminence Juvenal,
Metropolitan of Krutitsy and Kolomna,
To the Administrator of the Moscow Diocese from
Priest Dimitry Sverdlov
Rector of the Peter and Paul Church
Pavlovskoye village, Domodedovo district
Moscow region
Your Eminence,
You may not remember me, so in a few words I would like to tell you about myself and try to explain to you the motives for my request to enroll me in the staff of the Moscow diocese.
I have been in the Church since the age of 19, since 1989, when, on my initiative, the late archpriest Vasily Shvets baptized me in the Nikolsky Church in the village of Kamenny End, Pskov Region. Father Vasily was my first confessor. Very soon I became a parishioner of the church of Sts. mchch. Flora and Lavra in the village. Pit of the Domodedovo district, where for six years he sang on the kliros and altar. Father Vasily Shvets and Fr. Valery Larichev are two mentors who have significantly influenced my life.
At one time, I graduated from the Plekhanov Institute with a degree in economics and mathematics, and worked in large commercial companies as a specialist in corporate finance. In parallel, he began to study at PSTGU.
You ordained to the priesthood in 2000 on the Week of the Cross at the Serafimo-Znamensky Skete, a place that is especially dear to me. I always took the place and time of ordination as a sign God's Providence. With the fate of the New Martyrs and, in particular, Shegumenia Tamar (Mardzhanova), Archbishop Seraphim (Zvezdinsky), Bishop Arseny (Zhadanovsky), and especially Metropolitan Seraphim (Chichagov), I became acquainted long before the ordination. The first church book that I read in my life, in addition to the New Testament, was the reprinted life of the Metropolitan Kyiv Vladimir(Bogoyavlensky).
For six years I served in St. Yam as the second priest, carrying out basically the required obedience. I also led Sunday schools, first for children, then for adults, and nourished the community in the chapel in the name of rights. Theodore Ushakov at military unit 56135 (under my leadership, the checkpoint building of the military unit was rebuilt into a chapel designed by architect A.N. Neiman). Arrival in the village The yam is huge, obedience eventually became exhausting. But I tried to do everything that was supposed to be until the moment when I had a relapse of a stomach ulcer and I needed hospitalization (10 years before I had a major operation, I had two-thirds of my stomach removed). Then I asked you to transfer me to another parish, to my friend Fr. Oleg Mitrov in the village Metkino.
In Kosmodamianovskoye church with. I served Metkino for two years, while simultaneously working at the Institute of the Academy of Sciences SOPS (Council for the Study of Productive Forces) as a junior researcher preparing to defend PhD thesis in Economics (from Academician A. G. Granberg and Doctor of Economics E. B. Ardemasov), which, unfortunately, I could not complete.
In December 2007, you made a decision to form a parish in the village of Pavlovskoye, Domodedovo District, and appointed me as rector of Pavlovskoye. Services in Pavlovsky began immediately - in a construction shed.
In four years, a chapel was built on the site allocated for the temple (essentially a parish house with a house church and rooms for children and adults). Sunday schools). The temple and schools are fully equipped, the building is connected to all communications, the territory has been fully landscaped and a playground has been installed.
This, of course, is not the most grand construction During this period, huge temples are being built. But we built in conditions economic crisis, without a general sponsor, actually at the expense of parishioners. I do not boast or make excuses - there is what is. But the main, and surprising for me, result is a real community that has developed around the temple, provided that two well-established powerful parishes successfully exist in the immediate vicinity of Pavlovsky - in the village. Yam and St. Nicholas Church in the village. Domodedovo. I don’t “leave” people: the parish, as it turned out, consists of mature and truly church people and reacted with understanding and trust to my desire to leave the state.
In addition to construction and parish obedience, I was involved in the care of two schools: in the village. Yam (military unit 56135) and No. 4 in Domodedovo. Last year, the first successful experience cooperation with the university: I gave a course of lectures at the Domodedovo branch of the Russian State Humanitarian University and conducted seminars in religious studies.
That's it in a nutshell outer side my church life for the last 12 years. I can also add that I have three children, the last two are boys, three and four years old. Also in last year I wrote and published a lot - in Foma, Neskuchny Sad and on the Pravmir website.
December 30, 2012 His Holiness Patriarch Kirill, in his report at the Bishops' Conference of Bishops of Metropolitans, said in particular: “It happens that at a certain life stage the priest faces "pastoral burnout". This is such a state when a clergyman loses motivation to carry out pastoral service, a state of chronic fatigue and apathy, accompanied by doubts about the presence of a pastoral vocation and the correct choice of priesthood as a profession and way of life. Here is the special responsibility of the bishop and the diocesan confessor. It will be easier than ever to punish, ban, turn away. But this is not what the archpastor is called to do. It is precisely at such moments that one should recall with particular acuteness the liturgical greeting “Christ in our midst,” addressed to a “brother and fellow-servant.”
It can be hard, unpleasant, even internally unbearable to face indifference, rigidity, or even anger. But we cannot ignore the call of the Good Shepherd, who goes and looks for the lost sheep, without waiting for it to return to the flock and caring for it more than for other sheep.”
I have no apathy, indifference and anger. But recent times I live and serve with a feeling of strong pronounced inner fatigue. I need to take a break. Stop a little and look at yourself, at your path from the outside. I beg you not to see in my request to leave the state an anti-church act, a betrayal. I think this is unfair. All my conscious life(from 19 to 40 years old) I live in the Church.
I'm not going to move to other jurisdictions, to another diocese, to other churches. I'm not going to do housework. I am not going to engage in political activities.
My request to you: to grant my application for admission to the state and not to prohibit me from the priesthood. This will give me the opportunity to sometimes serve with my priestly friends in your diocese - in the event, of course, that it will be your blessing.
In addition, I would like to finish my education at PSTGU (I have only one course left and a diploma), and maybe continue it - the status of a banned priest will make this difficult. And one more thing: this year a children's book by my authorship in one of the Orthodox publishing houses should be published. The ban will make this publication impossible.
I am sincerely grateful to the Holy Church and to you personally for all these years. Forgive me if I didn't live up to your expectations.
priest Dimitri Sverdlov,
rector of the Peter and Paul Church
v. Pavlovskoye, Domodedovsky district
February 15, 2012
Meeting of the Lord

