Pacifism is heresy according to the Russian Orthodox Church

[Ken]

Click through for the entire thread and explanation

[Soloist]

From the patriarch? Or an off the cuff response from a radical?

I can’t read it

[joshuabgood]

Of course it is...

[Ken]

From the patriarch? Or an off the cuff response from a radical?

I can’t read it

It is an official ruling by the ecclesiastical court of the Russian Orthodox Church directed personally by Patriarch KIril

Here is the entire thread on another site that you might be able to see: https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1667 ... 96001.html

And copied below without the images and links to sources

1/ Pacifism is a heresy, according to a new ruling by an ecclesiastical court of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC). The ruling, said to have been directed personally by Patriarch Kirill, has been made against an anti-war priest who was convicted and fined for advocating peace.

2/ The ruling has been made against John Burdin, the rector of the Church of the Resurrection of Christ in the village of Karabanovo near Kostroma in western Russia.

3/ The ruling states that "the pacifism with which priest Burdin tries to shield himself from accusations against him is not compatible with the actual teachings of the Orthodox Church, in particular as set out in the 'Fundamentals of the Social Concept'.

4/ "Pacifism has been present in heretical doctrines at various epochs of Church history..."(Such heretical doctrines apparently include the Gospel of Matthew.)

5/ He is also accused of violating various canonical rules requiring obedience to authority, such as "Rule 84 of the Holy Apostles: 'If any man vex a king, or a prince, not according to righteousness: let him be punished.

6/ "And if he be of the clergy, let him be expelled from the holy ranks; but if he be a layman, let him be excommunicated from the communion of the church."

7/ Burdin, a native of Odesa in Ukraine, is also accused by the church court of "'pseudo-pacifism', as he criticised the actions of the Russian, not Ukrainian, authorities and, in particular, kept quiet about the auto-da-fe arranged in his hometown of Odessa – ...

8/ … the mass burning of people who had advocated preservation of Russian peace, which went unpunished." [This is a reference to the 2 May 2014 fire in the Odesa Trade Unions House, which caused 42 deaths and effectively ended a pro-Russian attempt to take over the city.]

9/ "So his pacifism is imaginary, one-sided, it clearly shows his anti-Russian political position, which is perceived as unacceptable in our country, and what is important to emphasise, ...

10/ ... radically divergent from the position of the Russian Orthodox Church, which is undoubtedly known to him." Burdin's offence was to have given a sermon preaching against the recently launched invasion of Ukraine and to have posted anti-war statements on the parish website.

11/ "We Christians do not dare to stand aside when a brother kills a brother, a Christian kills a Christian. Let's not repeat the crimes of those who welcomed the actions of Hitler on 1 September 1939.

12/ "We cannot bashfully close our eyes and call black white, evil good, say that Abel was probably wrong in provoking his older brother." Burdin was arrested by police on the same day as his sermon, having probably been denounced by one of his parishioners.

13/ He was charged with "inspiring the parishioners of the church with information about the presence of the Russian Armed Forces in Ukraine, ongoing shelling of Ukrainian cities (Kiev, Odessa, Kharkov, etc.), murders of residents of Ukraine (brothers and sisters in Christ) ...

14/ …as well as by posting information with campaign images on the website," according to the indictment. He was tried within 3 days and was convicted and fined a sum of 35,000 rubles ($423) for the offence of having "discredited the Russian Army".

15/ After the conviction, Burdin tried in March 2023 to transfer to the Bulgarian Orthodox Church but was refused permission to do so by his Russian Orthodox Church superiors. He subsequently resigned from the ROC and was banned from preaching ahead of his church trial in June.

16/ Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, is said to have played a personal role in the proceedings against Burdin. This isn't surprising, as Kirill – reputedly a former KGB agent – is a pillar of the Putin regime and a strong supporter of the war.

17/ Christian nationalism is a fundemental element of the ideology of Putinism. The Russian Orthodox Church has been engaged at all levels in legitimising the war.

18/ An editorial in a church publication in February 2023 called for punishment for "liberal clerics" who had made a "vile and traitorous address ... to our homeland and the Russian army, for this address is a knife in the back of the Russian warrior who is liberating the world…

19/ …from Nazism, as our fathers, grandfathers and great grandfathers heroically did during the Great Patriotic War". Burdin's preaching, and pacifism in general, are clearly seen by the church leadership as being intolerable threats to that position. /end

[Coifi]

This is sad.

[Josh]

As far as I know, this has been the doctrine of the apostolic churches for over a thousand years and instead they would support “just war” doctrine.

Most modern day Protestants would also agree. For example, very few denominations would be willing to condemn Ukrainians taking up arms in defence against a Russian invasion. Most Protestants also function under a “just war” type of doctrine.

[Ken]

As far as I know, this has been the doctrine of the apostolic churches for over a thousand years and instead they would support “just war” doctrine.

Most modern day Protestants would also agree. For example, very few denominations would be willing to condemn Ukrainians taking up arms in defence against a Russian invasion. Most Protestants also function under a “just war” type of doctrine.

It is one thing for a denomination to choose not take a strict pacifist stance. Most don't.
It is another thing entirely to put on trial and punish a priest in an ecclesiastical court for the heresy of pacifism.

I'm not aware of any Protestant churches that have ever done such a thing, at least not in the modern era.

[Praxis+Theodicy]

As far as I know, this has been the doctrine of the apostolic churches for over a thousand years and instead they would support “just war” doctrine.

Most modern day Protestants would also agree. For example, very few denominations would be willing to condemn Ukrainians taking up arms in defence against a Russian invasion. Most Protestants also function under a “just war” type of doctrine.

It is one thing for a denomination to choose not take a strict pacifist stance. Most don't.
It is another thing entirely to put on trial and punish a priest in an ecclesiastical court for the heresy of pacifism.

I'm not aware of any Protestant churches that have ever done such a thing, at least not in the modern era.

The default position of the Reformed Church is that a nation has a right to go to war under ust war theory, and the implication is that citizens of said earthly nations therefore have an obligation to obey if called upon to defend their country.

It was only in the 20th century that the Reformed church clarified this position by allowing (under very specific circumstances) for a member of the Reformed church to be a conscientious objector. Before this clarification, the position apparently was less favorable to anyone who tried to be a conscientious objector. And even now, the process of being a conscientious objector without being labeled a "sinner" for it is a high bar. You have to really prove that participating in combat violates your personal conscience, under mountains of extrabiblical logic loopholes that try to get you to recant.

[PetrChelcicky]

But was Burdin damned or punished in an ecclesatical court?
From all I have found, the following seems to have happened:
Burdin called the Russian (so-called) "special operation" a war. Then he was condamned by a state court. There he based himself on the authority of his church. Therafter the church distanced itself from his position.
Even if I don't share the just war position, I understand the orthodox motives. Orthodoxy was at a loss until the German attack 1941. Then the orthodox Russians full-heartedly supported the Russian war of defense and in return earned the respect of the Bolshevist government. The nowadays war is often perceived as a repetition of 1941 - the Ukraine only as a proxy for occupying Russia. So the orthodox church felt basically that they had either to confirm or to retract their decision from 1941.

[PetrChelcicky]

Ken quotes his source:
"He subsequently resigned from the ROC and was banned from preaching ahead of his church trial in June."
Sounds improbable. If he really dropped his membership in the ROC, in what way will they "try" him? Either the first part of the statement is wrong or the second.