Treasurer of the Sretensky Monastery - about what some mass media present as "hot" topics: Does the Church pay taxes? what is the donor's money spent on? why churches and monasteries are forced to engage in "trade"?
- Today there are many rumors that the Church has become rich, while the grandmothers bring the last money to the church, and the priests do not disdain anything when performing services. Claims against the clergy and monastics are growing. Any mention of the Church and its income raises a lot of questions. What can you answer to this? And is it a sin to be rich?- The topic you touch on is multifaceted. The Holy Scriptures recognize the fact that there are rich and poor people with different social status. When Christ came to earth, He said: "Blessed are the poor in spirit" (Matthew 5: 3). In another case, He says that it is difficult for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven - it is easier for a camel to pass through the ears of a needle (see: Matthew 19:24). And throughout the text of the Gospel, we can conclude that Christ gives preference to the poor. He does not say that the rich will not be saved, but that it is difficult for those hoping for riches to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Therefore, the ideal of a disciple of Christ is the one who leaves everything: home, family, property, completely entrusting himself to the hands of the Teacher, and follows Him, carrying the cross.
But there is also a very interesting story in the Gospel - how one woman (we do not know her name, and she is not even called rich) brought the Lord myrrh worth 300 denarii and, breaking the vessel, anointed His feet (see: Luke 7:37 –48). In the 1st century, the value of this world was equal to the annual earnings of a soldier. And now, unexpectedly for everyone, the Teacher of Poverty says: “... why confuse a woman? she has done a good deed for me: for you always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me ... ”(Matt. 26: 10-11). When Jesus enters Jerusalem afterward, He, as the "Son of David", receives truly royal honors: He is met by the people with palm branches in their hands and exclaiming: "Hosanna is in the highest!" So, Christ, having no personal property on earth, accepts a rich offering when He wants to emphasize His dignity as the King of Glory.
The Old Testament constantly points out that the very best should be dedicated to the temple of God, as the seat of the Glory of the Lord, to bring the first portions of the fruits, sacrifices from livestock, tithes, and so on.
Based on this, in the church environment since ancient times there has been a different attitude towards property. One thing is property acquired and used personally for oneself and one's luxury (possession of wealth for the sake of its endless multiplication is sinful), another thing is property dedicated to God, aimed at decorating temples, creating an atmosphere of splendor at worship services to glorify God and His saints. The same applies to the clergy. It is one thing - personal property (in his home, a priest should be a model of meekness and non-covetousness), another thing - church property, including priestly clothes, which should be majestic, noble, since during the service the priest is the image of Christ.
In this regard, an example for us is, who was a great beggar. He distributed money to the needy, arranged home care for the sick and obsessed with the ailment of drunkenness. But when it came to his priestly cassock, pectoral cross, he did not refuse gifts and, like the shepherd of Christ, always wore a solid, solid cassock.
When it comes to the prosperity of modern clergy, no one asks the question whether he drives his own car or was he given a car "by proxy"? Does he live in his apartment or wander around in rented rooms? The main thing for an outside "observer" is that the priest, in principle, allowed himself to get into a comfortable car - even if one of the parishioners takes him to the hospital to receive communion with the patient.
Of course, there are unworthy examples when a priest, disposing of temple property, appropriates it for himself. But such examples are few. The presence of a delicious meal or good clothing for a priest is often the fruit of the care of the parishioners who love him, who wish to express their gratitude for spiritual and prayer help in this way. In my opinion, this is not the biggest ethical problem against the background of the extremes that occur in society, especially among wealthy people.
- So there is a big difference between using and owning property?
- Yes, from a legal point of view, use and ownership are different categories. A priest may, for example, use the parish apartment all his life, but he cannot bequeath it to his children and grandchildren. They will have to earn their own living.
- An old, but probably not losing its relevance question: why trade in books and utensils is not directly called trade? Is it possible to hide behind the words “distribution” and “donations” the obvious fact of parish trade?
- Yes, now many temples "distribute" books and utensils for the so-called fixed donations. If items are bought from third parties and resold at a premium, this is very much like a trading activity, like a resale.
To answer this question, we need to make a small digression. Structurally, the Russian Orthodox Church consists of many legal entities, united by uniform norms of canon law. These legal entities can be of different types: synodal departments, dioceses, monasteries, parishes, seminaries, publishing houses, gymnasiums, Orthodox orphanages, and so on. They are united by the fact that according to their statutes, like grape vines, they are associated with a single root founder - the Moscow Patriarchate - and are registered as religious organizations. All these legal entities, scattered throughout the country and abroad, have uniform internal rules that do not contradict civil laws - and even older than the laws of the Russian Federation - and are recognized by the state as having the force of internal regulations.
On this basis, the products of one religious organization (books, utensils, icons) can be transferred to another religious organization within a single ROC without extra charges and taxes. The assortment of goods sold at an ordinary church, as a rule, consists of such intra-church exchanges. If the final retailing temple sets its markup to the original price, it receives income.
But the main difference between this type of activity and ordinary trade is that this income is not "profit" - it is fully directed to the statutory activities of the monastery or parish, primarily to social service, as well as to the restoration and decoration of the temple.
- Well, well, with the books it is clear. What about pies, honey, tea? These are not religious goods.
- Yes, food is not religious goods. At the same time, raising sheep or cows, producing dairy products, and fishing are historically justified occupations of the monasteries. Honey, tea, kvass, wine have been made and sold at monasteries since ancient times. Now, even one or another monastery cannot sell its own honey without paying taxes to the state. Of course, if food is sold without paying taxes at a monastery or temple, this is a big risk for a religious organization. But at present, there is already a tendency for the transfer of trade in these types of goods from a religious organization to some individual entrepreneur or LLC. Therefore, if there is a stall with pies on the temple grounds or near the metro, it is not a fact that this is “temple trade”. It is quite possible that this is already a separate legal entity that pays rent to the temple or helps the temple, but conducts commercial activities (trade) with the corresponding payment of taxes and is responsible for its actions before the state independently, separately from the parish.
- Another source of income for the Church is organization.
- Here we need to make clear distinctions: the organization of trips for pilgrim groups - and the reception of pilgrims on the territory of a monastery.
We have two laws that can be applied to “religious travel”: the Tourism Fundamentals Act and the Religious Associations Act. Tourism is a commercial activity aimed at providing services at the request of the client, according to the rules of interest to the client. Pilgrimage is a path to self-restraint, to adjusting oneself to the spiritual rules created in the Church.
Pilgrimage initially has its own unique character, different from tourism. A pilgrim group is a religious group. Christian pilgrimages to holy places, to Jerusalem, to Rome, to places of execution of martyrs have been known since the 4th century. Since ancient times, the rulers of Europe and Asia not only did not tax pilgrimages, but also financed and decorated the holy places with expensive contributions. The pre-revolutionary Russian government built pilgrimage centers in the Holy Land and took care of the safety of the pilgrims. Pilgrims have always been different from tourists. They had a different goal - not rest, but prayer and worship of the shrine.
At present, Russian pilgrims, before leaving on a journey, perform prayers, a priest or religious mentor, curator travels with them. Travelers wear religious clothing, observe the relevant rules and fasting. Coming to the place of pilgrimage, pilgrims go, first of all, to the shrine. At the same time, whether the shrine is an architectural monument or not is not important. The pilgrim is interested in the shrine itself, and in this he differs from a religious tourist who just goes to see religious sites. In addition, pilgrims in monasteries can be attracted to free work, to obediences (for example, to washing dishes in the refectory, cleaning the temple, looking after flowers in a flower bed), and if the pilgrims stay overnight at the monastery, they will be woken up early in the morning for worship. Religious tourism is when a group, for example, of the Chinese goes to inspect the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, or the Russians visit the Egyptian pyramids. They don't go there to pray. That is why they are not pilgrims, but tourists.
Let's go back to income. Paradoxically, the main income from organizing pilgrimage trips goes to third parties. Plane tickets are purchased from commercial airlines, buses are rented from transport companies, meals on the road are in secular cafes and restaurants. Accommodation for the night abroad, and in our country, most often - in ordinary hotels. Rarely does a monastery have a pilgrim hotel with it. Pilgrims in Diveyevo, for example, most often live and eat in the private sector, and not at the monastery.