The actions of Metropolitan Juvenaly seem to me reasonable and pastoral. By prohibiting it, he creates the possibility of awakening a "liturgical hunger" in Fr. Dmitry. If just being "out of state" he serves once every two months for acquaintances, he may not feel the loss, and longing for the altar will not wake up in him. And a full liturgical fast will stir up his priestly consciousness and can help to get out of the desert of "burnout", and therefore he (the imposed ban) just retains the hope of Fr. Dmitry.
Children in such cases are told - "do not interrupt your appetite before dinner!".

Discuss the actions of the clergy,
quite acceptable, I think.
No one digs through dirty laundry
or concerns the private life of the clergy.
Public actions discussed
in this case- judicial and punitive -
one public figure against another
just as public.
One of the participants in this blogging discussion,
my good friend prostopop ,
He remarks about this prohibition as follows:
“The published documents convinced me. It is clear that the priest has problems of a spiritual nature. Of course, they must be solved, but not by prohibitions. But it is not good for him to completely leave the ministry either. He should have continued to persist in petitions for the state, continuing to serve nonetheless.
The problem of burnout was discussed, discussed, and quieted down. Recipes not found. Fast/pray/go to the elder. Catholics have entire centers for drawing out such priests, and we rely on clerical resolutions. "Must and must." I'm not going to move to other jurisdictions, to another diocese, to other churches. I'm not going to do housework. I am not going to engage in political activities.
My request to you: to grant my application for admission to the state and not to prohibit me from the priesthood. This will give me the opportunity to sometimes serve with my priestly friends in your diocese - in the case, of course, if it will be your blessing ... "
http://www.mepar.ru/news/2013/01/16/14786/
Behind these lines is a prayer - "for mercy, not sacrifice" -
another downtrodden church horse.
And what is the answer after almost a year?
Archpastoral verdict,
without mercy and mercy, we already know:
for five years to priest Dmitry Sverdlov
imposed a ban on the profession.
In priests, neither the Moscow nor the St. Petersburg diocese,
neither in the present nor in the future
no longer need - they are already ordained with enumeration,
and there is no need for driven horses at all,
neither in the present nor in the future.
So in five years - welcome to the flayer ...

