Interview with Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk to the Bulgarian Telegraph Agency

Interview with Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk to the Bulgarian Telegraph Agency Интервью митрополита Волоколамского Илариона Болгарскому телеграфному агентству print version October 11, 2019 16:19 The chairman of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk , who is in Bulgaria with the blessing of His Holiness Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, gave an interview to the Bulgarian Telegraph Agency . - Your Eminence, welcome to Bulgaria. What is the purpose of your current visit? - I am glad, with the blessing of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, to visit Bulgaria again to once again witness the inviolability of the fraternal bonds that have linked our Orthodox Church Sisters for centuries. One of the goals of this trip is to participate in an international conference held by Velikotyrnovsk State University. - You met with the Patriarch of the Bulgarian Neophyte . What issues are relevant for the Russian and Bulgarian Orthodox Churches now? - Our fraternal Churches have an extensive agenda for bilateral relations. We cooperate in various fields - educational, scientific and theological, pilgrimage and many others. In addition, important issues related to inter-Orthodox relations are on the agenda. Now all the Local Orthodox Churches, first of all, are concerned about the issue of maintaining the unity of world Orthodoxy. We need to think together about how to confront the dangers of separation. - Please tell us about the conference in Veliko Tarnovo. - A forum on the topic “History of the Bulgarian and Russian Orthodox Churches as a subject of academic study in the theological educational institutions of Russia and Bulgaria at the present stage” united church scholars. Within the framework of the General Church Graduate School and Doctoral Studies (OCAD), which I have been leading for more than ten years, a number of master's and candidate works on the history of relations between the Russian and Bulgarian Orthodox Churches in 1940-1950 have been defended in recent years. In 2012, at the Department of External Church Relations and Social Sciences of the OECR, a corresponding scientific direction began to take shape. In 2016-2019, several works on the history of relations between the Russian Orthodox and Bulgarian Orthodox Churches were defended. An associate professor of the department, who was the supervisor of two candidate dissertations, as well as one of the undergraduates who successfully defended the work on the history of the Bulgarian Church, arrived with me in Bulgaria. We paid great attention to the preparation of the work of our Bulgarian applicants. In 2015, in the OCAD, the master's thesis of the Bulgarian clergyman Archimandrite Isaac (Boyadzhiysky), who studied with us since 2011, was defended. The work of Isaac's father was devoted to the topic “Patriarchate of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church”. In 2017, the dissertation of the Secretary General of the Holy Synod of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, Bishop Gerasim of Melnisch “Compounds of Local Orthodox Churches in Moscow” was brilliantly defended; This work aroused considerable interest and received high marks from specialists. Both of our Bulgarian brothers lived the life of our theological school all the years of study, often served me in the temples of the OKAD. I am glad that Bishop Belogorodsky Sylvester , rector of the Kiev Theological Schools , came to the conference, who talked about how Bulgarian students studied at the Kiev Theological Academy before the revolution. Representatives of the faculty of the Orthodox Theological Faculty of Velikotyrnovsky University showed great interest in the forum. - What is the current situation of the Orthodox Church in Ukraine in the context of recent events and Filaret Denisenko’s statement about the rejection of the Tomos given by Patriarch Bartholomew ? - An attempt to legalize the Ukrainian schism through the creation of a new structure from schismatics and providing it with a “tomos” in 2018, as well as the collapse of this structure soon after that, has nothing to do with the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church, led by His Beatitude Metropolitan Onufry of Kiev and all Ukraine . As you know, the Ukrainian schism arose in the 90s under the influence of political factors and in its development followed the rules of politics, and not the logic of church life. In this regard, it is very similar to the split that occurred around the same time in the Bulgarian Patriarchate. However, in 2018, the Patriarchate of Constantinople, with the support of President Poroshenko, under the slogan “Unification of Ukrainian Orthodoxy” tried to legitimize schismatics. This was done again, for political reasons: by the beginning of the election campaign, Petro Poroshenko was required to quickly and costlessly demonstrate to the voters the high-profile achievements of his presidency. On the eve of the election, the leaders of the so-called “Orthodox Church of Ukraine” traveled with Poroshenko and the “Tomos” to the regions of Ukraine, which many perceived as part of the election campaign of the President. However, this campaign ended in complete collapse: Ukrainian voters did not approve of speculation in religion and attempts to use the Church for political purposes. The violence against the Ukrainian Orthodox Church did not lead to anything. Despite the seizures of the churches with the support of the authorities, the beatings of the clergy and believers, mass searches and criminal cases against the clergy of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, she did not give up the canonical principles of her life and refused to follow the politicians' lead. Now, after the change of power and political agenda in Ukraine, the Ukrainian split is predictably breaking up. He is not even able to maintain his own unity - not to unite Ukrainian Orthodoxy. And the canonical Church of Ukraine, which experienced real persecution under Poroshenko, still unites more than 12,000 communities and remains the largest religious denomination in Ukraine, recognized by all world Orthodoxy. I think this is largely due to the wise position of her hierarchy, which refused to exchange the internal independence of church life for momentary political bonuses. And believers praised this. More and more people are coming to the annual religious procession in Kiev, held on the occasion of the Baptism of Russia: last July, up to 300 thousand people took part in the prayer procession. Let's hope that the new government of Ukraine will listen to the voice of its people. “Recently, Jehovah's Witnesses called our house early in the morning asking if we believe in God.” How to protect yourself from sects and schisms? - The best defense against sects and schisms is a deep study of Christian doctrine, as well as participation in the Sacraments of the Church. It will be much more