Only large monasteries, such as lavra, can afford the construction of pilgrim hotels. And in this case, there is no question of special income. After free accommodation and lunches for bishops, clergy, relatives of monastics of the monastery, students of seminaries, Sunday schools, workers, poor people - the monastery itself, the owner of the hotel, little remains of the donations collected from the pilgrim groups. Everything that is collected from some is immediately spent on others. Considering that pilgrims and people themselves are extremely economical, you won't make much money on pilgrim hotels. This is so, the missionary activity of the monastery plus obedience for its novices or novices.
- So where does the money come from the Church, from the parishes? How does the parish make a living, where does it spend money?
- Nowadays it is rare to find a sober assessment of how the structure of income and expenses of an ordinary parish is formed. In the press, this issue fades into the background. Some kind of pies sold on the street under the guise of a monastery courtyard, or charlatans who gather at the so-called "Orthodox exhibitions" of the Moscow VDNKh, are striking. After all, no one is prohibited from registering their LLC under a name like “Svyataya Zemlya Publishing House”. But this does not mean that such an LLC is an Orthodox religious organization and the Church will receive income from the activities of such structures.
But we got distracted. So, sometimes it seems that the income of the parish is formed primarily from trade. This is not true. Any temple generally has three of the most common types of income and expenses.
The first is income from donations for candles, the recording of names in synodics, from the performance of requirements and the so-called registered notes. These revenues mainly offset the costs of utilities for the maintenance of the temple, the salaries of the clergy and key staff (accountant, cleaners, choir). For more, these funds are not enough. Thanks to the donations of its parishioners, the parish only makes ends meet, provided, of course, the minimum staff and minimum wages. Any development is an increase in the number of choral singers, social and charitable activities, etc. - quite often it becomes possible only thanks to "profitable" projects: publishing, agriculture, handicrafts.
The second type of income is from the distribution of books and church products. These "trade" proceeds go to educational projects, Sunday schools, orphanages, gifts to prisoners, feeding the beggars, etc. There will be no such income - churches will not have socially significant projects. "Trade" creates a "reserve" for the stable functioning of long-term social projects. But this money cannot be used to build a new church, the monastery buildings cannot be repaired.
The third type of income is earmarked donations for construction and reconstruction programs. We are talking about the restoration of churches, overhaul of the monastery buildings, improvement of the adjacent territory. This requires funds from external sources, which, as a rule, are targeted projects to finance this or that construction. For these purposes, the Board of Trustees of a temple or monastery is formed, a program for the construction of a temple or reconstruction of a building is created, a design concept, an architectural project are developed, requests are sent to potential donor organizations. A patron of such a project can be one organization (commercial company, bank, fund) or more than ten, twenty or one hundred trustees with different shares of contribution to the common cause.
At the same time, by the decision of the Board of Trustees, the rights to manage the progress of financing the construction may be left to a religious organization or transferred to a specially created charitable foundation. If donors trust a temple or monastery and this religious organization knows how to work with a large flow of technical and financial documents, then the money will be sent by benefactors directly to the account of the temple or monastery, which will be the direct customer of the construction and the beneficiary of its results.
But if the monastery or temple is not able to independently manage the financing of the construction, the Board of Trustees can entrust this matter to a separate organization, the trusteeship fund. In this case, there are less suspicions of “misappropriation of funds”, but there is also less control from the church. If the appropriate state authority is undertaken for the restoration of monuments of federal significance, it, of course, would prefer this very principle of funding. In addition, some government departments themselves act as building customers, directly contracting with contractors. However, if the builders work on their own, without the participation of the communities that will later pray in this temple, there is a possibility that the sensors and devices will be installed in places where they cannot be placed in any way from the point of view of temple decoration (under the dome, in the place where the iconostasis was installed, in the altar, etc.). Because of this, it will be difficult to pray in such a temple after the construction is completed; something will have to be redone.
Moreover, regardless of whether public or private money went to the construction of the temple, they cannot be spent for other purposes. If money was given for bricks, it can only be spent on bricks, and not to pay for the choir.
If we compare the income "from the notes" with the targeted financing of construction, the difference in amounts will be tens, hundreds, thousands of times. Therefore, I repeat, it is extremely difficult to build a new church on the basis of notes and requests.
Not every church gets the attention of society and the state. The state, as a rule, restores only the most famous and visited federal monuments, and businessmen - those churches in which prominent priests, good preachers, well-known organizers of church projects, and revered confessors serve. The community of believers is forming around a famous priest, not a federal monument.
Therefore, when a new temple is being built for the already existing community of believers headed by a priest, then after the completion of the construction the temple does not remain empty. The community with its donations will be able to further support the functioning of the temple.
- Can the temple get away from trade? For example, expand collection of donations and finance various social projects at their expense? After all, non-profit organizations live somehow?
- Are there many of them? How often do you see the opening of new children's sports clubs, nursing homes? Do you hear anything about societies for the protection of nature, unions of poets, young physicists and aircraft modelers? Now only those non-profit organizations that "feed" from the budget live well. The rest of the NGOs are barely alive, do not develop, or they also have to engage in commercial activities. For example, human rights organizations often provide consultations on a paid basis, psychology clubs conduct trainings for money. To survive, non-profit organizations also have to "spin".
I would like to raise the question of why it is so difficult to live only on donations. We do not have a culture of charity, public support for selfless deeds for the benefit of the people. Russia is one of the few countries in the world where charity is not supported at the legislative level. For example, in many European countries, in the United States, a philanthropist who wants to support a non-profit organization receives tax breaks. For example, in the United States, an entrepreneur who assists a Boy Scout Club, a women's organization, or a Protestant church is considered to have fulfilled his tax debt to the state. Money spent on non-profit organizations reduces the amount of taxes that must be transferred to the state treasury.
In Russia, the sponsoring firm donates money to charity only after all taxes have been paid, from the net profit. It turns out to be a paradox. The commercial organization paid all taxes, transferred money to the parish for the construction of the temple. And the temple, buying, for example, building materials, again pays tax - VAT. In fact, this is, if not double taxation, then it is. So, the lack of tax incentives for legal entities and public support leads to the fact that the business sector is not always interested in charitable activities.
It is not so simple with individuals either. Yes, for them, according to the Tax Code, there are so-called "tax deductions". If, say, you donated money from your salary to a charity fund for maternity protection, then you have the right to claim some kind of deduction for personal income tax. But to get this "deduction", you need to collect papers, take them to the tax authority to recalculate your taxable base, run around the offices, wait for an answer. At the same time, the taxation system is difficult for the average person to understand, and every year something changes in it. Not everyone has enough time to do this; not everyone knows that this is possible in principle. And only those who have declared large salaries, who donate large sums and their donation is made out with a carefully filled receipt, makes sense to do this. When it comes to small donations thrown into a box in a temple, and the like, the tax break declared by the state for individuals is virtually unavailable.
The conclusion is this: at the state, legislative level, we do not have incentives to support non-profit structures. This applies to all NGOs, not only religious organizations.
At the same time, parishes, priests somehow still manage to feed the homeless, visit prisons, but they don't go there without gifts, and they are distributed to all prisoners in a row - believers and unbelievers. And parents who bring their children to Sunday school, most often people are not rich, hope that "at the expense of the church" their children will be taught some kind of needlework, will be engaged in creative work with them, they will be taken somewhere for free on an excursion. As a rule, the church does not have enough funds for this from notes and requirements, they must be sought, constantly asked from someone. Or "spinning", selling Orthodox products in the parish, "earning" for social projects. Do you think the priests themselves like this business? They would gladly abandon church production and trade if the issue of legislative encouragement of social care and charity was regulated.
- Is there a control by donors over how donations are spent? For example, if the sponsor is from another region, he cannot come to the construction site every day?
- For this, there is a system of contractual relations determined by the law of the Russian Federation and standards for the preparation of reporting documentation. Each donor can check the primary documents. If they are not provided in the manner prescribed by law, he may interrupt funding. Moreover, if this is provided for by the contract and the money is not used for its intended purpose, the donor can recover the amount of the unspent donation back.
Therefore, I repeat, the money spent on the construction of the temple cannot be used for other purposes - paying for singers or buying cars for the parish. The philanthropist controls all targeted expenses primarily because, for example, the Federal Tax Service can control him. In addition, the tax service can control the activity of the parish: if the expenditure of earmarked funds is not documented, this money as "non-earmarked" can be levied by the supervisory authority with income tax.