Priest Dmitry Sverdlov, rector of the Peter and Paul Church in the village of Pavlovskoye, on how he was unexpectedly baptized, how he combined work as an economist and ministry in the church, why he became an election observer and why he would like to apologize to the Pussy Riot group

About father Vasily Shvets and baptism

I have been in the church for a long time, since I was nineteen years old, and I came across the church world like this: in high school I really liked one girl - thoroughbred, bright. I was a shy young man and could not express myself properly. And I had a friend - today he is a rather prominent priest in the Moscow region. We've been in school together since first grade. Then my friend became interested in history and was preparing to enter the Russian State University for the Humanities, the department of history. And a rather typical thing happened to him: every person, reading about the history of Russia, encounters Orthodoxy in huge volumes. And for my friend it was a shock - his eyes opened parallel reality, which, although it was not officially announced in school textbooks practically not mentioned, left a bright mark in the history of the country. Accordingly, he had certain interests, and the girl I liked told him: “I see that you are interested in Orthodoxy, and my mother is a believer. Would you like me to introduce you to her?" A friend went to get acquainted with her, and since we were inseparable, he suggested that I go with him, for company - well, I followed him to get into the house of a girl I liked.

Soon the comrade matured the decision to be baptized. His future godmother decided to take us to her confessor, who served in the Pskov region. And we, first-year boys, who had practically never left Moscow before, went to the Pskov region, to mysterious and wild places. The priest to whom we were going, Archpriest Vasily Shvets, was completely exceptional personality. He was born in 1913, and died quite recently, a few months before his centenary. His family survived dispossession, he worked as a gymnast in the circus, sailed on a ship, then went through the Finnish campaign and the Great Patriotic War, served in our troops in Germany and took the dignity only at the age of fifty. That is, in fact, he lived two great lives. We must also understand that we went to baptize my friend in 1989, when there was no mass fashion for baptism yet and baptism young man was a one-off event, caused great excitement among everyone and was arranged accordingly. I looked at what was happening a little from the side, with the eyes of a researcher.

Upon arrival, we were placed in inhuman conditions - Father Vasily turned out to be a radical in the very best sense this word. We defended the services for six, eight hours - the boys who were in church for the first time in their lives. At the same time, there was no clear schedule of worship services: the parish was in the wilderness, almost on the border with Estonia, there were dilapidated villages around, and Father Vasily, who had been serving for thirty years, could begin the service at an unpredictable time. The temple is not heated, the month of November, they do not feed - a constant post. In the process, it turns out that I am also being baptized, for which, it seems, I was completely unprepared. But paralysis of will seized me - being in another world, a thousand kilometers from Moscow, I did not resist and completely surrendered to what was happening. Late at night, the rite of baptism began in the frozen church. My friend was very serious, purposeful. I was also serious, but for a different reason: for me big problem was the need to undress. I was worried about my linen: it was immediately clear from it that I was from a very poor family. I looked like the wolf from "Just you wait!" - in colorful knee-length shorts, and this puzzled me greatly.

About faith

Very soon, Father Vasily moved to Moscow, handed over the parish to his pupil and began to live with his spiritual children. I became attached to him immediately and inevitably. In the circle of my friends, as well as in the circle of my parents, there was no personality comparable in scale to him. He was a real giant, a man of unique and richest life experience, a real charismatic - as far as possible within the framework of today's Orthodoxy. For several years we traveled with him around Russia - by that time I had a car, and among other young people who revolved around him, I performed the obedience of a personal driver. I was shown the Russia of low-profile church people. There is a loud, public faith, and there is the faith of people who, simply by the format of their lives, cannot be public. There is such a term - "crypto-Christians", it originated in Turkish-occupied Asia Minor. As a rule, these are Greeks who secretly professed Orthodoxy, but lived according to the laws of a Muslim society. And the people whom I met thanks to Father Vasily did not hide their faith, but did not advertise it in any way, but simply lived a quiet and simple life of virtuous Christians. And among us now there are a lot of such people - believing people who do not declare their faith, but try to live by it.

However, it is difficult to say which faith is correct and which is ostentatious. Which one of us has this measuring device by which the faith of another is judged? Moreover, the assessment easily jumps into condemnation. An alien soul is darkness, and one should not think that a person demonstrating the attributes of his faith does this solely for the sake of the demonstration itself. Predicting at what point a person's meeting with God will occur and what will affect this meeting and whether it actually happens is a thankless task.

About how I became a priest

I saw the very beginning of the revival Orthodox life- beggars, destroyed monasteries. I saw a temple in the suburbs, which used to be an abortion clinic. Operating - in the altar. There, apparently, it was very convenient to do abortions: a tiled floor, blood is easily washed away. In this temple there was a painting - an arch with round plafonds. The plafonds were painted over with images of babies with posters: “Give us the right to decide whether we want to live or not!”. And below, like a crossed hammer and sickle, are the instruments of a gynecologist surgeon.