difficult to deceive a person who regularly reads the Holy Scripture, who is versed in Orthodox dogmas and familiar with the history of the Church, than a bearer of a secular or near-Christian worldview. Often, it is precisely ignorance by people of their own faith that recruiters of various sects use. All this, of course, emphasizes the high importance of religious education, thanks to which people in a certain sense strengthen their anti-sectarian immunity. Since the revival of spiritual life in Russia, the Russian Orthodox Church has been developing religious and theological education in state and church educational institutions of the country. I can state with satisfaction that in this area we have achieved a lot. At the same time, in Russia the Church does not have access to schools, and we lose a lot because of this. It is at the level of children's consciousness that the basic value paradigms are laid, and it is at this age that it is most easy to vaccinate against sectarian false teachings. - As the head of the Scientific and Educational Theological Association, you congratulated students of theological and secular educational institutions on the beginning of the new school year, wishing them, first of all, to learn how to read the Holy Scriptures. How can the younger generation be taught to read the Bible in secular schools today? - Young people tend to be critical of any attempts to impose an authoritative opinion on them. Therefore, it makes no sense to simply encourage them to study the scriptures or to say that Bible knowledge is essential for everyone. Two things need to be said. First: The Bible provides answers to questions that concern modern people. Second: the Bible itself contains many questions and puzzles, the answer to which is expected from us. Yes, this is exactly so: God not only teaches us and answers our questions, but also awaits our answers; through scripture, He enters into dialogue with the readers of this Eternal Book. The Bible is revealed to man in a new way throughout his life. These topics I touch on in my book about Jesus Christ . It is often pretended to Christians that the Gospels contain mutual contradictions. However, if you compare these “contradictions” over and over again, then completely incredible facets of the sacred text are revealed. While working on the book, I did not hide, but rather sharpened these paradoxes precisely because I knew: each time new discoveries await me and the readers. If we can show young people that the Holy Scripture captures an attentive reader no less than a computer game, thriller or intellectual novel, I’m sure that students who turn to the Bible will find in it something that will turn their minds around. The following should be noted. Many biblical texts are quite difficult to understand, and we need specialists who can, firstly, engage in its deep scientific study, and, secondly, bring knowledge about it to a wide audience. Fortunately, the training opportunities for such specialists are growing. Since 2017, the Bachelor's program “Bible Studies and the History of Ancient Israel” has been successfully operating at the Higher School of Economics in Moscow. This year, we opened the Master's program “Christian Sources” at the Church Graduate and Doctoral School named after Saints Cyril and Methodius , whose students received a unique opportunity to study the scriptures and texts of the patristic tradition in the original languages. Biblical departments exist in all leading Orthodox theological universities. I sincerely hope that all these areas of our work will bear fruit, and we will see a generation of people for whom the Bible has become a challenge and a guide. - What other parting words could you give the modern young generation? - Now, when we live in an environment extremely rich in information, many people are in the world of myths and ideas composed by someone else. I would like to urge young people not to live by stereotypes and to check how objective our opinions are. For example, it is customary to perceive the Church either as a repository of dust-covered traditions that are not relevant in our time, or as a “bureau of ritual services”, where you should go only occasionally if necessary - to baptize a newborn, to sing the deceased. A false but familiar stereotype can also be called the idea of ​​churches filled with old people, where the young have nothing to do, or the Church as an authority that prohibits all the joys of life. After all, if you take a closer look, it turns out that the "prohibitions" that scare non-church people are, in fact, simply the "rules of a healthy lifestyle" for the soul, which help not to stain it in the dirt, not to hurt with serious sins, and not overgrown with bark egoism, but to retain the ability to enjoy the peace bestowed by God and relationships with others. As for the age of those who come to the Church, it can be noted that indeed, with life experience, after various difficult situations, and sometimes tragedies associated with the loss of loved ones, a person is more inclined to think that his life is not limited to the usual bustle, that she there should be a deeper meaning than just satisfying needs. However, very often it is young people with their characteristic maximalism that pose questions of eternal life and its highest meaning. And this can be seen, for example, in the churches of the Russian Orthodox Church, where young men and women, as well as young families with children, now make up a significant part of the parishioners who are going to worship and participating in the social service of the parish community. The vocation and purpose of the Church is not just to keep traditions or “satisfy religious needs”, but to change the world and people for the better. Those people who do not touch the Church superficially, but go deep into its being, understand that the Church is able to give them happiness, to fill their life with content. At the same time, the traditions and canons that are preserved in the Church are not crutches that impede the development of life, but the standard, referring to which, you can find out that you are going the right way. I wish young people not to live by other people's stereotypes, but to find for themselves the right landmark on the road of life. And the best reference point is Jesus Christ. And the most important thing that the Church can give to a young man, and indeed to every person, is the living Christ, who is present in His Church. We teach the people of Christ not only through preaching, but above all through the sacrament. I note that in contrast to Bulgaria, where it is customary to partake of the Holy Communion, in Russia believers often receive Communion — every Sunday, and some at every Liturgy. When the incarnated God Himself enters the flesh and blood of man, this is the most complete union with God that is only possible in earthly life. And I wish the Bulgarian youth to experience first hand this amazing state of union with God, which is incomparable with any earthly pleasures or acquisitions.