So there is a double check: both the benefactor controls the parish, and he is also checked by the relevant state control bodies. In this case, a religious organization is equal to any secular one. Despite the fact that the temple, the religious community, as a rule, maintains simplified accounting records, when it comes to earmarked funding, the accounts are drawn up to the smallest detail. All documents - from construction estimates, KS-2, KS-3 to the last invoice - must be reliable and correctly executed.
- Does the situation with the search for funds turn the church rector into a “top manager”? Isn't there a danger of forgetting the main purpose of the ministry - to pray to God with people?
- You can answer “yes” and “no”. The priest is always obliged to pray to God - and not only for the benefactors, but also for the little ones of this world, for whom the temple is actually being built. A priest must always remain a spiritual shepherd, a good shepherd. It happens that the abbot of a church has to turn into a "foreman" or "manager" when there are no qualified assistants, there are no funds to hire a person from the outside who would receive a decent salary of a professional - a construction organizer. But such a situation, as a rule, has economic reasons: there is little money for construction, but a lot needs to be done. But at the same time, the priest still tries not to abandon social projects - this is also part of his vocation. So he has to work for two, three, four specialists.
Of course, if, by a lucky chance, the headman of the church is an architect, builder, or at least a qualified lawyer, then the abbot will gladly shift a significant part of the household duties onto him. There would be such “helpers” who came to church not for earnings, but for the sake of labor for the “glory of God” ...
- What do you need in order to get a job in the temple? Even if not for earnings, but in the form of a volunteer contribution to a common cause. Does this impose additional responsibilities - fasting, attending services?
- With regard to religious requirements, the parish of the church, as a legal entity, is very tolerant of its employees. No one will force an employee to attend a service, confession or. Therefore, at the church one can meet both believers and shallowly believing workers. Someone is churched while working in the church. This is the personal will of everyone. Although the Church has the right to prescribe in the employment contract some restrictions regarding the manifestation of respect for worship, for the clergy; the style of dress adopted in the temple - this does not contradict the Constitution, but is rarely used. On the one hand, everything is clear. If you come to work in a church, then you must behave piously in a holy place. But on the other hand, there are also some indulgences.
With regard to highly intellectual work, preference is given to professionals, regardless of the depth of their faith. A professional accountant can become churched over time, the main thing is that he or she always performs his duties as an accountant professionally. If a lawyer visits the temple on a regular basis, but cannot draw up documents for the land - what good is he? It is better to let him continue to pray, while another manages the land.
On the other hand, unskilled labor can be used by the abbot as a way to provide material assistance to socially disadvantaged people, believers or those in a difficult situation who want not only to receive a handout from the church in the form of “material assistance”, but honestly earn a penny for themselves. So, for some categories of workers - the weak, the illiterate, released from prison, the unemployed - work at the temple is often the last chance for employment. In other places, no one wants to bother with them.
- What specialists are needed first of all?
- First of all, we need believing singers. They are needed everywhere, there are always open vacancies. After all, parishioners want the service to be beautiful and touching. Every temple needs three or four good singers, especially if they sing for more than just money. Everywhere you need a good accountant, although not always full-time if the parish is small. Large parishes may need a secretary or a lawyer to handle office work, and to draw up documents for land, buildings and structures. Required persons of construction specialties, locksmiths, plumbers who do not drink and know their business.
Unfortunately, despite the fact that there is little gold in our churches, attempts at robberies have become more frequent lately. Therefore, a watchman may be required. Nowadays, not only thieves are a problem for churches, but, unfortunately, homeless people who can eat at the same temple. It is a pity for them, but they often go to services in dirty, dirty clothes, stick to parishioners, carry away bags left by accident, even try to rob donation boxes. Incidentally, this is an indicator of the level of our spiritual culture.
Let's return to the demanded specialties. If the temple is carrying out some kind of construction, professional architects, foremen are needed, and better - a construction organization that can carry out all the work according to a reasonable estimate.
Some parishes for targeted construction projects agree to pay for the services of a professional contractor. But, unfortunately, sometimes it happens that firms spoiled by government orders do not understand the requirements. The temple needs quality work, not “sawing” the budget. It is necessary to execute an agreement with fixed deadlines and estimates, and not a constant increment of estimates, taking advantage of the poor construction training of the abbots. Now, unfortunately, there is a big difficulty - to find a contractor who does not steal, does not “master the funds”, but works normally, with high quality, keeping within the terms prescribed by the contract.
In addition, the abbot of the temple, working with the contractor, does not know who the latter will take as his subcontractor. For example, a contract is concluded with a serious, well-established company with a name like "Brothers Rus", but in fact the final builders are low-skilled citizens of the Central Asian republics. These subcontractors not only perform poorly, but also change like gloves. In the end, their works do not fit together, and it is not clear who, as a result, will be responsible for putting the building into operation, bear warranty obligations. In general, a good foreman and an honest builder are now very rare! And the temples really need them.
- How does the parish itself comply with the Labor Code?
- With regard to everything related to labor discipline, vacations, sick leave, material assistance, the temple is the same legal entity as any secular organization. The parish is obliged to draw up a staffing table, conclude employment contracts with employees, make contributions to the Pension Fund, social insurance funds, pay taxes on the income of its employees. Safety instructions should be provided, fire safety measures should be provided. Holidays, bonuses, material assistance - formalized by orders of the abbot, etc. That is, it is necessary to observe labor and tax discipline in full.
- A question that is now periodically asked by businessmen: does the Church pay taxes?
- It is an illusion that the Church does not pay taxes. The Church, like any legal entity, is, according to the Tax Code, a taxpayer. It is easier to list two or three articles on which the Church has benefits than to retell the rest of the Tax Code, which does not give any exemptions. The church pays taxes.
If the monastery has non-religious fixed assets, such as arable land or agricultural buildings, property tax is paid for them. If a parish sells non-religious property or leases out premises, VAT and income tax are paid from this. Transport tax is paid on cars. The parish of the church is obliged not only to deduct income tax for individuals, but also to bear social benefits. Even for the late submission of payments to the Pension Fund, a huge fine can be imposed on a temple or monastery.
There are only two tax breaks that many parishes are trying to take advantage of. First of all, this is a profit tax benefit. Thus, donations from the performance of services, religious services and other religious activities, as well as the distribution of religious literature, are not subject to income tax. Another benefit is value added tax (VAT) in relation to religious items, according to the list approved by the RF Government Decree in March 2001. According to this list, VAT is not subject to VAT on the sale of liturgical or religious and educational literature, candles, incense, icons, various church items, crosses, including some jewelry, audio and video discs, etc. The list is wide. But this privilege, oddly enough, does not include such traditional ritual objects as scarves and wedding rings.
- You have a simple answer to any question. Still, it is not clear: the country's economy is barely developing, and churches and monasteries are growing by leaps and bounds. How is this possible?
- Maybe this suggests that churches are in demand by society? Despite all the difficulties in the economy, philanthropists appear who want to leave such a historical mark on the earth as a temple.
Or maybe they just steal less in the Church? Any abbot, even one who wears good shoes and drives a comfortable car, is more interested than anyone else in that no one "sawed off" anything from the construction site. And that is why he makes every effort to ensure that all donations “for the temple” - down to the last penny - go to their intended purpose. If this is a brick, then let the highest quality brick be bought, let there be the best building materials, reliable electrical wiring, the most durable entrance doors, and so on. This is a cost efficiency issue.
At the same time, boards of trustees are not created in the Russian outback, money is collected by the whole world, from each according to his ability. For example, in the south of Russia, in Ukraine, parishioners donate not money, but their own labor, bring food, cement, wood products, sheet metal to the construction site. Sometimes you yourself wonder at what risk some parish rectors take when they start building without having the full budget for the temple. They risk very much, but very much hope that with God's help they will eventually find the full amount of money somewhere. I know such priests who even mortgaged their own apartments, spent the night at a construction site, worked as loaders and foremen, just to build a beautiful temple in the most rational way, and then donate it to people. Unfortunately, the press is silent about these devotees ...
- So it's not all that bad?
- There are a lot of difficulties, including in the Church - no one denies this. But there is immeasurably more good!