In the early 1990s, priests were in short supply, and sooner or later the church party begins to provoke any young person, push them towards the priesthood. All the men who go deep into the space of the temple a little further than the candlestick think about this. Into one beautiful moment my confessor told me: “You know, you would make a good priest.” We returned to this question several times, and I answered: "I am not ready and not worthy." And in once more I thought: “Well, if the church needs me, I will go to serve.” I took the confessor's words as a call. As a mobilization: humanity is in danger, it needs help. And the danger is the same as always - sin. That's how it all happened. I quit all jobs, passed the commission, and the metropolitan ordained me a priest. They assigned me to the same church where I went as a layman, in the Moscow region, where I sang on the kliros, where I helped at the altar. It is not customary for us to ask the question: “Where do you want to serve?”. You serve where they send you, where you are most needed.

About service and work

Six months after my ordination, in 2000, I found myself in an absolutely monstrous situation: my little daughter fell ill and needed medicine. The wife did not work, sat with the child. And in general, it is not very accepted that the wives of priests work. The last fee that I received in the world had ended by that time. And my salary, a young priest, then was one hundred dollars and a sack of potatoes a month. In our church, unfortunately, it is not very customary to pay normal salaries, even if there is money. And for seven years I took a “part-time job”: as an economist in a development company, an expert in the credit department at a bank. Then there was more research for studying the development market in Russia in academic institute- I wanted to write a dissertation, but it did not work out. I must say that I went to church, burning all the bridges, and for a long time I suffered from combining worldly work with ministry. Jack London has a story about Cuban revolutionaries: a man comes to the cell and says he wants to help the revolution. They answer him: "Well, my floors are after the meetings." And this adult, big and strong man washes the floors and hears out of the corner of his ear that the revolutionaries need money. The next day he brings in a large sum. They ask him: “Where does the money come from ?! What are you, a rich man?!” And it turns out that he is a commercial boxer who decided to quit dirty sports for the sake of the revolution. But in order to help the revolution, he was forced to return to the dirty sport. When I had to work, I felt like that boxer.

At work, I never advertised that I was a priest, but I did not hide it either. And in the church it’s the same: he didn’t advertise, but he didn’t hide it either. It is not customary for us to work and earn extra money in the church. Although many fathers, I know, would not mind. It is believed that the priest must devote himself entirely to service. In addition, a financially and socially independent priest is a danger to the administrative church system, potentially he is not as obedient and subservient as a priest who is completely dependent on his lifestyle ... I also wanted to devote myself completely to the church. But a hundred dollars and a sack of potatoes were not enough at all. And to breed parishioners for money is not my style.

Different collectives reacted differently to the fact that a priest was working among them. Still, the priest is perceived by our man as an alien, an epic character. He must be different in everything. And when an employee is negotiating with you at the same table, but you know that he is a father at the same time, it breaks someone's brain. There were also unpleasant situations, and conflicts. When I worked in a bank - and there people knew who I was - I prepared expert opinions for the credit committee. And most of my opinions were negative because the loan applications didn't pass the formal economic parameters and because the clients were extremely sloppy in preparing them. This often caused a murmur from the managers who led these clients - sometimes it was quite hot. And once I was photocopying some urgent documents on a general copier, a woman from another department ran up, literally pushed me away with her hip and began to xerify her papers. I was taken aback for a second by such impudence. Then I felt that this was some kind of provocation. I thought for a second and made a decision - I moved it away from the copier in the same way and continued to photocopy my papers. She choked with indignation: “Yes, how can you? You, you…” “I - what?” I asked. "You don't have to!" she blurted out. "And you?" I retorted. Now, by the way, I’m not sure about that act: now I would probably silently let her doxerize.

I always tried to work qualitatively and treated my colleagues like a human being. I kind of let them know that the priest - normal person, normal in the best sense of the word. And I have always loved both the church and my projects, despite the fact that I was torn between them. There were also successes. The development company I worked for was one of the first after the 1998 crisis to receive a multi-million dollar loan from a foreign bank - the application was based on my calculations. With this money, an office building was built, recognized as the best in Moscow in 2005. With the same company, we published the first Russian consolidated catalog of commercial office buildings.

But four years ago, my church authorities suggested that I organize a parish and build a church in a new place, in a village where there had never been a church. And I gladly took on this task. Although over the years I have completely lost my qualifications. But I can't say I'm sorry. The parish and the temple are a real living thing. Necessary. Combining service with work, when you are the second or third priest in the parish, is somehow still possible. But to be the rector of a temple, especially one under construction, and to work is already completely impossible.