“I feel like a stranger in the parish. The service ends, people disperse, only a group of “initiates” communicates with each other, the rest simply do not know each other ”- such complaints can be heard among Orthodox Christians. What is the matter? is it forbidden for outsiders to enter? How can you nevertheless join the parish and find your place in it? How to find “your” temple and is it necessary to run from the place where they make comments to you?
Nine common questions about the parish are answered by the rector of the church in the name of Saint Prince Alexander Nevsky at MGIMO archpriest Igor Fomin.
1. What is a parish and why do you need to be a part of it?
A parish is a family. In what respect? In the sense that it is the family that prepares a person for a big life. So, we live with our parents, who are obliged to prepare us for some accomplishments, that is, to give us a start into adulthood so that we can confidently step into it without fear of anything. And the parish - it teaches a Christian to live in this world without fear of anything. He gives a person the knowledge that he aspires to, and that joy that naturally comes from unity with close people, helps him to heal the ailments and infirmities of his soul.
And a person comes to this family himself, he shows activity and a desire to be in it and decides for himself what place, what niche, if you like, he will occupy there. At some stage, it is enough for him to just go to services, and then he will want something more - to help with something, to learn something new.
And there can be no compulsion. The choice always remains with the person.
2. How to choose “your” temple?
It seems to me that there are two ways: you can walk and choose a parish yourself, or you can simply make a volitional decision - close your eyes, step into the unknown, that is, come to some temple and stay there forever. In a parish family, a person should feel comfortable and comfortable. One needs attention, he needs to run around him, while the other, on the contrary, needs a stern hand; one needs to adapt to him, the other knows how to adapt to external circumstances. And everyone, based on this, chooses independently.
3. How to join the parish?
I have never heard of parishes that would repel, reject a newcomer. And I cannot imagine such a situation that you, for example, went to the abbot and said: "I want to wash the floors in the church for free!" - and you would not be given a mop or rag. In general, with any questions it is better to contact the abbot or headman.
Most often, it happens like this: a person begins to go to confession to a certain priest and after a while he himself begins to ask him what he can participate in, how to get involved in any business in this parish.
(Attention! This and all other pictures with "portraits" of parishes can be viewed in a large size. Click on the photo with the left mouse button).
Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh in London had the following arrangement: there are parishioners who simply pray at the divine service and do not participate in anything else, and this is their choice; there are those who are ready to participate in various events, affairs, be responsible for their arrival; and there is an asset of the parish, which coordinates all this work, who already has legal responsibility for the parish. A person filled out a questionnaire, and if he wanted to participate in the activities of the parish, he left his coordinates, wrote what he could be useful, what he would like to do. Naturally, there were regular meetings when plans were outlined, a report was given on the work done, etc. This is an active parish, alive!
A lot of people come to our church and offer their services, their skills. For example, a woman came recently and said: "I have been studying with children in a music school all my life, let me try to do something similar in your resurrection?"
In any case, a person's passive position will definitely not bring him closer to an active parish life.
4. What can you do in a ward?
Any parish has a social service - correspondence and assistance to prisoners, orphans, charity bazaars to collect money for seriously ill people. Sunday school for children, less often for adults, circles for the study of the Holy Scriptures.
There is a missionary service - for example, the distribution of the Gospels on Easter. There are simply intimate meetings - tea-drinking with a priest, where you can ask any question, suggest something. Pilgrimage trips for the whole parish. Our parish, for example, gathers not just a small group of 10 people - a whole bus is packed! There are cultural events - concerts, performances, charity fairs and the like. There is a lot to do! You can, for example, take part in decorating a den for Christmas, help in preparation for the Holy Feast - it's not only cleaning, cooking, but also creating a festive atmosphere for others!
Preparing a poem with the children is also a parishioner's job.
The main principle is - don't be shy, offer! What is interesting to you will certainly be interesting to someone else at the parish. Are you interested in studying church statutes? You want to sing in a choir - there will definitely be someone else who will be captured by this idea. Try it, take upon yourself this responsibility, and you will see that by doing so you will be wonderful to join the parish.
Now the parishes are growing so large that it is impossible for the rector to control all the processes, so he delegates authority - part of the responsibilities, naturally, falls on the shoulders of the parishioners. The creation of a Sunday school, the organization of some trips, games and the like. And if the parish does not need any undertaking, then the abbot will fight like a fish on ice, and nothing will work out. The main thing is that people are not indifferent! And everything else will follow.
5. Is there a danger of becoming isolated in the parish "get-together"?
There is such a danger, but in order to avoid it, the abbot or pastor must watch over his parishioners, make sure that no one has a desire to make a closed circle out of the parish. Because the purpose of the parish is not isolation, not isolation from the outside world, but the preaching of Christ. We see a vivid example of this in the Gospel, when the Lord chooses twelve disciples, teaches them, sends two to preach, and then they carry the teaching of Christ, gaining new followers. Such a spiritual pyramid is obtained. And this is a correct, healthy situation: the parish should be open to any person, accept anyone who comes. A priest, relatively speaking, “marries” a parish - he must be available to everyone, open to everyone. It is not for nothing that before the Sacrament of ordination to the priesthood, the future pastor takes off his wedding ring and puts it on the altar throne - as a sign of complete dedication to serving God and people.
It is also very important that a person who is joining parish life does not overshadow his family at the same time, does not leave a husband or wife, children. This should be clearly monitored by the abbot and other parishioners. If this happens, it often means that the person rushes about and does not bring anything from what he started to the end. Most likely, he will give up his arrival as a result!
Here you have been given a family, but you did not believe that this is a gift, that it is from God. I played around, fiddled around, realized that it was hard, realized that I was tired, we needed some new "adrenaline" events in life, new tasks. I went to the parish and you think: "Well, this is already something real, capital!" But here, too, you will play, and, as time passes, you will leave. I think we need to think differently: you have been given a family, which means that there is no reason why you could prefer anything to the family. Yes, you can “recruit” some activities for yourself, but you need to correctly prioritize and understand what is most important.
6. How can family people participate in temple life?
Every parent wants their child to be educated, so many are involved in the life of the children's Sunday school. We are accustomed to assigning the education of our children to someone else - either a kindergarten, then a school, or grandparents. Nothing like this should be! Mom and Dad should be actively involved in both parenting and education. You are a parent, which means that Sunday school will live when you take part in its life. When parents take care of how and what to feed their children after service, before classes, where to take them, how to organize this or that holiday, then there will be a living life. No one, except ourselves, will bring up, teach our children!
7. Is it normal to go to one parish, to have a spiritual father in another?
I don't see any problem here. Spiritual nourishment is a very peculiar thing, therefore each confessor, together with his spiritual child, must regulate such moments himself. If he sees any harm from such a scheme, then he may well say: “Listen, dear / dear, this is not useful for you, better go here or go to that parish, and then choose one”.
Before the revolution, a person all his life went to the temple to which he was "attached" at the place of residence. And very often the first priest to whom he confessed remained his confessor for the rest of his life. This is completely normal and creates a healthy atmosphere in the ward. And the priest until his death led one parish, he grew up on it.
Today, more and more churches are being built in residential areas, within walking distance, so that many local residents are "attached" to nearby parishes. And then it’s up to the rector to make it so that these people feel comfortable living parish life, so that they don’t go anywhere.
8. How do you feel about the rebuke that a newcomer to the temple might encounter?
Once during Great Lent I was doing parastas in the evening - I was reading the Psalter, standing in the middle of the church, and watching one child who came out between the pulpit and the funeral table, was doing something of his own, reasoning with himself, walking and the like. Suddenly, it seemed to me then, "pious thoughts" crept into me: this child distracts me! And then I suddenly realized that it was not he who was distracting - that I could not concentrate! If I do not know how to pray, then I am looking for a reason, looking for someone who allegedly interferes with me in this.
Therefore, I am sure that if a person comes to pray, he will pray anyway. If they say to him: "Move away," he will calmly walk away, because for him standing in one place or another is not a primary task: he came to pray. When children are distracted, yes, sometimes it is difficult to concentrate, difficult, but possible! I think that you only need to look into your own world.
At the same time, I am opposed to any reproaches in the church and warned all my parishioners that our parish is a territory free from reproaches: whoever comes, whenever he comes, whatever comes, everyone should be allowed in, accepted. He warned everyone: if suddenly you were reproached, offended, speak directly to me. This is such an educational moment.
9. Must a person be comfortable in his arrival?
It should be comfortable, but there won't be ideal conditions anywhere: you will definitely need to sacrifice something. You will definitely not be satisfied with something somewhere: the time of the beginning of the services, the duration of the service, "little trains" from the grandmothers "Save the Lord", children running around the temple, or at least the fact that it takes 2 hours to get to the temple. There will definitely be some inconvenience! But we ask God for patience, He gives us the circumstances in which we can cultivate both patience and humility.
To a person who cannot find his parish, where everything is without a hitch, I would say this: because of Judas, we did not leave the Church of Christ, why will we spoil the work of our salvation because of some trifles? It seems to me that one should love everything, rejoice at everything! And when a person learns to rejoice at everything, neither children nor grandmothers will annoy him!
Illustrations provided by the Parsuna group
The creative association "Parsuna" creates within the framework of portraits of parish and monastic communities in the interiors of their churches. After the Sunday liturgy, the project participants ask all parishioners (their number reaches 500) to turn to face the camera, take detailed pictures of faces, icons, frescoes and other details of the church interior, in order to then recreate the image of their Sunday.
The paintings are created in the style of medieval iconography, using modern digital painting and image reproduction technologies. For three years of work, the exhibition collection of the project amounted to 25 paintings.
Authors of the project: Konstantin Dyachkov, Sergey Kozhara, Alexander Shvets and
Vladimir Pavlov.
There is a lot of debate about this. Muslims say that the original Bible gave clear predictions about the appearance of the prophet Mohammed to the world. The present Bible, according to the Islamic view, is distorted. Nevertheless, the following quotation from the Bible is cited), and they consider it a prediction of the Prophet Mohammed:
“The Lord your God will raise up a prophet from among you, from your brothers like me, - listen to Him. I will raise up for them a Prophet from among their brothers, such as you, and I will put My words in His mouth, and He will tell them everything that I command Him. And whoever will not listen to My words, which the Prophet will speak in My name, from him I will demand. ” (Deuteronomy 18:15, 18, 19).
This is the Lord's speech to Moses. The coming of Mohammed is predicted as if by Jesus on the eve of his execution:
“And I will pray the Father, and he will give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever, the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him and does not know Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. But I tell you the truth: it is better for you that I go; for if I do not go, the Comforter will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you, and He came and will convict the world of sin and righteousness and judgment. When He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all truth; for he will not speak of himself, but he will speak that he hears, and the future will declare to you. He will glorify Me, because He will take of Mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is Mine; therefore I said that he will take of Mine and declare it to you. " (Holy gospel from John, 14: 16-17; 16: 7-8,13-15).
The Qur'an says about Jesus' prediction of the coming of Mohammed:
“So Isa said to his people: O, sons of Israel, I was sent to you by Allah to confirm what was in the Torah, and to tell the good news that after me Ahmad, another messenger of God, will appear to you. Jesus appeared to the people with clear signs, but people considered them witchcraft. " (Sura 61)
This is the “source material” for our investigation - three documents. Several questions immediately arise:
1. Why is the second passage not talking about the prophet, but about the Comforter?
2. Why can't the world accept a future prophet?
3. How to understand that Jesus' disciples knew the future prophet?
4. Why Ahmad? Why not Mohammed?
Muslim scholars answer the first question as follows: the word Paracletos, which in Greek means the Comforter, appeared in the Bible as a result of a deliberate distortion of the word Periklutos, which translates as “exalted”, and the name Mohammed means “exalted”.
The answer to the second question is as follows: for brevity, Jesus did not utter the word "today" - prayer, at the moment of uttering these words the world could not accept the new prophet, because he did not see him and did not know him.
The third question cannot be removed in any way: the apostles, according to Jesus, knew the future prophet. It is said bluntly, and nothing can be done about it. The fourth question cannot be eliminated either.
So, after "filtering" there are two questions:
1. Why does the Qur'an speak of the prophet Ahmad, when Ahmad and Mohammed are completely different names?
2. What about the circumstance that Christ's disciples knew the future prophet, whereas if we are talking about Mohammed, then the apostles simply could not know him, since he will be born after 600 years?
Why, after all, "Ahmad"? Agree that a seditious thought for Muslims can creep in: could the next prophet after Jesus be a certain Ahmad, and Mohammed passed himself off as him? And then the saying of God about false prophets, told to Moses, can be remembered:
"But the prophet who dares to speak in my name that which I have not commanded him to speak, and who will speak in the name of other gods, put such a prophet to death." (Deuteronomy 18:20).
While the Muslims pondered what they had heard, their opponents leafed through the Bible again and found the following words of Jesus:
"But the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything and remind you of everything that I have told you." (Holy gospel from John, 14:26).
And they also found that, according to the Bible, Jesus appeared to the people after his death and subsequent resurrection, and ...
"Having said this, he blew, and he says to them: receive the Holy Spirit." (Holy gospel from John 20:22).
It turns out that we are not talking about a prophet, but about the holy spirit, "the spirit of truth."
At the beginning of the 20th century, the Catholic priest David Benjamin Keldani, who converted to Islam, claimed that the word Paracletos does not mean "comforter", that expression Jesus “and I will pray the Father, and he will give you another Comforter” must be translated as “I will go to the Father, and He will send you another apostle, whose name will be Periklitos”,
and "Periqlytos" in Greek means "glorified, praised." The word Muhammad in translation from Arabic also means "glorified, praised". Through such inferences, Keldani concludes that Jesus was referring to Mohammed.
Another Muslim scholar of the Bible A. Didat, on the contrary, does not deny the meaning of the word Paracletos , as a "comforter", "holy spirit", but claims that these words apply specifically to Mohammed. Because, they say, the word "comforter" is a holy prophet, namely, Mohammed.
Now let's dwell on the names Ahmad and Mohammed. They are consonant, but not the same. The Prophet Mohammed was never called Ahmad. On the contrary, there is a legend that in childhood he was first called Kotan, which means "plow", then his grandfather gave him a second name - Mohammed.
However, the Qur'an says in the name of Jesus that a messenger named Ahmad will come instead. Apparently, this gave rise to the emergence of the Ahmadi sect (it exists in England and Pakistan), its adherents believe that after Mohammed there was a prophet named Ahmad on earth.
Let's think about something else: does the word "comforter" fit the personality of Mohammed? Did he console people with his coming, did he bring them to peace? Did he fulfill the prediction of Jesus - "and will remind everything that I told you"? Alas, history's answer to these questions cannot be positive.
So this dispute ended in nothing and remained open. Let each one finish it for himself in his soul.
The atheists told the believers: if the Qur'an were good, we would have believed in it, but it is past fabrications.
Before the Koran, the scriptures were revealed to Musa, and the Koran confirms it in Arabic. This is good news for the righteous and a warning to the unrighteous. Those of you who say: our Lord is Allah, does not know fear and sorrow, he will live in paradise.
We instructed a person to do good to his parents. It is not easy for a mother to carry it and give birth, and the pregnancy and breastfeeding of the baby lasts thirty months. When he reaches maturity, then forty years, he says: instill in me, Lord, gratitude for your mercy. You have blessed me and my parents by creating me. Make, Lord, my descendants righteous. I am surrendered to You.
Such people will settle in paradise, because We forgive them the worst of what has been done, and we accept the best.
And there are children like that: they spit after their parents and say: are we really going to be punished by God? Fathers and mothers ask God for help: Lord, make him be merciful! And he answers: all these are fairy tales. Such will be punished by Us.
Everyone has their own level of deeds in life. Allah will reward everything, He will do justice. On the day when the atheists appear before Him, they will be told: you ascended on earth without right, now your reward is fire.
We sent jinn to you (there is a version that we are not talking about jinn, but about people from wild tribes) to listen to the Koran. They listened and said to their brothers: we heard the scripture that came after the writing of Musa, it confirms the early scriptures. Agree with the one who is sent to you and believe in Allah! And if someone does not agree, he is in error.
Are the infidels not afraid of the day of resurrection? On the day when they face the fire, they will say: here it is, the truth, taste the torment for unbelief!
Be patient, messenger, as your predecessors, who were strong in spirit, suffered. Do not rush Me with their punishment. Earthly life is short-lived, no one will be destroyed and humiliated by Me, except the wicked.