About the parish

I don't know if my income is large, I never measured it. Our church has always been full. We began to serve in a construction change house. It fits 13-15 people, and during the service the latter would fall out, because the door opened outward, and the seats were back to back. Then they cast the foundation, built a basement for the chapel for thirty-six square meters- and we always had a full basement. They erected another floor, sixty square meters, and it is also full. If we complete the gallery around the temple, glaze it and install heating, then people will be there. Not because I am like that - just a temple is needed here.

I, just like surgeons who have been practicing for many years, have developed immunity to impressions, but recently there was one bright episode. I have a parishioner, I have known her for ten years. Mother of many children, an adult woman in her forties. For the past four years I have been regularly confessing it, and these confessions are painful for me: I hear endless repetitions of the same unsolvable problems. And the worst thing is that there is nothing I can do to help her. And suddenly she comes to me before Easter, and I hear the confession of an absolutely calm and mature person. And I shrug, because this is a real miracle.

About Pussy Riot, anger and punk culture

The portal "Orthodoxy and the World", which often publishes me, asked me and other priests a number of questions. I replied that if I had been invited to a pre-trial detention center, I would have asked Pussy Riot for forgiveness for all those wild manifestations of aggression and hatred that were voiced by members of the Orthodox community. I think that this is not so much my personal point of view as the teaching of the church. No problem gives an Orthodox person the right to be angry, because anger is a sin, it is one of the seven passions that are destructive for a person. But this is like a conversation "in general": they asked - they answered. I do not want and do not have the right to advise anyone, especially the patriarch. This situation did not happen in my temple: the Cathedral of Christ the Savior - Cathedral, there the abbot is the patriarch, it is up to him to decide. I have my rural temple under construction, in which I have invested all my soul and all myself. I went to this temple for several years, and, probably, in order to assess the situation correctly, I should have imagined that Pussy Riot came to my temple and danced at my place. Although this is certainly unpleasant, this is what would probably not hurt me as much as the older generation of priests: I listened to the Sex Pistols in my youth, I know what punk culture is, and I have from it culture shock no. But this does not mean anything, because for sure something like that can happen in my temple that will shock me and piss me off. Then we'll see how I react.

About church and state

There are two fundamental concepts that have always coexisted in the church. They are mutually exclusive: both have their supporters. The first concept is that the church must cooperate with the world in its very broad sense this word in order to Christianize the world. The second concept is based on the fact that you need to understand that the church and the world are things of different nature: the church is from God, and “the world lies in evil,” and one must speak with caution about cooperation with the world. It seems to me that the church should exist in the world, remaining free from it. When the church begins to cooperate with the state, with public institutions, adopts their ideas, and especially methods, and operates with them, the church, firstly, loses its ontological status, and secondly, loses its freedom. And having tightly tied up with the world, at some point the church is forced to act not according to church, but according to worldly law. It is necessary to observe a very fine line, since Christ did not call the church to isolationism, but dissolution in society and its service were also not supposed.

About electoral fraud

I went as an observer to the parliamentary elections on 4 December. I had the motivation of a natural scientist. They started talking about possible fraud about two months before the elections, and I just went to study the situation on the spot. In addition, I was interested in setting up a purely priestly experiment and seeing how the church influences society: I was in a cassock, and I was wondering if the obvious presence of a representative of the church would stop possible falsifiers. Before the votes were counted, everything was relatively calm, nothing special happened. But after the closing of the precinct, the show began: stacks of ballots, sorted into batches, were laid out on the table. There are two seemingly identical packs - "United Russia" and the Communist Party. The chairman of the PEC, without announcing the results, writes in an expanded form of the protocol: for “ United Russia"- six hundred ninety votes, for the Communist Party - two hundred and twenty. I turn around, look at the table and still see two absolutely identical packs. The observers demanded a recount, and now, imagine, there is a final meeting of the PEC, school teachers are in the commission, and I tell them: “Girls, we all understand what happened, and now a lie is being committed. So you teach children, and now you are participating in lies, think about what you will teach children? And for the first time, the commission unanimously voted against the recount of the ballots, and for the second time, there were already two abstentions. They couldn't mind because most likely they would have big problems, but the fact that two people reacted to the word "lie" by coming out of this lie gives some hope. Although the chairperson of the PEC did not allow the votes to be recounted.