Interested in the question of what a church parish is, first let's figure out how it differs from a church. The people often use the words "parish" and "temple" as synonyms, but there is still a difference between them. It is believed that the temple is just a building for cult purposes, and the parish is people who come to the temple, who are called parishioners. And they make up a whole parish, the Gospel explains very well, in which there are words spoken by Jesus himself: "Where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am in the midst of them." This suggests that people go to church services to communicate with the Lord and with each other.
What are parishes?
The definition must be sought in history. Let's try to figure out how parishes arose and what contributed to this. Let's start with the fact that until 313, Christianity was banned on the territory of the Roman Empire. True believers gathered secretly to worship in separate places - in caves or houses.
After the end of the persecution for their services, the ancient Christians began to re-equip and consecrate the former pagan temples. In this way, the very concept of a parish as the primary structure of the Church and a form of self-organization of church life gradually emerges.
What is a parishioner?
The Bible says that the Church is the mystical body of Jesus Christ, and the parish is the cell of one large organism. A truly believing person should feel his involvement in the Universal Church precisely through such a community. This participation is mainly carried out through the sacrament of the Eucharist, where the transformation of bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ takes place (through these holy gifts the Orthodox are united with the Lord), and through Him is the union with the entire Universal Church. The very understanding of “being a Christian”, first of all, includes participation in the sacrament of the Eucharist.
Mission and charity
However, parish life is not only worship, it also includes non-church forms of activity - mission and charity. Missionary activity implies the education and upbringing of new members of the community. It is followed by charity: it is helping the sick and the weak, the elderly, the disabled, orphans and widows.
Divine service
You can come to church every day, stand at the service and participate in the sacraments, not forgetting about yourself and your salvation, as well as the salvation of your relatives, but you cannot remain indifferent and not be interested in what is happening in your community.
It is difficult to call such people as members of a parish or community. A true member will be one who understands community life as a common cause. This is the Liturgy, which is not only a part of the liturgical circle, it includes everything: church worship, missionary work and charity.
On the question of what a parish is, it should be noted that a parish is not something separate and self-sufficient, it must necessarily be closely connected with the Church.
Service in the church
Every believer should try to penetrate as deeply as possible into the activities of the entire Christian Orthodox Church. Only then can one give the correct answer to the question of what a parish is. And here it is also important to understand that the Church, as the body of Christ, is in its own way a huge living organism, in which, in addition to the main organ (heart), other organs must also work - the head of the hand, legs, liver, etc. And if the priest does not preach, then the community has no language, if there is no help for loved ones, then it is armless, there is no training in the basics of the Christian Orthodox faith - it is headless.
To summarize the theme “What is a parish”, we can as follows: the church community, the parish is a single whole, a kind of completeness in its own way. And if something is missing, the parish does not fulfill its spiritual functions.
The well-being of the Orthodox Church rests not only on considerable help from the state, the generosity of patrons and donations from the flock - the ROC also has its own business. But where the earned money is spent is still a secret
The Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC), Patriarch Kirill spent half of February on long journeys. Talks with the Pope in Cuba, Chile, Paraguay, Brazil, landing on Waterloo Island near the Antarctic coast, where Russian polar explorers from Bellingshausen station live surrounded by gentoo penguins.
To travel to Latin America, the patriarch and about a hundred escorts used an Il-96-300 aircraft with tail number RA-96018, which is operated by the Rossiya Special Flying Detachment. This airline is subordinate to the presidential administration and serves the top officials of the state ().
Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia at the Russian Bellingshausen station on Waterloo Island (Photo: Press Service of the Patriarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church / TASS)
The authorities provide the head of the ROC not only with air transport: the decree on the allocation of state protection to the patriarch was one of the first decisions of President Vladimir Putin. Three of the four residences - in Moscow's Chisty Lane, Danilov Monastery and Peredelkino - are provided to the church by the state.
However, the income items of the ROC are not limited to the help of the state and big business. The church itself has learned to earn.
RBC understood how the economy of the Russian Orthodox Church works.
Multilayer cake
“From an economic point of view, the Russian Orthodox Church is a gigantic corporation that unites tens of thousands of independent or semi-independent agents under a single name. They are every parish, monastery, priest, ”sociologist Nikolai Mitrokhin wrote in his book“ The Russian Orthodox Church: Current Situation and Actual Problems ”.
Indeed, unlike many public organizations, each parish is registered as a separate legal entity and a religious NGO. The income of the church from the conduct of rituals and ceremonies is not subject to taxation, and proceeds from the sale of religious literature and donations are not taxed. At the end of each year, religious organizations draw up a declaration: according to the latest data provided by RBC to the Federal Tax Service, in 2014 the church's income tax-free income amounted to 5.6 billion rubles.
In the 2000s, Mitrokhin estimated the entire annual income of the ROC at about $ 500 million, while the church itself rarely and reluctantly speaks about its money. At the 1997 Bishops' Council, Patriarch Alexy II reported that the main part of the ROC's money came from “managing its temporarily surplus funds, placing them in deposit accounts, purchasing government short-term bonds” and other securities, and from the income of commercial enterprises.
Three years later, Archbishop Clement, in an interview with Kommersant-Dengi magazine, for the first and last time, will say what the church economy is made of: 5% of the patriarchate's budget comes from dioceses, 40% is sponsored donations, 55% comes from the earnings of commercial enterprises of the Russian Orthodox Church.
Now there are fewer sponsorship donations, and deductions from dioceses can make up a third or about half of the general church budget, explains Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, who until December 2015 headed the department for relations between the church and society.
Church property
The confidence of the average Muscovite in the rapid growth of the number of new Orthodox churches around does not strongly contradict the truth. Since 2009 alone, more than five thousand churches have been built and restored throughout the country - these figures were announced at the beginning of February at the Council of Bishops by Patriarch Kirill. These statistics include both churches built from scratch (mainly in Moscow; about how this activity is financed -) and those given to the ROC under the 2010 law “On the transfer of religious property to religious organizations”.
According to the document, the Federal Property Management Agency transfers the objects to the Russian Orthodox Church in two ways - into ownership or under an agreement of gratuitous use, explains Sergey Anoprienko, head of the department for the placement of federal authorities of the Federal Property Management Agency.
RBC analyzed the documents on the websites of the territorial bodies of the Federal Property Management Agency - over the past four years, the Orthodox Church received over 270 property objects in 45 regions (unloading was carried out until January 27, 2016). The real estate area is indicated only for 45 objects - a total of about 55 thousand square meters. m. The largest object that has become the property of the church is the ensemble of the Trinity-Sergius Hermitage.
The destroyed temple in the Kurilovo tract in the Shatursky district of the Moscow region (Photo: Ilya Pitalev / TASS)
In case of transfer of real estate into ownership, Anoprienko explains, the parish receives a parish plot of land. Only church premises can be built on it - a utensil shop, a clergy's house, a Sunday school, an almshouse, and so on. It is impossible to build objects that can be used for economic purposes.
The ROC received about 165 objects for free use, and about 100 in ownership, follows from the data on the website of the Federal Property Management Agency. “No wonder,” Anoprienko explains. - The church chooses free use, since in this case it can use state funding and count on subsidies for the restoration and maintenance of churches from the authorities. If the property is owned, all responsibility will fall on the ROC. "
In 2015, the Federal Property Management Agency offered the Russian Orthodox Church to take 1971 objects, but so far only 212 applications have been received, says Anoprienko. The head of the legal service of the Moscow Patriarchate, Abbess Ksenia (Chernega), is convinced that only destroyed buildings give to churches. “When the law was being discussed, we made a compromise, did not insist on the restitution of the property lost by the church. Now, as a rule, we are not offered a single normal building in large cities, but only ruined objects that require high costs. We took a lot of destroyed churches in the 90s, and now, of course, we wanted to get something better, ”she says. The church, according to the abbess, will "fight for the necessary objects."
The loudest battle is for St. Isaac's Cathedral in St. Petersburg
Isaac's Cathedral in St. Petersburg (Photo: Alexander Roshchin / TASS)
In July 2015, Metropolitan Varsonofy of St. Petersburg and Ladoga appealed to the Governor of St. Petersburg Georgy Poltavchenko with a request to give the famous Isaac for free use. This called into question the work of the museum located in the cathedral, a scandal followed - the media wrote about the transfer of the monument on the front pages, a petition demanding not to allow the transfer of the cathedral gathered over 85 thousand signatures on change.org.
In September, the authorities decided to leave the cathedral on the city's balance sheet, but Nikolai Burov, director of the St. Isaac's Cathedral museum complex (which includes three more cathedrals), is still waiting for a catch.
The complex does not receive money from the budget, 750 million rubles. Burov is proud of the annual maintenance he earns himself - on tickets. In his opinion, the Russian Orthodox Church wants to open the cathedral only for worship, "endangering free visits" to the object.
"Everything continues in the spirit of the" best Soviet "traditions - the temple is used as a museum, the museum leadership behaves like real atheists!" - retorts Burov's opponent, Archpriest Alexander Pelin from the St. Petersburg diocese.
“Why does the museum dominate the temple? Everything should be the other way around - first the church, because this was originally conceived by our pious ancestors, ”the priest is indignant. The church, Pelin has no doubt, has the right to collect donations from visitors.
Budget money
“If you are supported by the state, you are closely connected with it, there are no options,” says priest Alexei Uminsky, rector of the Trinity Church in Khokhly. The current church interacts too closely with the authorities, he believes. However, his views do not coincide with the opinion of the leadership of the patriarchate.
According to RBC's estimates, in 2012-2015, the ROC and related structures received at least 14 billion rubles from the budget and from government organizations. At the same time, only the new version of the budget for 2016 provides 2.6 billion rubles.
Next to the Sofrino trading house on Prechistenka is one of the branches of the ASVT group of telecommunication companies. Parkhaev also owned the firm by 10.7% at least until 2009. Co-founder of the company (through CJSC "Russdo") - co-chairman of the Union of Orthodox Women Anastasia Ositis, Irina Fedulova. The revenue of ASVT for 2014 is over 436.7 million rubles, profit - 64 million rubles. Ositis, Fedulova and Parkhaev did not answer questions for this article.
Parkhaev, on the other hand, was listed as the chairman of the board of directors and the owner of the Sofrino bank (until 2006 it was called the Old Bank). The Central Bank revoked the license of this financial institution in June 2014. According to SPARK, the owners of the bank are Alemazh LLC, Stack-T LLC, Albin-M LLC, Sian-M LLC and Mekona-M LLC. According to the Central Bank, the beneficiary of these companies is Dmitry Malyshev, the ex-chairman of the bank "Sofrino" and the representative of the Moscow Patriarchate in government bodies.
Immediately after the renaming of the Old Bank into Sofrino, the Housing Construction Company (ZhKK), founded by Malyshev and partners, received several large contracts with the ROC: in 2006, ZhSK won 36 tenders announced by the Ministry of Culture (formerly Roskultura) for restoration temples. The total volume of contracts is 60 million rubles.
Parkhaev's biography from the site parhaev.com reports the following: he was born on June 19, 1941 in Moscow, worked as a turner at the Krasny Proletary plant, in 1965 he came to work in the patriarchy, participated in the restoration of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, and enjoyed the favor of Patriarch Pimen. Parkhaev's activities are described not without pictorial details: “Evgeny Alekseevich provided the construction site with everything necessary,<…> he solved all problems, and cars with sand, brick, cement, metal went to the construction site. "
The unknown biographer continues to have enough energy of Parkhaev to manage, with the patriarch's blessing, the Danilovskaya hotel: “This is a modern and comfortable hotel, in the conference hall of which local cathedrals, religious and peacemaking conferences, and concerts are held. The hotel needed just such a manager: experienced and purposeful. "
The daily cost of a single room "Danilovskaya" with breakfast on weekdays is 6300 rubles, apartments - 13 thousand rubles, among the services - a sauna, a bar, car rental and organization of holidays. Income of "Danilovskaya" in 2013 - 137.4 million rubles, in 2014 - 112 million rubles.
Parkhaev is a man from the team of Alexy II, who managed to prove his indispensability to Patriarch Kirill, the interlocutor of RBC in the company that manufactures church products is sure. The permanent leader of Sofrino enjoys privileges that even prominent priests are deprived of, confirms the source of RBC in one of the major dioceses. In 2012, photos from Parkhaev's anniversary got on the Internet - the holiday was celebrated with pomp in the hall of church cathedrals of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. After that, the guests of the hero of the day went on a motor ship to Parkhaev's dacha in the Moscow region. The photographs, the authenticity of which no one disputed, - an imposing cottage, a tennis court and a pier with boats.
From graveyards to t-shirts
The sphere of interests of the Russian Orthodox Church includes medicines, jewelry, renting conference rooms, Vedomosti wrote, as well as agriculture and the market for ritual services. According to the SPARK database, the patriarchate is a co-owner of CJSC Orthodox Ritual Service: now the company is closed, but its subsidiary, OJSC Ritual Orthodox Service, is operating (revenue for 2014 - 58.4 million rubles).
The Yekaterinburg diocese owned a large granite quarry "Granit" and a security company "Derzhava", the Vologda diocese had a plant of reinforced concrete products and structures. The Kemerovo Diocese is a 100% owner of Kuzbass Investment and Construction Company LLC, co-owner of Novokuznetsk Computer Center and Europe Media Kuzbass agency.
There are several retail outlets in the Danilovsky Monastery in Moscow: the monastery shop and the Danilovsky Souvenir shop. You can buy church utensils, leather wallets, T-shirts with Orthodox prints, Orthodox literature. The monastery does not disclose financial indicators. On the territory of the Sretensky Monastery there is a Sretenie shop and a cafe “Unholy Saints”, named after the book of the same name by the rector, Bishop Tikhon (Shevkunov). The cafe, according to the bishop, "does not bring money." The main source of income for the monastery is the publishing house. The monastery also owns the land in the agricultural cooperative "Resurrection" (the former collective farm "Voskhod"; the main activity is the cultivation of grain and legumes, animal husbandry). Revenue for 2014 - 52.3 million rubles, profit - about 14 million rubles.
Finally, since 2012, the structures of the Russian Orthodox Church have owned the building of the University Hotel in the south-west of Moscow. The cost of a standard single room is 3 thousand rubles. The pilgrimage center of the Russian Orthodox Church is located in this hotel. “There is a large hall in“ Universitetskaya ”, you can hold conferences, settle people who come to events. The hotel, of course, is cheap, very common people live there, very rarely - bishops, ”Chapnin told RBC.
Church cash desk
Archpriest Chaplin was unable to implement his old idea - a banking system that excludes usurious interest. While Orthodox banking exists only in words, the patriarchate uses the services of the most ordinary banks.
Until recently, the church had accounts in three organizations - Ergobank, Vneshprombank and Peresvet Bank (the latter are also owned by the structures of the Russian Orthodox Church). The salaries of employees of the Synodal Department of the Patriarchate, according to a source of RBC in the ROC, were transferred to accounts in Sberbank and Promsvyazbank (press services of banks did not respond to RBC's request; a source close to Promsvyazbank reported that the bank, including, holds church funds parishes).
More than 60 Orthodox organizations and 18 dioceses, including the Trinity-Sergius Lavra and the Compound of the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, were served in Ergobank. In January, the bank's license was revoked due to a "hole" found in its balance sheet.
The church agreed to open accounts in Ergobank because of one of its shareholders - Valery Meshalkin (about 20%), explains the interlocutor of RBC in the Patriarchate. “Meshalkin is a church man, an Orthodox businessman who helped churches a lot. It was believed that this is a guarantee that nothing will happen to the bank, ”the source describes.
Ergobank office in Moscow (Photo: Sharifulin Valery / TASS)
Valery Meshalkin is the owner of the construction and installation company Energomashkapital, a member of the board of trustees of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, author of the book The Influence of Mount Athos on the Monastic Traditions of Eastern Europe. Meshalkin did not answer RBC's questions. According to a RBC source in Ergobank, the money was withdrawn from the accounts of the ROC structure before the license was revoked.
In what turned out to be no less problematic, 1.5 billion rubles. ROC, a source in the bank told RBC and two interlocutors close to the patriarchy confirmed. The bank's license was also revoked in January. According to one of the interlocutors of RBC, the chairman of the bank's board Larisa Markus was close to the patriarchate and its leadership, so the church chose this bank to store part of its money. According to the interlocutors of RBC, in addition to the patriarchate, funds in Vneshprombank were held by several funds carrying out the instructions of the patriarch. The largest is the Foundation of Saints Equal to the Apostles Constantine and Helena. The source of RBC in the Patriarchate said that the fund raised money to help those affected by the conflicts in Syria and Donetsk. Information about fundraising is also available on the Internet.
The founders of the fund are Anastasia Ositis and Irina Fedulova, already mentioned in connection with the Russian Orthodox Church. In the past - at least until 2008 - Ositis and Fedulova were shareholders of Vneshprombank.
However, the main bank of the church is the Moscow Peresvet. As of December 1, 2015, the bank's accounts held funds of enterprises and organizations (85.8 billion rubles) and individuals (20.2 billion rubles). Assets as of January 1 - 186 billion rubles, of which more than half - loans to companies, the bank's profit - 2.5 billion rubles. On the accounts of non-profit organizations - over 3.2 billion rubles., Follows from the statements of "Peresvet".
The financial and economic department of the Russian Orthodox Church owns 36.5% of the bank, another 13.2% belongs to the company LLC "Assistance" owned by the Russian Orthodox Church. Other owners include OOO Vnukovo-invest (1.7%). The office of this company is located at the same address as "Assistance". An employee of Vnukovo-Invest could not explain to an RBC correspondent whether there was a connection between his company and Sodestvo. In the office of "Assistance" phones do not answer.
JSCB Peresvet could cost up to 14 billion rubles, and the share of the Russian Orthodox Church in the amount of 49.7%, presumably - up to 7 billion rubles, IFC Markets analyst Dmitry Lukashov calculated for RBC.
Investment and innovation
Not much is known about where the ROC funds are invested by banks. But it is known for sure that the Russian Orthodox Church does not shy away from venture capital investments.
Peresvet invests money in innovation projects through Sberinvest, in which the bank owns 18.8%. Funding for innovations is shared: 50% of the money comes from Sberinvest investors (including Peresvet), 50% - from state corporations and funds. Funds for projects co-financed by Sberinvest were found in the Russian Venture Company (the RVC press service refused to name the amount of funds), the Skolkovo fund (the fund invested 5 million rubles in the development, the fund's representative said) and the state corporation Rusnano (at Sberinvest projects allocated $ 50 million, said a press officer).
The press service of the RBC state corporation explained: to finance joint projects with Sberinvest in 2012, the Nanoenergo international fund was created. Rusnano and Peresvet each invested $ 50 million in the fund.
In 2015, "Fund Rusnano Capital S.A." - subsidiary company "Rusnano" - applied to the District Court of Nicosia (Cyprus) with the requirement to recognize Bank "Peresvet" as a co-defendant in the case of violation of the investment agreement. The statement of claim (at the disposal of RBC) says that the bank, in violation of the procedures, transferred “$ 90 million from the accounts of Nanoenergo to the accounts of Russian companies affiliated with Sberinvest. The accounts of these companies were opened in Peresvet.
The court recognized Peresvet as one of the co-defendants. Representatives of Sberinvest and Rusnano confirmed the litigation to RBC.
“This is all nonsense,” Oleg Dyachenko, a member of the board of directors of Sberinvest, does not lose heart in an interview with RBC. “With Rusnano, we have good energy projects, everything is going on, everything is moving - a composite pipe plant has fully entered the market, silicon dioxide is at a very high level, we process rice, we get heat, and we have entered an export position.” When asked where the money went, the top manager laughs: “You see, I'm free. So the money hasn't been lost. " Dyachenko believes the case will be closed.
The press service of "Peresvet" did not respond to repeated inquiries from RBC. The bank's chairman of the board, Alexander Shvets, did the same.
Income and expenses
“Since Soviet times, the church economy has been opaque,” \u200b\u200bexplains the rector Alexei Uminsky, “it has been built on the principle of a home: parishioners give money for some service, but nobody cares about how it is distributed. And the parish priests themselves do not know exactly what the money they collect is spent on. "
Indeed, it is impossible to calculate church expenses: the Russian Orthodox Church does not announce tenders and does not appear on the public procurement website. In economic activities, the church, says Abbess Ksenia (Chernega), “does not hire contractors,” managing on its own - monasteries supply food, candles are melted by workshops. The multi-layered cake is divided within the ROC.
"What is the church spending on?" - the abbess asks and answers: "Theological seminaries are maintained throughout Russia, this is a fairly large share of the expenses." The church also provides charitable assistance to orphans and other social institutions; all synodal departments are funded from the general church budget, she adds.
The Patriarchate did not provide RBC with data on the expenditure items of its budget. In 2006, Natalia Deryuzhkina, at that time an accountant of the Patriarchate, in the Foma magazine estimated the costs of maintaining the Moscow and St. Petersburg Theological Seminaries at 60 million rubles. in year.
Such expenses are still relevant today, confirms Archpriest Chaplin. Also, the priest specifies, it is necessary to pay salaries to the secular staff of the patriarchate. In total, these are 200 people with an average salary of 40 thousand rubles. a month, according to a source of RBC in the Patriarchate.
These expenses are negligible against the background of the annual donations of dioceses to Moscow. What happens to all the rest of the money?
A few days after the scandalous resignation, Archpriest Chaplin opened a Facebook account, where he wrote: “Understanding anything, I consider hiding income and especially expenses of the central church budget absolutely immoral. In principle, there cannot be the slightest Christian justification for such a concealment. "
There is no need to disclose the expenditure items of the ROC, since it is absolutely clear what the church spends money on - for church needs, Vladimir Legoyda, chairman of the synodal department for church relations with society and the media, reproached the RBC correspondent.
What do other churches live on?
It is not customary to publish income and expense reports with the church, regardless of denomination.
Dioceses of Germany
The recent exception is the Roman Catholic Church (RCC), which partially discloses income and expenses. So, the dioceses of Germany began to disclose their financial performance after the scandal with the Bishop of Limburg, for whom they began to build a new residence in 2010. In 2010, the diocese estimated the work at € 5.5 million, but three years later, the cost almost doubled - to € 9.85 million. In order to avoid claims in the press, many dioceses began to disclose their budgets. According to reports, the budget for the dioceses of the RCC consists of property income, donations, and church tax, which is levied on parishioners. According to 2014, the richest was the diocese of Cologne (its income - € 772 million, tax revenues - € 589 million). According to the plan for 2015, the total expenditure of the diocese was estimated at 800 million.
Vatican Bank
Data on the financial transactions of the Institute of Religious Affairs (IOR, Istituto per le Opere di Religione), better known as the Vatican Bank, are now being published. The bank was established in 1942 to manage the financial resources of the Holy See. The Vatican Bank published its first financial report in 2013. According to the report, in 2012 the bank's profit amounted to € 86.6 million, a year earlier - € 20.3 million. Net interest income was € 52.25 million, income from trading activities - € 51.1 million.
Russian Orthodox Church Abroad (ROCOR)
Unlike Catholic dioceses, reports on the income and expenditures of the ROCA are not published. According to Archpriest Pyotr Kholodny, who for a long time was the treasurer of the ROCOR, the economy of the Church Abroad is arranged simply: parishes pay deductions to the dioceses of the ROCOR, and they transfer money to the Synod. The percentage of annual deductions for parishes is 10%, 5% is transferred from dioceses to the Synod. The richest dioceses are in Australia, Canada, Germany, and the USA.
The main income of the ROCOR, according to Kholodny, comes from the lease of the four-story Synod building: it is located in the upper part of Manhattan, at the corner of Park Avenue and 93rd Street. Building area - 4 thousand sq. m, 80% is occupied by the Synod, the rest is leased to a private school. The annual rental income, according to Kholodny's estimates, is about $ 500 thousand.
In addition, the Kursk Root Icon (located in the Znamensky Cathedral of the ROCOR in New York) brings income to the ROCOR. The icon is carried all over the world, donations go to the budget of the foreign church, explains Kholodny. Also, the ROCOR Synod owns a candle factory near New York. The ROCA does not transfer money to the Moscow Patriarchate: “Our church is much poorer than the Russian one. Although we own incredibly valuable plots of land - in particular, half of the Garden of Gethsemane - this is not monetized in any way.
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